Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The Man in Grey is directed by Leslie Arliss and adapted to screenplay by Margaret Kennedy and Doreen Montgomery from the novel of the same name written by Eleanor Smith. It stars Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger. Music is By Cedric Mallabey and cinematography by Arthur Crabtree.A forerunner of Gainsborough's Wicked Women movies, The Man in Grey is a delicious slice of British noir pie.Proudly decked out in period attire, story is ripe with dastards, narcissists, connivers, the selfish and the cruel. Headed up by Mason's Lord Rohan and Lockwood's Hesther Shaw, these people will stop at nothing to get what they want in life. It doesn't matter who is around them, friends and family etc, if they can in any way hinder their respective selfish goals then they will be trampled upon and not a further thought will be given. It all simmers to the boiling point where lives will not just be ruined, but also ended.The four principal players are great, their respective careers well on the way to leaving behind considerable bodies of work. Arliss (The Night Has Eyes) keeps the story simple in spite of the many character strands and traits jostling for meaty exposure, and photographer Crabtree (Waterloo Road) accentuates the miserablist ambiance with sharp black and white lensing.The use of black-face on white actors is awfully out dated, as is some of the dialogue, but don't hold these things against The Man in Grey. It's a darn fine bodice botherer, resplendent with characters straight out of noir's dark alleyways. 8/10

...in the mind of a scheming woman. She doesn't start out as evil as the ruthless murderess in "The Wicked Lady", but Margaret Lockwood's Hester is formidable nonetheless. She is a pauper hired on as a junior teacher who creates scandal at a girl's school while befriending highbrow Phyllis Calvet, a student who marries a wealthy Lord (James mason) for convenience yet who remains strangely unfulfilled as a wealthy wife and neglectful mother. When she runs into Lockwood at a performance of "Othello" (which Lockwood is appearing in), she invites her to come to her country home as her companion, and Lockwood, getting over a miserable short-lived marriage, sets her sights on becoming Mason's mistress. Calvet falls in love with Lockwood's "Othello" co-star (Stewart Granger) while warnings from gypsy Beatice Varley curse the women's friendship, leading into much turmoil and a shocking finale.This costume variation of "Old Acquaintance" doesn't apologize for its less than noble characters, giving us a look into the minds of the nobility of a supposed romantic age that here comes off as anything but. Lockwood gets to start off subtle, build up melodramatic emotion as she goes forward, and finally become so evil you may find herself hissing her. Calvet isn't some wimpy Gothic heroine here; She gives out as good as she gets, which unfortunately isn't strong enough to beat her supposed friend or rascal husband, played by Mason in a delightful moody performance. The only weak link in this strong chain is the presence of young Hary Scott, obviously in blackface, playing an Indian youth, based more on the audacity of his casting rather than his performance.

The Man In Grey is directed by Leslie Arliss,based on the popular novel by Eleanor Smith and stars Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Stewart Granger, Phyllis Calvert and Martita Hunt.It's also one of the most memorable costume melodramas Gainsborough Studios ever made.Margeret Lockwood again plays a similar woman to Barbara in The Wicked Lady, with the same low regard for other peoples feelings and lives.Beginning during the Second World War at an auction of heirlooms from the notorious Rohan family we then flash back to Regency era England.The beautiful and angry Hester Shaw(Margeret Lockwood) becomes a pupil at a private school for young ladies run by the comical Miss Patchett(Martita Hunt).Hester is an instant outcast to all except one of the pupils,the kindly Clarissa Marr(Phyllis Calvert).The two become best friends but Hetser also resents Clarissa because she thinks her friendship is a form of charity.A gypsy woman visits the school and reads Clarissa's palm,she predicts a marriage to a rich man but is afraid of Hester and refuses to tell her fortune.Hester runs away and becomes a stage actress,years later she meets up with Clarissa again.Clarissa is unhappily married to the wealthy,but cold and indifferent Lord Rohan(James Mason).Hester sets her sights on him and they begin an affair.Hester introduces Clarissa to her friend the dashing and kind hearted rogue Peter Rokeby(Stewart Granger).The two begin a close friendship and tender love affair.James is suitably slimy and harsh as the crazed Lord Rohan and Stewart oozes sex appeal out of every scene he's in.Margaret is at her best in these sorts of roles, playing a tough independent woman going against society. Ideal viewing for a rainy day.

James Mason (like Richard Burton, Edward Arnold, and many other splendid actors - and actresses) never received the Oscar for any of his performances. This is one of the unfair side issues regarding the Academy Awards, as a measuring stick to film stardom. Everyone who has seen Mason's performances (and the others I mentioned) may know they are appearing in a "turkey", but they are serving their sections of the "turkey" with deluxe dressing. When they are appearing in "filet mignon" or the like, they really reach the heights. So, despite his lack of Academy recognition, Mason is remembered with great fondness by everyone who enjoys movies. To this day his voice is imitated in cartoons if you want to see a snooty, aristocratic villain.Yet I said "villain". How can I call the wounded, deserted IRA gunman Johnny (ODD MAN OUT) or Norman Main (A STAR IS BORN) or Humbert Humbert (LOLITA) a "villain". Yes, he did play Mr. Van Dam in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, but even that fellow had his less villainous moments (too few perhaps).The fact is, when Mason came to the U.S. to appear in Hollywood films in the late 1940s, it was as one of Britain's best villains. This was odd. He had been in films since the late 1930s, and had played a shell shock victim in THE HILL HAVE EYES as well as other parts. In FIRE OVER ENGLAND (an early role) he was an English Catholic nobleman who is planning to aid King Philip of Spain (for reasons of politics and religious freedom) but who is drowned fleeing the police of Elizabeth I. None of these performances had gained him his fame, deserved as it was. It was THE MAN IN GRAY that gained him fame.Set in Regency England (c. 1790 - 1837), Mason was what was termed "a Regency Buck". This was a fashionable, upper crust Regency aristocrat or wealthy man who enjoyed his privileges - frequently at the expense of everyone else around them. When Leslie Howard played Sir Percy Blakeney in THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, his character is a foppish version of "the Regency Buck", acting the buffoon at the expense of Col Higgensbottom and even the Prince of Wales - regarding cravats - to hide his serious mission). Mason's character is actually a more openly forceful version of this character. The Marquis of Rohan is a great grandee of England (despite having the last name of a noted French Aristocratic house - connected to the "Affair of the Diamond Necklace"). He is fully aware of his position, and the subservient position of everyone else involved with it.Phyllis Calvert is Clarissa, the daughter of a local good family, who was a close friend of Margaret Lockwood (Hester). Their relations is similar to that of Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp in VANITY FAIR, as good girl and bad girl. Rohan chooses to marry Clarissa because she is a proper (and subservient) wife to breed an heir. Clarissa tries to help Hester by getting her a good position in the household (bad mistake). Rohan is soon bored by marriage, and Clarissa mistakes this as a signal that she is on her own. She meets a traveling actor named Rokeby (Stewart Granger) and starts a relationship with him - egged on by Hester.Hester intention is to reveal it at the right time to Rohan, and replace the disgraced Clarissa. And she does. But it actually does two things. He does go after Rokeby to kill him. But after taking care of that problem, Rohan finds Clarissa going into physical decline. And his better character comes out. He tries to help his wife, but nothing he does helps...and she finally dies. The Marquis is heartbroken. SPOILER COMING UP: Hester still blind to the reality of the situation, confronts Rohan, and reveals her own passions. But now Rohan is fully aware of why Hester made her revelations, and what it has led to. Furious at being used, and at his own cost and of the woman he got to love, Rohan grabs a horse whip and whips Hester to death! It is an orchestrated, violent conclusion (and it's violence may be why the film is rarely shown on television). Despite making Rohan a killer at the end, because he is killing the real villain in the plot Rohan gets the audience to cheer him on! He becomes the "anti-hero" of the story. It gained Mason his international standing as "a man you love to hate". And it opened the doors to future Hollywood stardom.