Last night I watched "Personal Affair"(1953), a British melodrama co-starring Gene Tierney as the wife of a secondary school Latin teacher (Leo Genn), who faces scorn and then police scrutiny after one of his students falls in love with him and disappears. Seventeen year old "Barbara Vining" (Glynis Johns) stares at "Professor Stephen Barlow" (Genn) with dewy eyes all through his lectures. He sees this and develops feelings for her as well, but they aren't romantic. He's sympathetic to her adolescent angst and sincerity, and cares for her as a parent would a child. This leads him to tutor her one night after school, in preparation for an exam she seems likely to fail. Gossip is rampant among her friends, and the rumors get back to his wife Gene Tierney. During a break in the tutoring session, she confronts Barbara. "Just admit it. You're in love with my husband, aren't you"?
Imagine the effect such an encounter would have on a teenage girl and you have the setup for the plot. Barbara is terrified at having her feelings exposed and she runs from the house humiliated, out into the night, her nerves raw, her self esteem disintegrating. The Professor returns from a phone call to learn of his wife's ambush of the timid girl. Horrified, her calls Barbara's house, hoping she's arrived safely. When Barbara answers, he's relieved enough to ask her to meet him, on a nearby bridge above a rushing river, which the director thought would be a good place for the star crossed pair to part ways. We can't hear what they're saying to one another, as the water roils below. Is the professor apologizing for his wife? Is he acknowledging Barbara's love but explaining that he's married? Or, in a darker vein, is he telling her the feeling is mutual, that he loves her too, this youngster less than half his age? That last one doesn't seem likely, but in light of what's about to happen, it's the explanation that will gain traction amongst the gossip.
The next we see of Barlow, it's the next morning and he's home acting normal with his wife. He's never thought anything untoward was happening. The only secret he's kept is the after hours phone call to Barbara, to arrange the meeting at the bridge. He only meant to straighten out her feelings, knowing she was devastated by his wife's attack.
But now the news comes down that she's fled and cannot be located. The last anyone knows, she was at a tutoring session with the professor at his house. He's forced to admit what happened, the accusation by his wife and his resultant phone call. He tells the police about meeting Barbara at the bridge, but swears that was the last he saw of her. "I went directly home and assumed she did as well", he says.
A search is made, and Barbara's beret is found against a rock in the river. With no other evidence, and especially no body, the police cannot declare her drowned, so for the time being she's listed as a missing person. But the search and the interviews continue, with Barbara's parents and school friends, and at this point the gossip about Barbara's love for Professor Barlow turns ugly, and the police refuse to rule out rape and murder. Much of the innuendo is originating from Barbara's aunt, the sister of her father. "Aunt Evelyn" is a 40ish spinster who lives with the family, and in a brittle, withering performance by actress Pamela Brown, Evelyn dishes to the investigators what she claims to be the truth.
"It wasn't a one way thing. He was obsessed with her, too. Never took his eyes off her in class, from what I've heard. He led her on, or she'd never have gotten up the nerve to show her own feelings as she did. Don't let anyone tell you different".
Aunt Evelyn has her own wounds from a broken love affair in youth, and she's been nursing them ever since. Now, with a chance to unleash some of her pain, she latches on to the handsome professor, and lashes out at him as a proxy for her missing niece. The police are hesitant to charge him, though. For one thing, they still have only the beret as evidence. For another, Professor Barlow had previously a sterling reputation at his school and among his peers. The plot will climax when the police decide to dredge the river in a final attempt to find Barbara's body. During all of this, Professor Barlow must convince his doubting wife that he's never loved Barbara in the romantic sense. The screenwriting is especially good because it would be simple to have him merely say, "I never loved her", and leave it at that. But the writer has him go on to explain that his feelings were indeed complex. "I suppose I do love her", is what he actually says, "but in a protective, nurturing way, as a parent loves a child".
The dialogue is full of this type of fine point emotional and psychological evaluation, which makes for a heart tugging mystery. Glynis Johns' portrayal of young lovestruck Barbara is especially poignant. We've seen Johns before (though I can't recall the films at this moment), and she's particularly adept at expressing vulnerability in her large eyes and open face. Interestingly, in real life she was only three years younger than Gene Tierney, who plays the professor's adult wife supposedly twice Barbara's age. Such is Johns' ability to play "young" and display the tenderness associated with a shy girl. As for Gene Tierney, I always thought she got shortchanged as an actress. Her abilities were often overshadowed by her looks, but she had a wide range grounded in emotional reserve, as if she was always holding back a tidal wave behind those chiseled features and her sparkling eyes. And of course she was holding something back; her own personal nightmare of manic depression (as it was called then) and possible schizophrenia. It's amazing she was able to finish this picture, let alone give a standout performance, because the year was 1953 and she would soon check into a mental institution. Her career would never be the same. Tierney has long been one of my favorite actresses and it's not because she's beautiful - many actresses are that. For me, it's because she's 100% real, and she never been more real than here, in "Personal Affair".
Leo Genn also shines as the honorable, debonair Professor. I give the movie Two Huge Thumbs Up, it's a little known gem. The print is razor sharp, too, so don't miss it. /////
The previous night's movie was "The Door with Seven Locks"(1940), a British murder mystery with elements of horror, done in the style of low budget, late-30s Hollywood, meaning a roomful of people, a static camera and no soundtrack. The story is really good : a dying man, 55 but looks 75, wills his valuable collection of jewels to a niece in Canada. If something happens to her, the jewels will go to a young grandson. It's all a bit murky, as explanatory dialogue can be when it's condensed from a novel, but we get the gist of the soon-to-be-deceased man's wishes. After he dies, his body is placed in a sub-basement tomb below the estate of his doctor (Leslie Banks), a Spaniard and the direct descendant of Torquemada the Inquisitor. Consequently the estate also houses a torture chamber, which the doctor shows off as a curiosity to visitors. "Thank Goodness civilisation has advanced since that time", he opines.
The tomb of the dead man has seven locks, with one key given to six of his trusted associates. The seventh key is held by a man who we assume is the lawyer for the grandson, however these details are not clarified. This man, named Silva, is shown residing in a nuthouse, where he keeps his seventh key hidden in a carved out bible. Early in the movie we see him hastily writing a letter to the Canadian niece, the true heir to the key and the jewels it will unlock. She receives the letter and travels to England to visit him, with a comical friend (Gina Malo) in tow, but before he can reveal the secret of the key, he is shot dead from the window of his room by an unseen assassin.
It sounds like a riveting setup, but the problem lies in the direction, which has no snap or tension. I can't recall the recent film we reviewed that had the same problem, but it's as if it was enough for the director to have the actors hit their marks and recite their lines. All involved do this with professional aplomb, and there are some engaging sequences as well as a surplus of zinging one liners, courtesy of Miss Malo, but there isn't any forward motion, no energy that advances one scene to the next. It's a paint by the numbers exercise, therefore, and I'm afraid I can't recommend it, much as I'd like to. It's a movie that could have been excellent with a better director and a moving camera, As it stands, it looks like a contract job in which everyone was pro, got paid and went home. Once again, however, the IMDB fans seem to love it, and to be fair it wasn't awful. In fact it was fun, in a "well meaning" way. It just had a Contract Job director, combined with a minimal budget and a "studio" that didn't care.
So let's give it Two Regular Thumbs Up for the actors, the only ones who did care, and we'll leave it at that. Often we bitch about the screenwriting, which is usually the weak link in a crummy film. This time it's the director, who had a good story and good actors who gave their all, but who didn't give a hoot himself, and the movie suffered.
Ces't la Guerre. Watch if you want. The fans love it and it's fun if you aren't demanding (and if you can stay awake). Otherwise.......fuggeddaboudit. /////
That's all for the moment. I'm writing from Pearl's kitchen. It's a long road through grief and the general feelings of displacement and anxiety I'm experiencing. Mornings are the most difficult, but things improve as the day goes on, and by night, when I go for my walks, I am able to restore myself in the quiet of the evening. That's when I do my best thinking. I at least have the movie reviews somewhat back to normal in length, and I will try to continue in that direction. Please forgive any backstepping, i.e. paragraph long efforts, as there may be more than a few of those, but I'll always try to write about something, just because it's What I Do.
I am grateful for your readership, and I wish you a nice afternoon. I also send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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