THE MAN IN GREY

Margaret Lockwood and James Mason  

THE MAN IN GREY (1943). Director: Leslie Arliss.

At an auction house in modern times two strangers talk about the famous painting, "The Man in Grey," and wonder what became of the family whose heirlooms are being sold. The rest of the film is a flashback that introduces us to the subject of said portrait, Lord Rohan (James Mason), as well as two students in a girls school: sunny blond Clarissa (Phyllis Calvert of The Root of All Evil), and the bitter brunette, Heather (Margaret Lockwood of Hungry Hill), who wants all the finer things in life that have been denied her. Rohan eventually marries Clarrisa, although he has little to do with her, but he develops a hankering for Heather after she is hired to be his wife's companion. Heather schemes to have Clarissa run off with the sympathetic Peter Rokeby (Stewart Granger), but when these plans don't quite come off Heather must think of another way to get Clarissa out of the picture ... Mason and Lockwood would be re-teamed two years later in the far superior Wicked Lady, for which this seems like a fair-to-middling prelude. Mason has some good moments but his character isn't well-defined -- none of the others are that dimensional, either -- and the script seems rambling and cobbled together with not enough dramatic payoff. Calvert and Lockwood are more than competent if a little too stagy at times. Martita Hunt is the head of the girls school and Antony Scott makes an impression as the little boy, Toby, who is sort of adopted by Clarissa.

Verdict: Half-baked British costume melodrama. **3/4.

THE WICKED LADY

Lock Up Your Valuables: Margaret Lockwood

THE WICKED LADY (1945). Director: Leslie Arliss.

"How can I fail to love a man as rich as he is?" --  Barbara Worth.

Sir Ralph Skelton (Griffith Jones) is engaged to lovely Caroline (Patricia Roc), when her cousin, Barbara (Margaret Lockwood), shows up and manages to steal Ralph away from her. After the marriage the somewhat masochistic Caroline stays on to help run the estate. Barbara becomes a little careless and in a card game loses an heirloom, a beautiful necklace that belonged to her mother, to the unctuous Henrietta (Enid Stamp-Taylor). Hearing of a notorious highwayman who robs coaches, Barbara decides to emulate him to get the heirloom back and for excitement continues her career as  a masked desperado. The Wicked Lady seems to take a weird turn at this point, but that's when things get really interesting, with Barbara falling in love with the highwayman, Captain Jerry Jackson (James Mason) even as her husband, Ralph, pursues the both of them without knowing her true identity. The performances from the entire cast, including Felix Aylmer [Never Take Candy from a Stranger] as the pious servant, Hogarth, are excellent; the movie has a fast pace; and the situations that develop are suspenseful and fascinating, Lockwood [Hungry Hill] and Mason [Child's Play] make a great team -- the two appeared together in the terrible A Place of One's Own -- and Michael Rennie delivers in a small but significant role as another man who falls in love with Barbara.

Verdict: Dark and twisted romantic melodrama with excellent performances. ***1/2,