Over time at the house, Paula begins to forget things, lose things, and imagine things - such as an animosity with the new Cockney housekeeper Nancy ( Angela Lansbury), who has a penchant for making "friends" with whatever Police Constable is patrolling the neighborhood - with Gregory quietly convincing her, without using the exact words, that she is ill. Not having thought about the house in a long time, Paula believes Anton's love can help her through whatever pain she may have felt about her aunt's murder now to live there with him. Before learning of her background, Gregory is able to convince her to live in London, then when she divulges to him that she owns a house there at 9 Thornton Square, it bequeathed to her by her famous maternal aunt, opera singer Alice Alquist, who raised Paula and whom Paula found murdered in the house, the murder never solved. Paula Alquist ( Ingrid Bergman), an aspiring opera singer, and Gregory Anton ( Charles Boyer), the accompanist at her singing lessons under the tutelage of Maestro Guardi ( Emil Rameau) in Italy, fall in love and get married. The film is further enriched by a decidedly ambiguous ending, which would also have had contemporary echoes, as much of the audience would have had a similar experience to Fanny in terms of losing or nearly losing a loved one.It's the late nineteenth century. From the opening scenes of Fanny's discovery of the Shades (the word is never used, but it's clearly a brothel) and the fact that her mother was less than faithful, through to James Mason's portrait of Lord Manderstoke as a man blending absolute moral corruption with devastating sensuality, Fanny by Gaslight both shies away from and celebrates the liberating power of living dangerously in an environment where the slightest transgression could bring about social catastrophe. The film's attitude towards sexuality is rather more complex and intriguing. Harry's speech about how class divisions would be abolished within a hundred years, allowing him to marry whoever he pleases, was clearly aimed at a largely female audience that had itself set aside social differences as a result of the war - and the film underscores this by placing all the working-class characters in an overwhelmingly positive light, from the floozies in the Hopwood Shades to the lovable old retainer Chunks ( Wilfrid Lawson), while making it clear that their lot in life is to be used and abused by their social superiors. ![]() Where Fanny by Gaslight is a clear advance on The Man in Grey is that it has a much more sophisticated understanding of the social context underlining both the drama itself and the demands of the 1944 audience. There are also some strikingly imaginative touches, such as the face of Clive Seymore ( Stuart Lindsell) literally fragmenting in the mirror prior to his suicide, paralleling his mental breakdown as he realises he's run out of options. ![]() Leslie Arliss, 1943), and used many of the same ingredients: lead actors Phyllis Calvert, James Mason and Stewart Granger, a nineteenth-century setting that provided plenty of opportunities for lavish costume display, a similar mix of archetypal "good" and "bad" male and female characters, and a surprisingly racy and distinctly un-British attitude towards sexuality.Īnthony Asquith was the biggest "name" director to work on a Gainsborough melodrama, and his experience helped wring rather more impressive production values than the budget might otherwise have allowed. Show full synopsisįanny by Gaslight was made to cash in on the success of The Man in Grey (d. After the death of her foster father, Fanny is employed by her real father (a Cabinet minister) as a servant, and uncovers various things about his wife and her lover Lord Manderstoke that might best have stayed under wraps.
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