Alex da Silva Margaret Lockwood (Barbara) is the wicked lady in question and there is no doubt that she is wicked. She is brilliant and very funny in some scenes. As is highwayman James Mason (Jackson). Lockwood is ruthlessly driven by wealth and excitement and she is brutal when it comes to revenge or getting what she wants.Mason's entry into the film is a cracker as always. In this film, we have him watching dumbfounded from a hill as Lockwood robs a stagecoach on his patch. She's pretty good at it and an alliance is struck. The rest of the cast all do well in their roles – perhaps Patricia Roc (Caroline) is a bit too gentle in her reactions given how Lockwood is treating her.The dialogue is entertaining as is its delivery by all concerned and we get great costumes and settings. Hooray for Gainsborough!

GUENOT PHILIPPE That's the best British film I have ever seen, at least concerning those from the forties, which is a period that I am not particularly fond of. Margaret Lockwood is here absolutely outstanding, terrific as an evil woman who has nothing to envy from Gene Tierney's similar performance in LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN. A most possessive woman for sure. I saw it thirty years ago and I have it in my collection. That's a pure jewel, folks. British cinema industry is quite different from the US one. And many movies from this country remain to be discovered, even today. A real must see.

paulamichelle This a fantastic adventure/drama/romance ! Here we see a wonderful showcase for Margaret Lockwood, one of Britain's best actresses of the 1940's. I have this film on DVD and have watched it countless times and it never fades. The plot is gripping, all the performances are outstanding and the moral end to the tale is what's sadly lacking in films today. James Mason is also stunning in the role of Captin Jackson, He comes across as an early anti-hero who is pushed to the limit by Barbara's insatiable greed and jealousy. If you appreciate a good plot with excellent acting then this film should not be over looked!!A classic, but what ever you do-Don't watch the Micheal Winner remake, it's cheap smut and insult to such a great British film.

Igenlode Wordsmith Judging by the IMDb ratings breakdown for this film, sixty years after its production it remains very much "a women's movie" with female opinion rating it vastly higher than the male across every age group; fascinating to see how the divide still lingers! For my own part, I've always enjoyed the Gainsborough melodramas, and this is probably the best of them thanks to its wonderfully acerbic script.This style of film is basically the screen equivalent of the classic paperback 'bodice-ripper', with heaving bosoms, witty ripostes and dastardly deeds a-plenty -- which probably accounts for the sex divide. On the other hand, I'd have thought it had a good deal to appeal to the average male viewer... Frankly, I'm not surprised that this picture fell foul of the American censors (a fate shared with various other dramas set in morally dubious eras) in the 1940s: it's not just a matter of the amount of cleavage on display or of the protagonist's flagrantly shocking morals (since these are rewarded in appropriate fashion), but of the racy tinge to a lot of the dialogue.I think it's the dialogue that makes this film really shine. Where "The Man in Grey" has a tendency to moralise or lumber, "The Wicked Lady" has a sparkling streak of humour almost throughout; watching it in the cinema, you realise for the first time just how many laughs there are as they sweep across the audience. But it also benefits from a galaxy of strong female stars, from the minor parts to the two leading roles: Patricia Roc pulls off the difficult trick of making her gentle, idealistic character both sympathetic and believable when faced with the formidable opposition of Margaret Lockwood's beautiful, amoral Barbara. Barbara as anti-heroine almost takes over the film, and manages to attract our sympathies to the extent that we find ourselves willing her deception of old Hogarth to succeed -- but ultimately she goes too far. Too far for Jerry Jackson, and too far for this viewer at least to feel anything but vicarious satisfaction as her 'bittersweet' ending turns entirely bitter. The Wicked Lady is bad -- bad to the bone.My main gripe with the film, ironically, is with the happy outcome as shown, after the high emotions and dark ironies that have led up to the finale. I don't hold any grudge against the lovers at all -- it's obvious that all is going to turn out well once the truth is out in the open, and I'm all in favour of their union -- but the way that it is heavy-handedly interjected into the final frames of the picture creates a virtually bathetic anti-climax. That particular outcome really might have been taken for granted, rather than pasted on thickly at precisely the wrong moment...