Alex da Silva Posh girl Phyllis Calvert (Clarissa) gets roped into a loveless marriage with playboy Lord James Mason (Rohan). She bumps into an old schoolfriend, lowly actress Margaret Lockwood and brings her into the Rohan household. However, Lockwood has an agenda of her own.The film is told in flashback as it starts with Calvert and Stewart Granger bidding at an auction for items on sale from the Rohan Estate which is now being sold off. The film takes us through the history of several items found in a box at the auction before returning to the present day for a happy conclusion. Calvert and Granger are descendants of the characters in the main story in which Mason is a bad ass and Lockwood is pure evil.It's an entertaining film with sharp dialogue and the cast are excellent with the exception of the boy that never ages and is insultingly blacked up to be a black boy. He tries to affect a black man accent at times with black man dialogue and he fails miserably. Then, he attends the theatre and dresses like an Indian. Is he meant to be Indian? Whatever is going on, it is really insulting. He is rubbish. Back to the film, it's great except when he's in it. There is just one thing missing from that box of items that Granger is bidding for – the whip!

Spikeopath The Man in Grey is directed by Leslie Arliss and adapted to screenplay by Margaret Kennedy and Doreen Montgomery from the novel of the same name written by Eleanor Smith. It stars Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger. Music is By Cedric Mallabey and cinematography by Arthur Crabtree.A forerunner of Gainsborough's Wicked Women movies, The Man in Grey is a delicious slice of British noir pie.Proudly decked out in period attire, story is ripe with dastards, narcissists, connivers, the selfish and the cruel. Headed up by Mason's Lord Rohan and Lockwood's Hesther Shaw, these people will stop at nothing to get what they want in life. It doesn't matter who is around them, friends and family etc, if they can in any way hinder their respective selfish goals then they will be trampled upon and not a further thought will be given. It all simmers to the boiling point where lives will not just be ruined, but also ended.The four principal players are great, their respective careers well on the way to leaving behind considerable bodies of work. Arliss (The Night Has Eyes) keeps the story simple in spite of the many character strands and traits jostling for meaty exposure, and photographer Crabtree (Waterloo Road) accentuates the miserablist ambiance with sharp black and white lensing.The use of black-face on white actors is awfully out dated, as is some of the dialogue, but don't hold these things against The Man in Grey. It's a darn fine bodice botherer, resplendent with characters straight out of noir's dark alleyways. 8/10

Maddyclassicfilms The Man In Grey is directed by Leslie Arliss,based on the popular novel by Eleanor Smith and stars Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Stewart Granger, Phyllis Calvert and Martita Hunt.It's also one of the most memorable costume melodramas Gainsborough Studios ever made.Margeret Lockwood again plays a similar woman to Barbara in The Wicked Lady, with the same low regard for other peoples feelings and lives.Beginning during the Second World War at an auction of heirlooms from the notorious Rohan family we then flash back to Regency era England.The beautiful and angry Hester Shaw(Margeret Lockwood) becomes a pupil at a private school for young ladies run by the comical Miss Patchett(Martita Hunt).Hester is an instant outcast to all except one of the pupils,the kindly Clarissa Marr(Phyllis Calvert).The two become best friends but Hetser also resents Clarissa because she thinks her friendship is a form of charity.A gypsy woman visits the school and reads Clarissa's palm,she predicts a marriage to a rich man but is afraid of Hester and refuses to tell her fortune.Hester runs away and becomes a stage actress,years later she meets up with Clarissa again.Clarissa is unhappily married to the wealthy,but cold and indifferent Lord Rohan(James Mason).Hester sets her sights on him and they begin an affair.Hester introduces Clarissa to her friend the dashing and kind hearted rogue Peter Rokeby(Stewart Granger).The two begin a close friendship and tender love affair.James is suitably slimy and harsh as the crazed Lord Rohan and Stewart oozes sex appeal out of every scene he's in.Margaret is at her best in these sorts of roles, playing a tough independent woman going against society. Ideal viewing for a rainy day.

writers_reign One line of dialogue stood out for me and actually made the film; Lockwood and Calvert are travelling by coach to Calvert's London home and she asks Lockwood (who has just played Desdemona to Granger's Othello) how long Granger has been an actor. 'As far as I'm concerned he never was' replies Lockwood, a brilliant summation of Granger's talent, the lack of which, of course, failed to prevent him achieving film stardom. This Regency meller stands up remarkably well and if Mason and Lockwood are slightly over the top, Calvert a tad TOO twee, as if auditioning for any parts Olivia de Havilland might reject, and Granger too inept probably at the time - and wartime at that - they were all quite acceptable. Certainly worth a look.