The Wicked Lady | |
---|---|
Directed by | Leslie Arliss |
Written by | Leslie Arliss additional dialogue Gordon Glennon Aimee Stuart |
Based on | novel Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton by Magdalen King-Hall |
Produced by | R. J. Minney executive Maurice Ostrer |
Starring | Margaret Lockwood James Mason Patricia Roc Griffith Jones Michael Rennie |
Cinematography | Jack E. Cox |
Edited by | Terence Fisher |
Music by | Hans May |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Eagle-Lion Distributors Limited (U.K.) Universal (U.S.) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 104 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £900,000 [1] or $672,000 [2] |
Box office | over $1 million (US rentals) [3] [4] £375,000 (UK rentals) [5] or $2,250,000 (UK gross) [6] |
The Wicked Lady is a 1945 British costume drama film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who becomes a highwaywoman for the excitement. It had one of the largest audiences for a film of its period, with an estimated British attendance of 18.4 million seeing it in cinemas, according to a 2004 ranking of the most popular sound films in Britain. In the list, compiled by the British Film Institute for Channel 4, it was placed ninth overall, and was the second-most successful British film, behind only Spring in Park Lane (1948). [7] [8]
It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas, a sequence of very popular films made during the 1940s.
The story was based on the 1945 novel Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton by Magdalen King-Hall which, in turn, was based upon the (disputed) events surrounding the life of Lady Katherine Ferrers, the wife of the major landowner in Markyate on the main London–Birmingham road.
The film was loosely remade by Michael Winner, also named The Wicked Lady , in 1983.
In rural England in the late 1600s, Caroline invites her beautiful friend Barbara to attend her marriage with wealthy landowner and local magistrate Sir Ralph Skelton. However, the scheming Barbara soon has Skelton entranced, and it is Barbara who becomes Lady Skelton, as Caroline looks on. At the wedding reception, however, Barbara meets a handsome stranger, Kit Locksby. It is love at first sight for both, but it is too late.
Married life in the country becomes a bore for Mrs. Skelton—that is, until a visit from her detested sister-in-law Henrietta. In a game of Ombre, Henrietta wins Barbara's prized jewels, including her late mother's ruby brooch. A chance remark about a notorious highwayman, Jerry Jackson, gives Barbara an idea. Masquerading as Jackson, Barbara stops Henrietta's coach and retrieves her brooch and the rest of her jewels. Intoxicated by the experience, she continues to waylay coaches until one night, she and the real Jerry Jackson finally meet. Jackson is amused to find his imitator a beautiful woman. They become lovers and partners in crime. Yet at the same time, she warns him never to be unfaithful to her with another woman. Together, they profit off of unfortunate travellers. However, their plot to rob a huge gold shipment goes awry, resulting in the death of one of Sir Ralph Skelton's tenants. Skelton offers a handsome reward to anyone who can assist in Jerry Jackson's capture. Thus, one evening, when Barbara finds Jackson in bed with another woman, she anonymously betrays his whereabouts to her husband. Jackson is captured and sentenced to be hanged.
In London, Barbara views the execution with Caroline. In his speech from the scaffold, Jackson talks only of faithless women but does not refer specifically to Barbara. Then a riot breaks out. The two ladies are rescued by Kit Locksby, who has recently become engaged to Caroline. After the hanging, Jackson's accomplices cut him down and revive him. He later breaks into Barbara's bedroom at the estate and rapes her. Fearing his next move, she begs Kit to marry her. However, he will not betray Caroline. Late one evening, Barbara, in highwayman's gear, awaits her husband's coach with a loaded pistol. Jackson shows up and realises Barbara's scheme. He plots to warn Skelton, but Barbara kills him. When the coach with Caroline, Ralph, and Kit arrives, Barbara, still in disguise, hijacks it and attempts to shoot her husband, not knowing the three have agreed to find a way for both couples to be together. Kit shoots her, but she escapes. Back at the estate, a mortally wounded Barbara confesses all to Kit, pleading he stay with her until the end. After her death, Caroline and Skelton reunite, determined to put the past behind them.
Magdalen King-Hall's Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton was published in 1944. [9] Mason and Lockwood's involvement in the movie adaptation was announced in November of that year, together with that of director Leslie Arliss. [10]
In a 1945 issue of Picturegoer , Arliss said that it was Eleanor Smith (author of the book which had inspired his 1943 hit The Man in Grey ) who gave him King-Hall's novel. He went on to say:
I told Maurice Ostrer of Gainsborough Pictures that I had found my ideal film subject and found that he had already purchased the rights himself! The character of Barbara is wicked enough even for me, and how vastly interesting is this most complex character as it develops through the action of the story. [11]
Lockwood later wrote in her memoirs, "This was an enchantingly 'wicked' part. At first, as usual, I did not like the thought of playing a villainous role again, but it was such a good one that I knew it would be madness to refuse it." [12]
Stewart Granger turned down the role that Mason played. Lockwood practiced riding for the role and added a black beauty spot. [13]
Caroline, the character played by Roc, is a movie script addition, not existing in the novel.
Filming started March 1945. [14] The film was made at Gainsborough Studios in London, with location shooting at Blickling Hall in Norfolk. [15] James Mason disliked director Leslie Arliss, and hit him during filming. [16]
Lockwood wrote "we enjoyed making that film together. We did not enjoy remaking it, exactly one year later", when they had to re shoot scenes for American censors. [17]
Queen Mary wished to attend the film's premiere, which caused some concern in light of the film's subject matter; reportedly, the operator in the projection box turned down the sound during key exchanges of dialogue. However, Queen Mary told J. Arthur Rank that she enjoyed the film, and felt it had "a fine moral". Rank later said:
Queen Mary is the only person to see in the film what I see myself. I only agreed to it because there’s a moral in it. You have two pretty girls, Margaret Lockwood and Pat Roc. One of them falls to temptation, and gets shot in the end; the other lives happily. That’s the moral. Both girls are pretty, you see; it wouldn’t have meant anything if one of them had been plain. [18]
The Wicked Lady was the most popular film at the British box office in 1946. [19] [20] According to Kinematograph Weekly , the "biggest winner" at the box office in 1946 Britain was The Wicked Lady, with "runners up" being The Bells of St. Mary's , Piccadilly Incident , Road to Utopia , Tomorrow is Forever , Brief Encounter , Wonder Man , Anchors Aweigh , Kitty , The Captive Heart , The Corn is Green , The Spanish Main , Leave Her to Heaven , Gilda , Caravan , Mildred Pierce , The Blue Dahlia , The Years Between, O.S.S. , Spellbound , Courage of Lassie , My Reputation , London Town , Caesar and Cleopatra , Meet the Navy , Men of Two Worlds , Theirs is the Glory , The Overlanders , and Bedelia . [21]
In a 2004 British Film Institute list of the most popular sound films in British cinemas, The Wicked Lady was ninth overall, with an estimated attendance of 18.4 million. It was second only to Spring in Park Lane among British films, in a ranking broadcast by Channel 4. [7] [8]
In Latin America, The Wicked Lady earned $160,475 in box office takings. [22]
Problems with American censors made extensive re-shooting necessary before the film was released in the United States (according to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies).
The problems were that the women's dress bodices (appropriate for the era portrayed) were very low-cut and showed too much cleavage for the USA motion picture production code. It was a problem Jane Russell had in The Outlaw (1943). TCM sometimes airs the original, uncensored version on its USA basic cable network.
Margaret Lockwood said "We had to do nine days of retakes to satisfy the censor on that film and it all seemed very foolish." [23]
Mason said "I don't like it now", referring to the film after the changes. [24]
Executive producer Maurice Ostrer reportedly wanted to make a sequel, but this was vetoed by J. Arthur Rank, who had taken over ownership of Gainsborough Studios. [25] In 1950, it was announced that Arliss had written a sequel, The Wicked Lady's Daughter, [26] but the film was never made.
Margaret Mary Day Lockwood, CBE, was a British actress. One of Britain's most popular film stars of the 1930s and 1940s, her film appearances included The Lady Vanishes (1938), Night Train to Munich (1940), The Man in Grey (1943), and The Wicked Lady (1945). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress for the 1955 film Cast a Dark Shadow. She also starred in the television series Justice (1971–74).
Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, northeast London. Gainsborough Studios was active between 1924 and 1951. The company was initially based at Islington Studios, which were built as a power station for the Great Northern & City Railway and later converted to studios.
Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill, known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s such as The Man in Grey (1943) and was one of the most popular movie stars in Britain in the 1940s. She continued her acting career for another 50 years.
Jean Kent, born Joan Mildred Field was an English film and television actress.
The Man in Grey is a 1943 British film melodrama made by Gainsborough Pictures; it is considered to be the first of a series of period costume dramas now known as the "Gainsborough melodramas". It was directed by Leslie Arliss and produced by Edward Black from a screenplay by Arliss and Margaret Kennedy that was adapted by Doreen Montgomery from the 1941 novel The Man in Grey by Eleanor Smith. The film's sets were designed by Walter Murton.
A Place of One's Own is a 1945 British film directed by Bernard Knowles. An atmospheric ghost story based on the 1940 novel of the same title by Osbert Sitwell, it stars James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray. Mason and Mullen are artificially aged to play the old couple. It was one of the cycle of Gainsborough melodramas.
Leslie Arliss was an English screenwriter and director. He is best known for his work on the Gainsborough melodramas directing films such as The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady during the 1940s.
Madonna of the Seven Moons is a 1945 British drama film starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. Directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures, the film was produced by Rubeigh James Minney, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by Roland Pertwee. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas of the mid-1940s popular with WW2-era female audiences.
Edward Black was a British film producer, best known for being head of production at Gainsborough Studios in the late 1930s and early 1940s, during which time he oversaw production of the Gainsborough melodramas. He also produced such classic films as The Lady Vanishes (1938).
Patricia Roc was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945), though she only made one film in Hollywood, Canyon Passage (1946). She also appeared in Millions Like Us (1943), Jassy (1945), The Brothers (1947) and When the Bough Breaks (1947).
Jassy is a 1947 British colour film historical melodrama directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc and Dennis Price. It was written by Dorothy Christie, Campbell Christie and Geoffrey Kerr based on the 1944 novel by Norah Lofts. Set in the early 19th century, it is a Gainsborough melodrama, the only one to be made in Technicolor, and was the last "official" Gainsborough melodrama.
Caravan is a 1946 British black-and-white drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas and is based on the 1942 novel Caravan by Eleanor Smith.
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures between 1943 and 1947 that conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films that had similar themes that were usually developed by the same film crew and frequently recurring actors who played similar characters in each. They were mostly based on popular books by female novelists and they encompassed costume dramas, such as The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945), and modern-dress dramas, such as Love Story (1944) and They Were Sisters (1945). The popularity of the films with audiences peaked mid-1940s when cinema audiences consisted primarily of women. The influence of the films led to other British producers releasing similarly themed works, such as The Seventh Veil (1945), Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945), Hungry Hill (1947), The White Unicorn (1947), Idol of Paris (1948), and The Reluctant Widow (1950) and often with the talent that made Gainsborough melodramas successful.
Idol of Paris is a 1948 British film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Beryl Baxter, Michael Rennie, Christine Norden and Andrew Cruickshank. It was written by Stafford Dickens, Norman Lee and Harry Ostrer, based on the 1935 novel Paiva, Queen of Love by Alfred Schirokauer, about a mid-19th century French courtesan Theresa who sleeps her way from poverty to the top of Second Empire society. It was an attempt by its makers to imitate the success of the Gainsborough melodramas.
The White Unicorn is a 1947 British drama film directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Margaret Lockwood, Joan Greenwood, Ian Hunter and Dennis Price. Kyra Vayne appeared as the singer. It was made at Walton Studios by the independent producer John Corfield, and released by General Film Distributors. The film's sets were designed by Norman G. Arnold. It was also known as Milkwhite Unicorn and Bad Sister.
Love Story is a 1944 British black-and-white romance film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, and Patricia Roc. Based on a short story by J. W. Drawbell, the film is about a concert pianist who, after learning that she is dying of heart failure, decides to spend her last days in Cornwall. While there, she meets a former RAF pilot who is going blind, and soon a romantic attraction forms. Released in the United States as A Lady Surrenders, this wartime melodrama produced by Gainsborough Pictures was filmed on location at the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno in Cornwall, England.
The Magic Bow is a 1946 British musical film based on the life and loves of the Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini. It was directed by Bernard Knowles. The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.
The Wicked Lady is a 1983 British-American period drama directed by Michael Winner and starring Faye Dunaway, Alan Bates, John Gielgud, Denholm Elliott, and Hugh Millais. It was screened out of competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. It is a remake of the 1945 film of the same name, which was one of the popular series of Gainsborough melodramas.
Hungry Hill is a 1947 British film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Cecil Parker with a screenplay by Terence Young and Daphne du Maurier, from the 1943 novel by Daphne du Maurier.
Bedelia is a 1946 British melodrama film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Margaret Lockwood, Ian Hunter and Barry K. Barnes. It is an adaptation of the 1945 novel Bedelia by Vera Caspary with events relocated from the United States to Monaco and England.
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