Fanny by Gaslight (film)

Fanny by Gaslight
UK promotional poster
Directed by	Anthony Asquith
Produced by	Edward Black
Written by	Michael Sadleir (novel) Doreen Montgomery (screenplay) Aimée Stuart (additional dialogue)
Starring	Phyllis Calvert James Mason Stewart Granger John Laurie
Music by	Cedric Mallabey
Cinematography	Jack E. Cox
Edited by	R. E. Dearing
Release date	1944 (UK) 1946 (France) 1948 (USA)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£90,000
Box office	$17,285 (US rentals) over ₤300,000 (UK) 786,581 admissions (France)

Fanny by Gaslight (US title – Man of Evil) is a 1944 British drama film, produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a novel by Michael Sadleir (also adapted as a 1981 mini-series). It was one of its famous period-set "Gainsborough melodramas". Its US release was delayed for its breaking the Hays Purity Code, and 17 minutes were removed for this release.

Fanny (Phyllis Calvert) finishes at boarding school in 1880 and returns to London, where she witnesses Lord Manderstoke (James Mason) fight and kill her supposed father. She soon learns that her family has run a brothel next door to her home and (on her mother's death) that he was not her real father. She goes to meet her real father – a respected politician – and falls in love with Harry Somerford (Stewart Granger), his advisor. Manderstoke continues to thwart her happiness.

Stewart Granger later said he "didn't like" the film because of its "drippy characters" but thought "Asquith was much the best of those directors I worked with at Gainsborough."

It was the second most popular film in Britain during 1944, after This Happy Breed. However, it performed very badly at the box office in the US.