THE WICKED LADY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 387, 22 November 1946, Page 21

THE WICKED LADY

(Gainsborough)

|F you were close enough, you would notice an in- , teresting variety of expressions chasing one another, as the novelists put it, across the

Little Man’s faces The predominant expression, perhaps, is one of shocked disapproval, for all his puritan hackles were aroused by this salacious melodrama about a heroine who makes Scarlett O’Hara look, by contrast, like a virtuous young thing fresh from convent-school, and who even causes Amber to seem forever eclipsed in vice and promiscuity. Struggligg with the disapproval, however, you would perceive a kind of grudging admiration for parts of the acting and most of the settings, and particularly for the daring of the producer in transferring some of the authentic licentiousness of the Restoration Period to the screen. And every now and then you would see a look ‘of blank amazementamazement at this revelation of another side’ to the activity of that extraordinary man, J. Arthur Rank; amazement that this sponsor of religious films and founder-patron of Children’s Cinema Clubs (including those for Young New Zealanders), this pillar of Methodism whose professed intention is to raise the moral tone of British films, should apparently not have scrupled to allow a studio ‘under his control to produce such a questionable screenplay as this.

In brief, The Wicked Lady is a piece to arouse mixed feelings, most of them uncomplimentary. Before I saw it I had read that the film had been banned in the U.S.A., mainly on the ground that the Restoration gowns worn by Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc, and others, were cut too low. I was inclined to dismiss this as an example of convenient prudishness on the part of. American movie interests, enabling them to remove an unwelcome competitor from the field. But now I Have seen the film I think it likely that the American censor was upset by more than "the outworks of the Lady’s shape which from her fichu may escape" (as Saggitarius put it in The New Statesman). I have my own views on the value of screen censorship; but as long as the community accepts the need for it in principle, there are certain rules which should be observed in practice by any film-pro-ducer. There is, as I see it, no harm in allowing the characters in a Restoration story to dress in the manner of the period. Whether they can be permitted the same latitude in their speech and behaviour is, however, another matter; especially when, as would seem to be the case here, there is some doubt. as to whether the unbridled talk and situations are included primarily for .the sake of authenticity of atmosphere or mostly for the sake of the box-0ffice. (continued on next page) +

FILM REVIEWS

(continued from previous page) TRE WICKED LADY may be Mr. Rank’s attempt to get in ahead of the promised Hollywood version of Forever Ambér, or it may be simply his attempt to improve, if*’one may use the phrase in this context, on The Man in Grey which, by exploiting the more sinister aspects of the cinema personalities of Margaret Lockwood and James Mason, proved such a big box-office hit. At any Tate the new film, with the same costars, contains elements of both stories, But the Wicked Lady is midnight black by comparison with the Man in Grey: the characters of Lady Barbara Skelton must be one of the most vicious and unwholesome in fiction, if not in history. She. begins by seducing and stealing her best friend’s bridegroom on the wedding eve; marries him for his money; cuckolds him right and left; takes to the toad as highwayman for the excitement; commits murder as well as adultery and theft; fakes repentance when discovered by a family retainer and then poisons the good old man; : betrays her lover and companion-in-crime to the authorities; goes to watch him hanged at Tyburn; tries to remove her husband by shooting him, and is only prevented by herself being winged by her newest lover.

Possibly Mr. Rank, in presenting this lurid catalogue of evil, salved his conscience with the reflection that, after all, the Wicked Lady does eventually perish miserably, along with her accomplice; and that eat least two characters in the story-the wicked lady’s husband (Griffith Jones) and her friend (Patricia Roc) ---remain spotless throughout, thereby pérmitting a "happy ending" to be achieved and virtue to be vindicated. But neither Mr. Jones nor Miss Roc can hold a candle to Miss Lockwood or Mr. Mason as actors; their roles are amateurishly conceived and tediously presented. Virtue, in such circumstances, has the unfortunate, habit of appearing merely dull.