Watching and ranking the Gainsborough melodramas

What is a Gainsborough melodrama?

The Gainsborough melodramas were a cycle of films produced by Gainsborough studios between 1943 and 1947. A Gainsborough melodrama has to be a film made by Gainsborough studios for starters. It has to have a melodramatic style. Does it strictly have to have been set either in the past or in Europe? I would argue that isn’t necessarily true, as that would leave out important films such as Love Story (1944). Instead there is another further distinction between the films; there is also the costume melodrama, which has been written about by academics such as Sue Aspinall.

For me, they have to provide some sort of escape, but also a dual identity, or some kind of representation of a dual identity conflict. I see these films as an important part of popular culture because they were made for women and they were enjoyed by women. They were not critically acclaimed, but were adored by the people, and more specifically, they were adored by this largely female audience. They also were unlike the nationalistic masculine Realism films that British film critics adore - they are instead located in a dreamlike realm of female fantasy. The female characters of the Gainsborough melodramas are the centre of the narrative and have agency, like women at wartime did, and unlike most of the female characters of the Realist films. The films were often accused of not being authentic or original, and whilst there is some grounding for these claims with them being made extremely cheaply and quickly, these films didn’t ask to be taken for reality.

Applying this criteria then, how many were there in the cycle?

Eleven. Starting with The Man in Grey in 1943 and ending with Jassy in 1947. Many of them featured the same cast members and directors, and were all adaptations of books or a short story in the case of Love Story.

In terms of directors, Leslie Arliss directed three (The Man in Grey, Love Story, The Wicked Lady), Arthur Crabtree directed three (Madonna of the Seven Moons, They Were Sisters, Caravan), Bernard Knowles directed three (A Place of One’s Own, The Magic Bow, Jassy) and the other two were directed by Anthony Asquith (Fanny by Gaslight) and Brock Williams (The Root of All Evil).

Margaret Lockwood appeared in five out of eleven (The Man in Grey, Love Story, A Place of One’s Own, The Wicked Lady, Jassy), and in fact turned down roles in many of the others. Patricia Roc appeared in four of eleven (Love Story, Madonna of the Seven Moons, The Wicked Lady, Jassy), three of which also feature Lockwood. Phyllis Calvert is in six of eleven (The Man in Grey, Fanny by Gaslight, Madonna of the Seven Moons, They Were Sisters, The Magic Bow, The Root of All Evil), making her the most consistently featured female cast member of the Gainsborough melodramas. The most featured male cast member of the Gainsborough melodramas is Stewart Granger, who is also in six of eleven (The Man in Grey, Love Story, Fanny by Gaslight, Madonna of the Seven Moons, Caravan, The Magic Bow). James Mason is in five of eleven (The Man in Grey, Fanny by Gaslight, A Place of One’s Own, They Were Sisters, The Wicked Lady). There are two other regular cast members who are in four of eleven, Jean Kent (Fanny by Gaslight, Madonna of the Seven Moons, Caravan, The Magic Bow) and Dennis Price (A Place of One’s Own, Caravan, The Magic Bow, Jassy).

Nine of the films are set in England, two are set in Italy (Madonna of the Seven Moons, The Magic Bow) and one is set between England and Spain (Caravan), with their European locations providing an extra sense of escapism. For many, the past acts as a form of escape (The Man in Grey, Fanny by Gaslight, A Place of One’s Own, The Wicked Lady, Jassy). In Love Story, the escape is a Cornwall seaside resort. The other two are quite unusual, as They Were Sisters takes us through time from end of the First World War to the late 1930s, and The Root of All Evil seems to be set at a similar time. These two films still provide us with the same melodramatic style but seem to be less concerned with providing a form of escape for the conflicts they portray, although they do still escape the wars, being set in-between them. They Were Sisters depicts an abusive marriage, and The Root of All Evil follows a scorned woman through her revenge.

Having watched The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady in university, I knew that I wanted to revisit the films and watch all the rest in the cycle at some point. Then I forgot about them for a while. In October 2020 I remembered, and decided that now was the time to watch them all like I always wanted to, and I’ve decided to rank them. Most of the films were available to watch on YouTube, the only disadvantage of which was not getting to see the beautiful costumes in HD.

My personal ranking of the eleven Gainsborough melodramas:

11) They Were Sisters (1945)

The sisters that the title of the film refers to are Lucy (Phyllis Calvert), Vera (Anne Crawford) and Charlotte (Dulcie Gray). James Mason plays Charlotte’s abusive husband Geoffrey. The film follows these three sisters through their lives, marriages and individual struggles.

Although the film was a big hit at the box office, it is in last place for me because I genuinely found it so hard to watch. It was so awful that there was nothing I enjoyed about watching this film in the slightest. Apart from being a serious depiction of an abusive marriage, which was still a taboo topic at the time, I’m not really sure what this film is doing. It’s too serious for its own good. In my opinion it is the least “Gainsborough melodrama” of the Gainsborough melodramas.

10) A Place of One's Own (1945)

In this film a retired couple move in to a house that is supposedly haunted. James Mason plays one half of this couple, Mr. Smedhurst, and was therefore artificially aged. Mrs. Smedhurst employs Anette (Margaret Lockwood) as a companion who becomes haunted by the ghost.

Even Margaret Lockwood’s magnetic presence isn’t enough to carry this film. What it lacks is a real conflict. Although Lockwood’s character is possessed by this ghost, there doesn’t really seem to be any conflict represented by this possession other than the ghost not being her. The film doesn’t offer anything; the characters are all one dimensional, as is the plot, meaning there is never really a chance for it to go anywhere. It ends up feeling more like a throwaway film or a Halloween special episode of something than a Gainsborough melodrama.

9) Fanny by Gaslight (1944)

Fanny, played by Phyllis Calvet, returns to London from boarding school to witness her father’s murder at the hands of Lord Manderstoke (James Mason). Except that he wasn’t her biological father, which Fanny soon learns. When Fanny’s mother is on her deathbed she sends Fanny to work for the biological father who is a cabinet minister. The events that follow can only be described as melodramatic. Just have a look at this scene https://twitter.com/umaghelani/status/1320837385278627840?s=20 !

My main problem with this film is that it was disappointing; they could’ve done so much more with it. Although the film follows a melodramatic plot, is set in the past and has the beautiful costumes, it is the characters and their dynamics that needed more to them. It definitely would have benefitted from exploring dynamics like Fanny/Lucy more. For that reason it lands at nine.

8) Caravan (1946)

Stewart Granger plays Richard Darrell, a broke writer looking for his big break so that he can marry the love of his life Oriana. Whilst in London, he rescues a man who is being mugged, Don Carlos, who in turn is touched hearing Richard’s story, and agrees to publish his novel. Later on we see an attempt on Richard’s life that leaves him an amnesiac, and Oriana thinking that he is dead. In this time he becomes ‘Ricardo’ when he meets and marries Rosal played by Jean Kent. Eventually Richard and Oriana do find their way back to each other.

This is not a bad film in terms of how it is made and its watchability, but there are a few things that are hard for me to get past. Firstly I would say the character of Wycroft is simply homophobic; the fact that he is queer coded but then he is a creepy predator is just very horrible and uncomfortable. It is nice that we see Richard integrate with Spanish Romany culture and adopt a European identity (he really becomes Ricardo), and Francis remains a full British misogynist villain throughout, even if that is eventually rejected in favour of the English life. It is almost as if with the death of Rosal that he became Richard again. Francis drowning in quicksand was also pretty funny. Rosal has some really nice costumes, in fact all the costumes in this film are particularly gorgeous.

7) Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945)

Maddalena’s (Phyllis Calvert) early trauma from being sexually assaulted causes her to have a dual personality, one being the deeply religious ‘Madonna’ figure as the wife of a respectable man, and the other being the wild and free Rosanna of the Seven Moons. When Maddalena’s daughter Angela (Patricia Roc) returns from school in London, Rosanna takes over and Maddalena disappears. Rosanna returns to her lover Nino (Stewart Granger), a jewel thief in Florence. Angela goes to Florence in search of her mother, but instead finds herself in trouble.

First of all, I really don’t understand how Phyllis Calvert and Patricia Roc were the same age but playing mother and daughter? Other than that this film really peaked my interest, as it shows the conflict of female sexuality in one character instead of how it often does with two. The film also shows a window into a European identity, even if they did still find a way to make the good English girl character a thing in Angela growing up in England. We see a duality within one character, Maddalena, and then we see a duality with mother and daughter, as the mother is European and the daughter is English.

6) The Root of All Evil (1947)

Jeckie (Phyllis Calvert) is in love with Albert who promises to marry her once his father, owner of a grocery shop, makes him partner. Instead he goes off and marries his cousin (?!). While he is away, Jeckie’s family faces debt problems that lead to them getting evicted, and when she goes to Albert’s father for help he gives her nothing. The family are evicted from their farm and have to find work where they can. Jeckie decides to sue Albert and ends up receiving money from them, which she uses to set up her own grocery shop. She then becomes a stern and savvy businesswoman, who will let nothing get in her way. That is until Charles comes along with the promise of oil, and who she ends up also falling for. The way in which they obtain the oil ends up backfiring and ending badly, as do things with Charles, leaving Jeckie with nowhere to go but back to the farm and to the boy next door Joe.

Although it is probably intended as a deterrent for women to be independent, what this film actually tells us is that capitalist post-feminism doesn’t work. Jeckie can be a ‘girlboss’ who is just ‘securing the bag’ as much as she likes, but it isn’t the real way of breaking the mould and getting her success as revenge. Although she pushes her ex and his dad out of business and almost becomes an oil tycoon, she still finds herself unhappy, showing that capitalism is never the answer. Instead she goes back to her farm house, and to Joe, where she finds her real power and happiness.

The more contemporary setting and the moralistic side, as well as the lack of female duality conflict makes this film fit less in the category of Gainsborough melodrama. The intentions of the film for the time that it was made - just after the war - were suspicious, but we can look at this film now and find much more resonance. Of course female independence is good, unlike how the films seems to want to suggest, but capitalism is always bad, a good reminder that we can take from the film and which we need in this age of faux feminism. There’s also the line “I hope he’s trampled on by a moose” which is an absolute gem.

5) The Magic Bow (1946)

Surprise! I bet you didn’t expect to see this one so high up, and I tell you I certainly wasn’t prepared to like this film so much when I sat down to watch it. Based on the life of the Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini (Stewart Granger) who lived from 1782 to 1840, the film tells us how he went from rags to riches, winning a Stradivarius violin, being assisted by the fictitious character of Jeanne de Vermond (Phyllis Calvert) and the real character of Bianca (Jean Kent), an Italian singer.

Yehudi Menuhin, a talented violinist, was brought on to perform and record all the violin music. For close-ups they had Stewart Granger’s chin on the violin with Yehudi Menuhin’s hands actually playing. Even with Stewart Granger being billed as the main attraction for this film, the music is what ended up getting the most critical praise. The music is good, the costumes are good, the actors work well in their roles, and the romance is good. Obviously some things are a little disappointing, for example the dialogue and the lack of focus on the female characters, but the film is really good considering the scale of it and the complexity of its plot. Although many critics claimed that the plot interrupted the music, I actually think that they worked the music into the story really well. For a Gainsborough melodrama, this film really provides the escape more than some of the others. However, you can tell that Margaret Lockwood turned it down for a reason, as the female characters really don’t have much in this film, which can probably be credited to the fact that it is a biopic of Niccolò Paganini, and that so much focus was placed on Stewart Granger. I think what I liked about this film most is that it pleasantly surprised me with its ambition, and what it actually achieved given the little expectations I had going into it.

4) Jassy (1947)

Jassy is chronologically the last film in the cycle, and is the only Gainsborough melodrama to be in Technicolor. It begins with the Hatton family losing their estate due to gambling, and being forced to move to a small village. Here they meet Jassy (Margaret Lockwood) who is able to see things as they happen even when she is not there, this gift being credited to her Romany mother. Both the Hatton father and Jassy’s father end up dying, and Jassy and Barney Hatton end up getting close. Jassy then has to move away to work at a school where she meets Dilys Helmar (Patricia Roc), whose father is the owner of the Hatton estate, and who had a romantic fling with Barney in the past. Dilys ends up inadvertently getting Jassy fired, and decides to take her home with her as it is her fault. In a battle of power, ownership and marriages, Jassy's gift becomes a curse that almost lands her in jail, but the truth and love prevail at the end of the day.

Margaret Lockwood x Patricia Roc is a dream pairing. This is one of the three films in which we see them together, and the last Gainsborough melodrama I watched. Plenty of times we see the same actors together in these films, but this duo is by far the most electric. This happens to be the least effective use of them, with the film being so structured around the plot, and their characters being more set than others that they have played. It is a good tale of revenge, and Margaret Lockwood shines as Jassy. It is however very strange that Barney is so in love with the house, and for that reason the happy ending with Jassy is a little bit unconvincing. What is more convincing is Jassy and Dilys’s love-hate relationship. I mean, Dilys really brings Jassy home to live with her and you’re trying to tell me they aren’t girlfriends? And then later on it becomes hate as the two of them have a romantic connection to Barney, and then Dilys marries Stephen, and Jassy marries Dilys’s father. Overall, this ended up being a really great last film to watch.

3) Love Story (1944)

Yes, it’s my fave duo once again. This time we have Margaret Lockwood as Lissa Campbell, a professional pianist who applies to help with the war and become an RAF pilot, only to be rejected on medical grounds. She learns that she has a serious heart condition that will soon take her life, and decides to escape to a resort in Cornwall. Here she meets Tom Tanner, an old man who is in Cornwall to investigate the mines, Kit Firth (Stewart Granger) who is an engineer that she falls in love with, and Judy (Patricia Roc), a local girl who is Kit’s childhood friend. Judy decides she wants to put on a production of The Tempest, and convinces Tom to be an investor. When an accident occurs at the mines, Kit rescues the crew, puzzling Lissa, as he clearly is not a coward. She then learns that he is soon to go blind if he doesn’t have a risky operation. Lissa tells Judy that she will leave Kit if she persuades him to go ahead with the surgery. The surgery and the play end up happening at the same time, and both the girls’ anxieties are at a high. The surgery works and Lissa leaves, as she said she would, and goes on a world tour playing for the troops. Judy and Kit are engaged, and Kit re-joins the war effort. Lissa performs at Royal Albert Hall, sees Kit and faints, recovering to see Judy who breaks her engagement with Kit, so that Kit and Lissa end up together for whatever little time she has.

This is an unusual film, as it is contemporary, and also because of the roles that the actors take on. Seeing Patricia Roc as an edgy character is quite cool, and although many have said they prefer her as the soft balance to Margaret Lockwood’s sharpness, I really enjoyed this difference. The pacing of this film is noteworthy, as it is interesting what they choose to spend time on versus what they don’t. The biggest example of this is the last ten minutes of the film; the whole ‘happy ending’ is explained visually in a matter of seconds, whereas the scene before with Lissa playing the piano at Royal Albert Hall was a very long and dreamlike sequence. Even though it doesn’t have the setting of the past, I feel as though it still has that main conflict that every Gainsborough melodrama needs to have, as well as three key cast members. It really is a standout film.

2) The Wicked Lady (1945)

In this film, Caroline (Patricia Roc) is marrying Sir Ralph Skelton, and invites her friend Barbara (Margaret Lockwood), but it is Barbara who schemes and ends up marrying him. Barbara then meets and falls in love with Kit, but she has already married. She gambles away her late mother's jewels, and ends up impersonating the famous highwayman Captain Jackson (James Mason) to retrieve them. Getting a taste of this life, she decides to continue thieving, until one night she encounters the real Captain Jackson, and they become partners, in crime and in love. When she is discovered, she becomes a murderer, and then also finds out that the Captain is cheating on her, and rats him out to her husband. He is then sentenced to be hanged, but escapes from the noose with help from his accomplices, and ends up raping Barbara. Barbara plots to kill her husband, and instead ends up shooting the Captain, but then also getting shot at by Kit, who is now engaged to Caroline. She heads home where she is discovered by Caroline, and tells the truth to Kit, who is repulsed by her and leaves her to die alone, and Caroline and Ralph get back together.

Almost (!) my number one. There is no reason for this to be number two, other than the reasons why number one is what it is. On that note, let’s get into why I (and also everyone else who has ever seen it) love this film. The Wicked Lady is specifically enjoyable to watch because it is the Gainsborough melodrama which completely places the Margaret Lockwood character at the centre of the narrative, as the agent of change leading the narrative and as the point-of-view for the spectator. This is made even clearer as she is the eponymous heroine of the film. She carries the film and makes it the enjoyable ride that it is, and we do root for her throughout, even if the film tries to make it a moral story with her dying at the end. Even though there are technically many things to not like about this plot, they simply do not matter in the face of how wonderful Margaret Lockwood is. It is an electric and exciting film, especially for the time that it was made.

1) The Man in Grey (1943)

This is the blueprint. Even though I love my Margaret Lockwood x Patricia Roc link ups, I can’t ignore that this is THE Gainsborough melodrama of all the Gainsborough melodramas. The outer plot takes place in 1943, with a woman in the Navy (Phyllis Calvert) and an RAF pilot (Stewart Granger) meeting at the auction of the Rohan family heirlooms, with the woman being the sister of the last male Rohan, and the man also being connected to the family in a way. In the inner plot we are in the early 19th century, where Hesther (Margaret Lockwood) becomes a teacher at a private girls school, where Clarissa (Phyllis Calvert) is a pupil. They become friends, and when Hesther runs away and is disgraced, Clarissa leaves the school in solidarity. Clarissa then marries Lord Rohan (James Mason), who is the ‘man in grey’. As this is a marriage of convenience and not of love, they both end up living separate lives. Clarissa goes to see Othello, after seeing an advertisement and suspecting that Hesther was a part of the cast. She turns out to be right, and so invites her old friend over for supper, where Hesther reveals that her husband died. Clarissa then decides to help her friend, and makes Hesther her companion, but in turn her friend begins an affair with her husband. Clarissa begins to fall in love with the actor who played Othello, Rokeby (Stewart Granger), and the pair plan to elope to Jamaica. Lord Rohan intervenes with their plans and him and Rokeby start fighting. Rokeby ends up going to Jamaica alone, and Clarissa falls ill. Hesther worsens her condition by drugging her and leaving the windows open, essentially murdering her. When Rohan learns the truth, he beats Hesther to death. Back in the outer narrative, it is clear that the RAF pilot is a descendent of Rokeby, and him and Clarissa's descendent end up getting the happy ending that their ancestors didn’t.

The success of this film in particular was the catalyst of the Gainsborough melodramas; it was something that the Gainsborough Studios wanted to replicate and build a consistent chain of films from. The dreamlike outer/inner narrative form is an example of the film drawing attention to its own lack of reality. This bookended narrative structure is also self-reflexive of the genre, as Gainsborough melodramas themselves are an escapist transportation into the past. What I liked about this film even more than it being the perfect Gainsborough melodrama is that you can definitely do a queer reading of it. Rohan? A closeted gay who married a woman for his image and for his lineage. Clarissa? She falls in love with the mysterious newcomer Hesther as soon as she lays eyes on her, tries to make Hesther like her, and continues to fawn over her. She literally tells her that she’s “as prickly and as provoking as ever”. Hesther? A bisexual queen who doesn’t want to pay bills or grow up; she just wants to have fun, and definitely gets jealous when Clarissa says she kissed someone else. This film showcases the best elements of the Gainsborough melodramas in one film, and was sadly a quality that the films never really reached again.

Having watched the rest of the films, I can now view them as a whole cycle with its ups and downs. Seeing the same group of actors in different roles was pretty fun too. These films have a lot to offer, and deserve so much more than to be dismissed critically based on their lack of reality and their target audience.

(p.s. Does this Noel Tatt card look like Patricia Roc or is it just me? Let me know what you guys think.)