The Man in Grey
| The Man in Grey | |
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Video cover art
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| Directed by | Leslie Arliss |
| Produced by | Edward Black |
| Written by |
Margaret Kennedy Doreen Montgomery Leslie Arliss |
| Based on |
The Man in Grey by Eleanor Smith |
| Starring |
Margaret Lockwood James Mason Phyllis Calvert Stewart Granger |
| Music by | Cedric Mallabey |
| Cinematography | Arthur Crabtree |
| Edited by | R. E. Dearing |
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Production
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| Distributed by | GFD |
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Release date
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Running time
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116 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £90,000 |
| Box office | over £300,000 (UK) 1,138,145 admissions (France) |
The Man in Grey is a 1943 British film melodrama made by Gainsborough Pictures, and is considered as the first of its "Gainsborough melodramas" (a series of period costume dramas). It was directed by Leslie Arliss and produced by Edward Black from a screenplay by Leslie Arliss and Margaret Kennedy, adapted by Doreen Montgomery from the novel The Man in Grey by Eleanor Smith. The film's sets were designed by Walter Murton.
The picture stars Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert, James Mason, Stewart Granger and Martita Hunt, and melded together elements of the successful "women's pictures" of the time with distinct new elements.
In 1943, a WREN (Phyllis Calvert) and an RAF pilot (Stewart Granger) meet at an auction of Rohan family heirlooms, now all being sold off after the last of the Rohan male line was killed at Dunkirk. After the RAF pilot inadvertently casts aspersions on the Rohan family, the WREN reveals that the last male Rohan was in fact her brother. The RAF man apologises, and reveals that his family are connected to the Rohans in a way, and so they arrange to meet for lunch and at the auction the following day.
Back in the Regency period, a new teacher arrives at Miss Patchett's school for young ladies at Bath. This is Hesther (Margaret Lockwood), whose family in Manchester has fallen on hard times and are being done a favour by Miss Patchett. She, however, resents living off charity and so she soon afterwards comes into friction with Clarissa (also played by Phyllis Calvert), a minor heiress who is a pupil at the school. In time, Clarissa and Hesther patch up their differences and become friends, soon before Hesther runs away with Barbary, a penniless ensign. Miss Patchett forbids the disgraced name of Hesther to be mentioned at the school as a result and so Clarissa, out of loyalty to her friend, leaves the school.
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Wikipedia