Really Surprised!

One of my all time favorites.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Jennifer Jones is great as a carefree mountain Gypsy girl, ripe for matrimony with any man who can tear her away from her love of wild animals, and especially, her 'Foxy'. In its most basic form, this film much reminds us of the prior"Duel in the Sun", in which Jennifer plays a half breed. In both cases, she is a marginal member of conventional European society. Also, in both films, she has a choice between a conventional gentlemanly suitor, and an impatient bully, who nonetheless turns her on physically, and pursues her relentlessly. In the present film, the gentlemanly suitor is Pastor Edward Marston(Cyril Cusack), and the bully is squire Jack Riddin(David Farrer). She is not overly enthusiastic about marrying either, as her mother warned that, for the woman, marriage promises endless toll and suffering. Actually, Jack should have been favored as her husband by the promise to her father that she would marry the first man to pass by their cottage. This was, in fact, Jack, who came looking for her, but didn't know exactly where she lived. She hid when he knocked on the door, so he passed on. Later, the pastor, also smitten by her beauty and personality he experienced at a church social, comes calling, and after they get to know each other a bit, proposes marriage, he being judged the first to stop by their cottage, even though Jack actually was first. But she had had some unpleasant experiences with Jack, hence he was discounted. Soon, she would come to regret this decision, as Jack refused to give up the chase even after she was married. She came to seek his unrelenting passion over the unexciting Pastor Marston, and stayed a while in Jack's mansion. The parson showed up at Jack's mansion and quarreled with the two. It was decided that she would go home with Marston. But, now, Marston's mother who had lived with him for many years, voiced her determination to leave his house, if Hazel were to stay. Also, some churchmen came calling to advise Marston that he should give up Hazel, as her affair with Jack was now commonly known. Marston replied that he was giving up the clergy. Jack would express his frustration in being rejected by organizing a fox and hound event, in which he hoped that Hazel's Foxy would be caught. But, Hazel ran out of the house looking for Foxy, whom she found, and carried toward safety. But, she didn't quite make it. In her haste, falling down a deep well or mine shift that should have been covered. Jack had unwittingly destroyed not only Hazel's Foxy, but she herself. Edmond Knight was memorable as Hazel's father, who made some money playing his harp and repairing such, as well as making coffins, and other wooden objects. Several times, Jennifer sang a mellow song, with or without his accompaniment.....The meaning of the title is that the fox or whatever prey has gone into its burrow, where the hounds are too big to get in. It could also be applied to Hazel's unfortunate demise. We could, perhaps, project the theme to encompass all of the natural world as the victim of human overpopulation, overexploitation of natural resources, and moving into cities, away from their traditional ties with the natural world, which marginal peoples such as Gypsies still sometimes cared for.See it at YouTube

This film is one of the Powell and Pressburger films that have received less attention than many of their more well-known works, and it is a real beauty of a film.With some excellent acting from Jennifer Jones, Cyril Cusack and David Farrer (Farrer rarely reached this level of believability in any other Archers film) Powell's direction is ahead of the game, and with the photography of Christopher Challis the film evokes the early New Hollywood style of the mid sixties, with many more long shots of groups of people and a far more mobile use of camera than Powell had previous used. The colouring is sumptuous, with many close-up head shots surrounded by the rich colours of sky and countryside.The story of a naive country girl courted by two suiters; a country priest and a local squire is very reminiscent of post-war westerns, and Powell shows the relationships between the three as a battle between the order and probity of the priest's lifestyle and beliefs and the squire's passion and unrestrained desires, a Hardyesque reflection of British society in the 19th century, a view found in the Archer's other films such as A Canterbuty Tale and I Know Where I'm Going. It is a look back to what might be considered a more genteel Englishness, but does it with far more style than the contemporary Ealing Studio films.Beautiful to look at, forward-looking cinematography and some cracking music by Brian Easdale who had already worked on The Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, this is classic Powell and Pressburger. It can be seen as the pinnacle of their 1940s work, bringing together the technicolour beauty of films like The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death and the rural idealism of A Canterbury Tale.

The films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are celebrated, not necessarily for their story lines, but for their exquisite attention-to- detail. 'Gone to Earth (1950)' was shot on-location at Much Wenlock in Shropshire, England (with some interior filming at Shepparton Studios), and you'll rarely find a more glorious example of a natural setting used to evoke atmosphere. Even from the opening sequence, there's something magical about the English countryside – the wind seems to whisper with the music of a harp; the trees shudder in the breeze as though awaking from a stupor; the clouds stir overhead, signalling discontent in the heavens. Christopher Challis' stunning Technicolor photography captures every natural detail and imbues it with a mystical charm that is stifling and almost oppressive. The Archers produced the film in association with Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick, the latter of whom was so disappointed with the end result that he commissioned Rouben Mamoulian to extensively re-shoot scenes for the film's North American release, which was retitled 'The Wild Heart (1952).'Even though Powell and Pressburger effectively ignored Selznick's insistent recommendations for improvement, the producer's influence is still readily seen. For one, the film starred Jennifer Jones, by then Selznick's wife, who looks luminous while retaining that earthy homeliness of an English country girl. Her character, Hazel Woodus, in many ways recalls Pearl Chavez from 'Duel in the Sun (1946),' Selznick's costly Western epic. Both women, at first naive and uncorrupted, must choose between marriage to a reliable if unexciting suitor (Joseph Cotten in one film, Cyril Cusack in this one) and the embrace of an unpleasant, morally-barren scumbag (Gregory Peck or David Farrar). In Selznick's Western, Pearl's half-Injun ethnicity is shamelessly exploited to offer her character some sort of uncontrollable base sexuality. In 'Gone to Earth,' that Hazel's mother was a gypsy is utilised for similar purposes, her physical attraction to the repulsive Jack Reddin apparently stemming from this shady half-heritage, in direct opposition to the noble Christianity of her parson husband.Being mostly about atmosphere, 'Gone to Earth' doesn't have the exquisitely well-rounded characters of 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)' or 'I Know Where I'm Going! (1945).' Nevertheless, the main cast is to be commended for their understated roles. Jennifer Jones' British accent wavers on occasion, but her character is gorgeous and sympathetic, one whose transgressions we're willing to forgive on account of her general innocence; there's certainly a childlike naiveté in her unashamed affinity with nature, particularly her affection towards a pet fox. Less affable is David Farrar, whose oppressive, fox- hunting squire is a perpetual affront to Hazel's virginity. His character, at times, reminded me of Vincent Price's role in 'Dragonwyck (1946),' in which Gene Tierney's virtuousness is similarly destroyed by a uncouth and opportunistic nobleman. Cyril Cusack's clergyman, however honourable, embodies the adage that "nice guys finish last." The film quietly rebukes Edward Marston's unwillingness to take charge of his marriage to Hazel, and yet he overcomes his timidity only to lose everything he's ever cared about.

I am an enormous admirer of Powell and Pressburger, but this Technicolor melodrama was a great disappointment to me once I had tracked down, with some effort, a Korean DVD. I think the problem is that the main character is simply not very bright - I miss the intelligent , spirited women of I Know Where I'm Going, Black Narcissus, Contraband, and A Canterbury Tale. Here, the character who ought to be carrying the story is reduced to almost animalistic status, a prey in a world of hunters, well-intentioned and not so well intentioned. Nevertheless, the cinematography is stunning as ever, and the choir, and the harp playing, are divine indeed -- as always with P&P, there are gems even in this murky, overheated yarn of country parson versus country squire.