Blanche Fury *** (1948, Stewart Granger, Valerie Hobson, Walter Fitzgerald, Michael Gough) – Classic Movie Review 10,150

Director Marc Allégret’s 1948 British film Blanche Fury is a handsome-looking, rather Gothic Victorian-style romantic melodrama about a governess Blanche Fury (Valerie Hobson) who, at the bidding of her rich uncle Simon (Walter Fitzgerald), marries his rich widowed son Lawrence (Michael Gough).

Next she plots his murder, and then the uncle’s murder, with her lover Philip Thorn (Stewart Granger), an illegitimate family member who believes he should inherit.

The very capable players send in heavy breathing appearances as a substitute for acting, which is enjoyable and, given the torrid, breast-beating material, the best course.

The screenplay by Audrey Erskine-Lindop, Hugh Mills and Cecil McGivern is based on a novel by Joseph Shearing.

It is shot in Technicolor by Guy Green and Geoffrey Unsworth (exterior photography), accounting for the handsome-looking movie, along with John Bryan’s Production Designs, Wilfred Shingleton’s Art Direction and Sophie Devine’s costume designs, and, despite the colour, it is a Gothic film noir.

It also features Maurice Denham, Sybilla Binder, Edward Lexy, Allan Jeayes, Suzanne Gibbs, Ernest Jay, George Woodbridge, Arthur Wontner, Amy Veness, Bryan Herbert, M E Clifton James, Cherry London, Margaret Withers, Hilary Pritchard, Michael Brennan, Charles Saynor, Alexander Field, Lance George, Roy Arthur, Norman Pierce, James Dale and Roddy Hughes.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,150

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