PodBill Just what I expected

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Boba_Fett1138 You can regard this movie as an '40's chick flick that has a story of a typical romantic-dramatic novel, women love to read. It has all of the ingredients you could expect, like true love, friendship and rivalry. It has not just a triangular love story but its even more complicated than that. It's all well constructed though but this nevertheless doesn't mean I can regard this movie as being something different than a chick flick.The story truly saved this movie for me, or else it would had been a real dreadful one to watch. It has all of the typical clichés women seem to care about but as a man it just isn't all as compelling to watch. The story is solid and keeps you interested throughout. The love stories are original since it doesn't always picks the easiest road to walk on. Marriage and friendships turn bitter and characters are changing throughout. I like movies in which its characters are slowly but steadily changing into someone different.It also is of course thanks to the acting that this all works out so well, even though the dialog and directing style are all extremely old fashioned. But oh well, this is of course consistent and normal for the genre. In the '40's director Leslie Arliss made several movies like this one, often with the same actors involved, without ever gaining real fame for it really. Women will surely appreciate this movie even better than I did already.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

writers_reign One line of dialogue stood out for me and actually made the film; Lockwood and Calvert are travelling by coach to Calvert's London home and she asks Lockwood (who has just played Desdemona to Granger's Othello) how long Granger has been an actor. 'As far as I'm concerned he never was' replies Lockwood, a brilliant summation of Granger's talent, the lack of which, of course, failed to prevent him achieving film stardom. This Regency meller stands up remarkably well and if Mason and Lockwood are slightly over the top, Calvert a tad TOO twee, as if auditioning for any parts Olivia de Havilland might reject, and Granger too inept probably at the time - and wartime at that - they were all quite acceptable. Certainly worth a look.

theowinthrop 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.

calvertfan 'The Man In Grey' was the first film in the cycle of Gainsborough costume melodramas (which ended in 1948 with 'The Bad Lord Byron') and it's easily one of the very best. At the time, it was the pairing of a superstar (Lockwood), a star (Mason), a rising star (Calvert) and a newcomer (Granger), a combination which catapulted all four to the top of their profession, and made them the four names most associated with the costume. It's a pity that the four never made another movie all together! Margaret Lockwood as Hesther was just pure evil - a cold, calculating woman. One does get the idea that there is a small glimmer of kindness inside her, but she squashes it pretty quickly. Phyllis Calvert was as sweet as honey, as usual the beloved heroine. Her Clarissa is the main character of the tale - married off to Lord Rohan (Mason) because he desires an heir, she soon tires of his indifference and falls for traveling player Rokeby (Granger). Hesther (Lockwood) in turn falls for Rohan and he for her. And of course you know that's set for trouble. A hint of how much trouble? THIS is the film with the infamous horse-whip thrashing scene.What's also interesting is the whole story is told in flashback, when Calvert and Granger, descendents of the Rohan and Rokeby families, meet at an auction of the Rohan estate. Nice to see a bit of modern dress for a change!