After marrying a dour and disinterested lord for status, a young woman falls in love with a stage actor while her best friend from boarding school enters an affair with her husband.
Costume
Margaret Lockwood's gowns are weapons of social warfare.
Acting
Mason's sneer could curdle cream; Lockwood's vengeance is chef's kiss.
Cinematography
Shadow-drenched Victorian interiors that breathe repression.
Director
Leslie Arliss
Margaret Lockwood
Hesther Shaw Barbary
Phyllis Calvert
Clarissa Richmond Rohan / Clarissa Rohan
James Mason
Lord Rohan
Stewart Granger
Swinton Rokeby / Peter Rokeby
Beatrice Varley
Gypsy Fortune Teller
Martita Hunt
Miss Patchett
Helen Haye
Lady Rohan
Raymond Lovell
The Prince of Wales
Nora Swinburne
Mrs. Fitzherbert
Kathleen Boutall
Amelia (uncredited)
Patric Curwen
Doctor (uncredited)
Roy Emerton
Gamekeeper (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Gainsborough Studios cornered the 'costume melodrama' market during WWII, giving British audiences escapist scandal when reality was grim.
Margaret Lockwood became Britain's biggest female star off this role; her 'wicked lady' archetype defined 1940s British cinema's complicated relationship with female desire.
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