Personal Affair

"Personal Affair" is a crisply written, beautifully photographed, thoughtfully directed thriller about a teenage girl (Glynis Johns) who disappears, one night, from a small town and the schoolteacher (Leo Genn) who is suspected of being implicated in her disappearance. People do notice things and people in the town have noticed that there was something between them. They don't know what, he's an outsider, anyway, so they figure he's guilty. The film is a study of how feverish imagination becomes gossip, and gossip becomes the truth, how suspicion breeds fear and undermines love and trust, how crazy you can become from the whispers and half-truths swirling around you and you don't have a rock to hold onto.

The schoolteacher has a beautiful American wife (Gene Tierney) who loves him deeply but becomes detached from that rock when certain suspicions she has regarding her husband and the girl turn out to have weight. He's innocent of any criminal culpability, but he hasn't quite told the truth, which has something to do with love. The film talks a lot about this tricky emotion. At various points in the film each of the main characters - the teacher, his wife, the girl, her parents, her aunt - bring up the subject of love, and their own experiences with it. It is the aunt who has been damaged by love who harbours all kinds of toxic feelings and spreads the most lies and chaos.

The stage play and screenplay, I note, were both written by one Lesley Storm. The film has been nicely opened up, runs a tight 88 minutes and is very cinematic. Do note that beautiful metaphor at the end of the film - turbulent waters and still waters. Really a lovely little film.

Anthony Pelissier directed films for just five years, so his output did not amount to much in terms of quantity. That said, all his films reflect a high degree of personal filmic style grounded in solid B&W cinematography. PERSONAL AFFAIR remains an example of that, though sadly the middle segment suffers excessive shots of backwater town settings and close-ups of people commenting on the disappearance of Barbara (Glynis Johns) and her possible amorous liaison with her Latin teacher Stephen Barlow (classily played by Leo Genn).

New York-born Gene Tierney is the American attraction so common in European films of the 1950s and 1960s. She plays Kay, Barlow's beautiful wife (perhaps too beautiful to marry a Latin teacher of dubious income, and even more incredibly, jealous of teenager Barbara). That ain't all, either: she appears in bursts during the film, and struck me as too tongue-impulsive to attract my sympathy. She had hardly spoken a word to Barbara and already accused her of improper feelings for hubby Stephen, then seemed to feel guilty about Barbara's disappearance, inexplicably leaving home to wander around, seemingly in two minds about her hubby's real role in the teenager's disappearance... messy characterization that simply does not work.

The other major flaw that I found very tough to swallow was Barbara's reason for disappearing for a couple of days, after a brief meeting at night with her teacher. The film never enlightens you as to what teacher and student discussed at night, or why an intelligent and polished teacher of Latin classics would risk his career over a young female supposedly carrying a torch for him.

Perhaps PERSONAL AFFAIR is intended as a cautionary tale for teachers engrossed in attractive alumni, but it misses the mark and in process wastes superior talent like Tierney, Genn, Johns, Walter Fitzgerald and Michael Hordern, among others in smaller parts in a dodgy script by - anyone heard of her? - Lesley Storm. 6/10.

I'm a huge Gene Tierney fan, but apparently not enough of one, because I only discovered this film while browsing through Amazon. Wish I'd known about it years ago. The quality is good, the pace is fast, the acting solid, the themes surprisingly brazen for the times (or so it seems to me). There's a touch of melodrama, mystery, even film noire. The Aunt Evelyn character is almost as wicked as dear old Mrs Danvers. If you're debating about watching this film, don't. It's worth the time, especially for a fan of classic black and white films. Thanks to the viewers who took the time to rate this film! otherwise I would never have discovered it.

A school teacher (Genn) is implicated in the disappearance of one of his female students (Johns). This student who has a crush on the teacher is humiliated when the teacher's wife (Tierney) accuses her of the truth.

The girl flees the house teacher follows and girl disappears. We are left in suspense as to what actually happened to her as we see the small town net close in around the teacher.

More of a filmed play than a movie this film is intelligently directed and well acted and holds your suspense very well up to the denouement.

As other reviewers have stated the only casting flaw is the girl (Johns) who is too old for the role.

Nice suspenseful well acted watch.

RECOMMEND

Leo Genn plays a teacher at a British school. He does not realize that one of his students (Glynnis Johns) is infatuated with him, though his wife (Gene Tierney) quickly picks up on this. When the wife confronts the student about this, the teen leaves in tears--and isn't heard from for some time! Considering that the teacher followed her and talked with her, he was the last to see her and the assumptions are that she either killed herself or he killed her. Regardless, people in the town begin to assume he was responsible. I won't say what happens next, as this would spoil the film, though IMDb DOES give away the girl's whereabouts on the main page for the film! Oops.

This movie gives the viewer quite a bit to consider. First, the male teacher clearly was irresponsible being alone with a student--particularly a female one. As a retired teacher, I knew NEVER to put myself in such a situation for exactly the reasons you see in the film. I would venture that at least subconsciously the teacher was flattered by the crush--which is pretty disturbing since it resulted in his not taking reasonable precautions. Second, the wife clearly read the script, as when she meets the teen, she IMMEDIATELY knows he has a crush on the teacher--but how did her character know this?! This is an apparent weakness in the script and she is clearly the weakest written character in the movie. Third, it's a nice portrait of what happens when hysteria and the court of public opinion run amok--snowballing to insane conclusions. Fourth, it leaves you wondering why they picked a 30 year-old woman (Johns) to play a 17 year-old! Oops.

You'll notice that a couple things I mentioned above are problems with the film. Well, despite these minor concerns the rest of the film is pretty good--and thought-provoking...and well worth seeing.