Man of Evil

This Victorian melodrama has enough plot to fill several volumes and is, what you might call, 'a rum yarn'. Anthony Asquith's "Fanny By Gaslight" was based on a best-selling novel by Michael Sadleir and was a huge hit in its native Britain and it's an exemplary example of its kind. Phyllis Calvert is Fanny and let's just say what happens to her in the course of this tale would put any Dickens heroine to shame or to quote Thelma Ritter, 'all that's missing is the bloodhounds snapping at her rear end'. Stewart Granger is the young man who loves her and James Mason, the nasty brute who would like to ruin her and others in the fine cast include Wilfred Lawson, Jean Kent, Margaretta Sccott, Cathleen Nesbitt and Nora Swinburne. Given that it's basically a soap opera, Asquith handles it with considerable aplomb and the performances are first-rate. If it's a guilty pleasure, it's certainly a highly enjoyable one.

Fanny (Phyllis Calvert) is a lovely young lady who, through no fault of her own, is persecuted throughout the story due to her heritage. It seems that her father was an important nobleman and she didn't even know it. That is because his family annulled his marriage to a commoner....and the pregnant woman later remarried and her new husband raised Fanny as his very own. She only learns of all this after the death of her mother and step-father. She is, briefly, introduced to her biological father and they spend time together...though unfortunately not enough time. Soon, he, too, is dead and Fanny is out fending for herself. However, a lovely nobleman (Stewart Granger) falls for her and promises her a life of ease and love....but at the cost of him being disowned by his family. What is Fanny to do? After all, she loves him but won't stand in his way. And, what about the incredibly evil Lord Manderstoke (James Mason), as he and the boyfriend's family seem bent on destroying Fanny.

This film is a lovely story...very much like an old fashioned love story. This is NOT meant as an insult...such stories can be very satisfying if well written and the characters enjoyable...which they definitely are here.

I am not overly fond of Anthony Asquith as a director. I tend to find his films stilted but I have to admit that he has done a good job with FANNY BY GASLIGHT.

The script is full of Dickensian touches, notably in respect of class differences, and the pace is well controlled throughout.

I find beautiful Phyllis Calvert to have one of of her better parts in this film. Versatile James Mason unfortunately has only a small part but it is a memorable one. The scene of the duel challenge with Stewart Granger is one of the best of any British movie I have watched, and I have watched many because I am a fan of the British cinema, especially the 1935-1970 period.

Finally, the exceedingly beautiful B&W photography, exquisite beyond words.

Anyone who enjoys Dickensian drama MUST see FANNY BY GASLIGHT. 8/10

I greatly enjoy the Gainsborough films, especially those "bodice rippers", and with Mason as such a terrific heavy, making every moment of his limited screen time count, this is most enjoyable escapism.

Of course it is Phyllis Calvert as Fanny who dominates the film, ably supported by a well-chosen supporting cast. I much regret that my favorite contemporary British director, Ken Russell, was never able to realize his last major project -a new version of "Moll Flanders", but seeing this 1944 costume picture some 80 years after courtesy of YouTube makes up for it thanks to a very fine British print.

Fanny By Gaslight was one of Gainsborough Pictures romances starring its greatest stars, Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger, and James Mason all in their salad days. It's a Victorian soap opera with a lot of Dickens like class consciousness thrown into the mix.

The best works of Charles Dickens like David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, and Great Expectations have the common thread of a young man of limited means making his way in the world who with a combination of hard work and good circumstances comes out on top at the end of the story. Fanny By Gaslight is just that kind of a story, except that Dickens would never have his protagonist be a woman. But Fanny Hooper as played by Phyllis Calvert is as good a Dickens hero as you will ever find.

When Calvert returns from boarding school her father, John Laurie, is killed in a fight ejecting a drunken James Mason from his establishment which is just this side of a brothel. When he dies she finds out that Laurie was not her real father, that she is the daughter of a prominent politician Stuart Lindsell. She's taken into his house as a maid. Calvert also makes the acquaintance of rising young politician Stewart Granger who is a protégé of Lindsell and Granger falls big time for Calvert.

Eventually all this becomes known about Calvert's background and it leads to an inevitable climax between Mason and Granger. How it gets to that point is the crux of the film.

Several incidents from the 19th century are used. The sex scandals are pieced from those involving Charles Dilke and Charles Parnell. Lindsell's suicide, jumping in front of a train is a recreation of the death of William Huskisson killed accidentally though by George Stephenson's newly invented locomotive.

Calvert and Granger are a winning pair of lovers and James Mason is one hateful aristocratic villain, a privileged man who lives to enjoy his privileges at the expense of others as Phillip Barry said.

I was surprised at how well Fanny By Gaslight holds up today. In fact the Hays Office had it banned from the USA for a while. Maybe that's its secret.