Die Wurzel allen Übels

There is not much to say about this film, actually. It is a very conventional and typical romantic and colourful Gainsborough feature with all the usual assets: interesting story, interesting characters, all done by excellent players, especially Phyllis Calvert in the lead, John McCallum as a Stewart Granger kind of knight to assist her whether she likes it or not, and Michael Rennie as a knavish joker - there is a great fight between the two after the middle of the film, and all the other characters are perfectly fit also, but there is one thing about this film that makes it special. It's the music. The name of the composer is Bretton Byrd, a name hardly noticeable at all at the end of the list of the crew, but it somehow makes the film stick together in a constant beautiful flow, always only as an accompaniment, there is no melody to stick out and stay on your mind, but it rather soothes the spectator as well as the actors into keeping the action going and the interest increasing, like a warm but excellent substitute for all the splendid colours that are missing in this black-and-white representation, and making the film from beginning to end wholly enjoyable.