Gaslicht und Schatten

Another of the very popular Gainsborough Pictures productions made in England in the mid-40's, "Fanny By Gaslight" might just be somewhat transparent, sensationalist and sentimental sub-Dickensian entertainment, but for all that, I happily enjoyed it and can readily comprehend its success with its wartime viewing public.

Adapted from a hit novel of the day, its story, set in late 19th century London revolves around young Fanny, Phyllis Calvert, in another of her do-gooder period-roles, who we first see as a child and who it's fair to say, enjoys an unconventional childhood. Not only do her parents unbeknownst to her run a brothel for high-society gents, but she loses both her father and mother in a short period of time, the former at the hands of James Mason's truculent Lord Manderstroke. Years later, now a young adult, she learns her true parentage and is reunited happily with the prosperous Cabinet minister who obviously had a fling with her mother and fathered her, only for her jealous stepmother to force him to self-destruction under threat of exposing his illegitimate daughter to the public gaze.

Fanny's eventful young life surely is one of snakes and ladders on a grand scale and this really is that big one on the board at square 99 taking you all the way back down again as she is turned out onto the street and struggles to find any kind of work, before ending up helping out at a low-end public house run by her old, now retired family manservant who goes by the wonderful name of Chunks. However, there is a ladder ahead for our Fanny in the form of her real dad's dashing and handsome private male secretary, played with brio by Stewart Granger, himself destined for high office, who she first met and innocently beguiled at her father's estate. Despite the opposition of his super-snobbish mother and sister about her low and scandalous beginnings, he pursues her ardently as a happy ending again comes into view for her. That is, until they encounter in Paris the dastardly Manderstroke again...

One can easily imagine the page-turning potboiler on which it was based and director Anthony Asquith pretty much applies the same technique on the screen. There's even some social commentary on class differences with Granger's Harry Somersford even predicting that one day there will be no class system years from now, but don't go thinking that this feature is some extended Marxist tract, it's just an unpretentiously entertaining rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches story of Fanny down our alley.

I enjoyed Calvert's bright-eyed performance as the plucky title-character and Granger and Mason too in their already typecast roles as handsome gallant and pantomime villain respectively. Like I said, the film packs a lot into its 102 minutes and while you'd never mistake it for "War and Peace" , I found it to be a pleasant, undemanding piece of escapism, aimed very much at its captive working-class audience of the day.

I first saw this movie at one of the local movie theaters around Times Square, New York, that frequently featured second run British movies.

My original intention was to see James Mason and Stewart Granger face off against each other. Instead, I found myself falling in love with the heroine played by Phyllis Calvert, who immediately became my favorite British actress.

The story may smack of soap opera; I've followed several in my time, and yet this story, admittedly overdone, I found to be very sympathetic, and immediately found myself falling in with the main protagonist, and wishing her to eventually prevail, despite all the adversity she had to face from so many individuals.

I have continued to love this movie and have gone back to seeing it many times. I admit that Stewart Granger is rather wooden at times and James Mason appears only at certain strategic moments. However, the player whom I found myself yearning more to see was Jean Kent; fortunately for her, she was given full opportunity to display her complete diversity in subsequent films, many of which I have also seen. (I would like to comment that Ms. Kent is happily still with us, approaching 90 as of next year.)

I agree that the moment where Stuart Lindsell as Fanny's natural father is about to kill himself because of pressures exerted by his erstwhile wife having become too much is right out of a horror story, at the moment where one sees those multiple mirror images.

Certain other players in this film I have also found to be quite believable considering the context - Wilfrid Lawson as Chunks, Amy Veness as Mrs. Heaviside, and perhaps one or two others.

In addition to James Mason, the individual contributions by Margaretta Scott and Cathleen Nesbitt are also sufficiently believable to invite our intense dislike, as each throwing another obstacle in the path of our heroine.

I understand that these impressions are purely individual; as with any work of art, we experience such in our own way. In my case, it made a very warm, positive impression on me - I cannot say exactly why. I would recommend it to anyone who likes high Victorian melodrama, mindful that I am not necessarily in a majority with my impression, but that is how I am. Chacun e son gout, as they say.

I just finished viewing Madonna of the Seven Moons, another film in this same Gainsborough series, and also featuring Phyllis Calvert, Jean Kent,and Stewart Granger. While this latter is a fascinating story based upon a multiple personality, I found it to be inferior in its cohesiveness and ability to draw the viewer in, compared with Fanny by Gaslight, which I have just commented on. I could easily imagine that the superior direction by Anthony Asquith may have something to do with it.

I greatly enjoy the Gainsborough films, especially those "bodice rippers", and with Mason as such a terrific heavy, making every moment of his limited screen time count, this is most enjoyable escapism.

Of course it is Phyllis Calvert as Fanny who dominates the film, ably supported by a well-chosen supporting cast. I much regret that my favorite contemporary British director, Ken Russell, was never able to realize his last major project -a new version of "Moll Flanders", but seeing this 1944 costume picture some 80 years after courtesy of YouTube makes up for it thanks to a very fine British print.

Fanny By Gaslight was one of Gainsborough Pictures romances starring its greatest stars, Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger, and James Mason all in their salad days. It's a Victorian soap opera with a lot of Dickens like class consciousness thrown into the mix.

The best works of Charles Dickens like David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, and Great Expectations have the common thread of a young man of limited means making his way in the world who with a combination of hard work and good circumstances comes out on top at the end of the story. Fanny By Gaslight is just that kind of a story, except that Dickens would never have his protagonist be a woman. But Fanny Hooper as played by Phyllis Calvert is as good a Dickens hero as you will ever find.

When Calvert returns from boarding school her father, John Laurie, is killed in a fight ejecting a drunken James Mason from his establishment which is just this side of a brothel. When he dies she finds out that Laurie was not her real father, that she is the daughter of a prominent politician Stuart Lindsell. She's taken into his house as a maid. Calvert also makes the acquaintance of rising young politician Stewart Granger who is a protégé of Lindsell and Granger falls big time for Calvert.

Eventually all this becomes known about Calvert's background and it leads to an inevitable climax between Mason and Granger. How it gets to that point is the crux of the film.

Several incidents from the 19th century are used. The sex scandals are pieced from those involving Charles Dilke and Charles Parnell. Lindsell's suicide, jumping in front of a train is a recreation of the death of William Huskisson killed accidentally though by George Stephenson's newly invented locomotive.

Calvert and Granger are a winning pair of lovers and James Mason is one hateful aristocratic villain, a privileged man who lives to enjoy his privileges at the expense of others as Phillip Barry said.

I was surprised at how well Fanny By Gaslight holds up today. In fact the Hays Office had it banned from the USA for a while. Maybe that's its secret.

Ann Stephens (Fanny) is sent to boarding school and returns home as Phyllis Calvert (Fanny) to look after her family. However, things take a turn when her true identity is revealed. According to the morals of the day, this becomes a burden to her which she must either accept and toe the line or rebel against. Both options lead to unhappiness. Or do they?

The story is saved by philandering gentleman James Mason (Lord Manderstoke) who makes his entrance in the film with a wonderful delivery of the line "Get out of my way". Unfortunately, we don't get enough of Mason. Other cast members are good but Calvert and rising political star Stewart Granger (Harry) are pretty lucklustre with other characters outshining them. There are some good scenes and the film builds towards an inevitable showdown between Mason and Granger but it never really breaks into stride. It's a bit boring and has an unsatisfying predictability.