Personal Affair

"Personal Affair" is from Rank Films and stars Leo Genn, Gene Tierney, and Glynis Johns. Johns was nearly 30 when she played Barbara Vining, a student in love with her teacher, Stephen Barlow (Genn). Stephen has Barbara come to his home for tutoring; while she's there, Barlow's wife Kay confronts Barbara about her feelings. Embarrassed and upset, Barbara runs from the house. A distressed Stephen calls her at home and arranges to meet her in an out of the way area. When Barbara doesn't come home, suspicion falls on Stephen.

This is a really neat and suspenseful film, thanks to its good cast, writing, and direction. The audience (this audience anyway) isn't really sure what went on between teacher and student, if anything, so it keeps you guessing as to what happened, and the gossip condemns Barlow.

Pamela Brown is terrific as Barbara's bitter aunt who seems to get a lot of pleasure out of the suffering of others; Walter Fitzgerald and Megs Jenkin are wonderful as Barbara's agonized parents. Johns is very sweet and comes off as very young and innocent. Leo Genn is always good. Tierney has probably the most interesting role as a beautiful, somewhat snobby woman who nevertheless is insecure. She does it very well.

Well worth seeing.

"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.

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

A quietly flashy (the image even turns to negative at one point) cross between 'Le Corbeau' and 'Term of Trial' adapted from her own play 'A Day's Mischief' by Lesley Storm that once more lifts the lid on the passions simmering not far below the surface of conservative fifties Britain.

Obligatory American star Gene Tierney melds unobtrusively with a cast of largely female Brits ranging from bitter, chainsmoking maiden aunt Pamela Brown to an unbilled Nanette Newman as a gossiping teenager; the best performance as usual coming from Megs Jenkins as Glynis Johns' careworn mother.

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.