Narrative Synopses, directors, cast and year of production for The Man In Grey, Fanny By Gaslight, They Were Sisters and The Wicked Lady.
The Man in Grey
(1943) dir. Leslie Arliss
Clarissa - Phyllis Calvert
Lord Rohan - James Mason
Hesther - Margaret Lockwood
Rokeby - Stewart Granger
Synopsis: At a wartime auction, two members of the armed forces (Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger) meet, both interested in the sale of various items belonging to the Rohan estate. After the auction is postponed due to blackout regulations, it is discovered that Calvert is the last of the Rohans, and that Granger's family had some historical connection with them. The film then cuts to a Regency period school for girls. Despite the efforts of Clarissa to befriend the new arrival Hesther, Hesther runs away with a man. In London with her godmother, Clarissa meets Lord Rohan, who asks her to marry him, primarily so that he can have an heir. After their wedding night, Clarissa and Lord Rohan live separately. On finding out that Hesther is now a travelling player, Clarissa goes to see her, on the way meeting Rokeby, who pretends to be a highwayman to get a lift in Clarissa's carriage. Clarissa discovers that Hesther knows Rokeby, who is also a travelling player, and invites her back to her home. After initially allowing her to stay, Lord Rohan discovers Hesther's disreputable past, but is attracted to her and lets her remain at the house. Hesther, wishing to have Lord Rohan to herself then tries to bring Clarissa and Rokeby together. However, after Rokeby and Lord Rohan fight, Rokeby leaves to prepare his home in the West Indies for him and Clarissa. In his absence, Hesther kills Clarissa. On discovering this, Lord Rohan then kills Hesther. Back in the wartime auction house, the descendants of Clarissa and Rokeby leave together.
Fanny By Gaslight
(1944) dir. Anthony Asquith
Fanny - Phyllis Calvert
Lord Manderstoke - James Mason
Lucy - Jean Kent
Harry Somerford - Stewart Granger
Clive Seymour - Stuart Lindsell
Synopsis: London, 1870. Two young girls, Fanny and Lucy, throw a ball to each other in a street. Retrieving the ball from a cellar, Fanny discovers the 'Hopwood Shades', a house of ill repute owned by her father. Fanny receives a birthday present from a mysterious friend of her mother's, Clive Seymour. On hearing about the discovery of the Shades, Fanny's parents send her away to school. Cut to 1880, as Fanny returns from school. At the Shades, Lord Manderstoke forces his way past the doorman and sits in a booth. Hopwood forces him out, but is attacked by Lord Manderstoke outside. Their fight culminates in Hopwood being thrown underneath a passing carriage. At the inquest for his death, Fanny's assertion that Lord Manderstoke was responsible is dismissed and the Shades are closed. Fanny's mother close to death through illness, she sends Fanny to an address where she is to be looked after. She then discovers that this is the house of her mother's friend, Clive Seymour, and that he, not Hopwood, is her real father. As this cannot be revealed, Fanny must stay at the house as a maid. On holiday with Clive, Fanny meets Harry Somerford, but he assumes that she is romantically attached to Clive. Fanny discovers that Clive's wife has had several affairs. After finding them together, she asks for a divorce so that she may marry Lord Manderstoke, on the grounds that Clive and Fanny are having an affair. Clive reveals their true relationship to her, to which Clive's wife responds that if she does not have the divorce, she will expose this to the newspapers, ending Clive's affair in politics. Unable to find a solution to this, Clive commits suicide. Harry, as Clive's closest friend, finds Fanny and discovers that Clive was her father. Despite the interventions of Harry's sister and mother, Harry and Fanny grow closer together, and he proposes to her. On a holiday to Paris, Fanny spots Lucy performing in a theatre, and, visiting her backstage, meets Lucy's lover, Lord Manderstoke. He challenges Harry to a duel, which, despite Fanny's admonitions, he accepts. This results in Lord Manderstoke being killed, and Harry seriously wounded. In the hospital, Fanny tells Harry's sister to go away after she says that only she can look after him. Fanny kneels by Harry's bedside, and states her belief that he will recover and that their romance will continue.
They Were Sisters
(1945) dir. Arthur Crabtree
Lucy - Phyllis Calvert
William - Peter Murray Hill
Charlotte - Dulcie Gray
Geoffrey - James Mason
Vera - Anne Crawford
Brian - Barrie Livesey
Terry - Hugh Sinclair
Synopsis: 1919. Three sisters, Lucy, Charlotte and Vera, get ready to go to a dance. Before they leaving the house, Lucy enters her father's study and meets William, a young architect at the house on business. At the dance, Geoffrey approaches Vera but is rejected by her. Charlotte dances with him instead, and eventually becomes engaged to him, against the advice of her sisters. At their wedding, Vera is proposed to by the man who took her to the dance, Brian. Despite her telling him that she has no feelings for him, they agree to take the chance that the marriage will work. Leaving the study crying, Lucy goes to the study, meeting William who is again at the house on business. They talk, and William asks Lucy go with him to see one of his houses. Cut to 1937, and William and Lucy's 17th wedding anniversary. It is revealed that they have lost a child. The sisters all meet again at Lucy's house. Because Charlotte stays longer than she said she would, when she returns to Geoffrey, he shouts at her. Visiting Charlotte, Lucy realises that she is being terrorised by Geoffrey and her health is deteriorating. Aware that Geoffrey would not allow Charlotte to be examined by a doctor, Lucy asks Vera to keep him away from the house. Vera is unable to do this because of trying to find her lover, and Geoffrey meets Lucy and the doctor entering the house. Asking Charlotte to come downstairs and say whether she wants to be examined, she appears, looking distressed and anxious, and, after looking at Geoffrey, declines. After Charlotte hears Lucy telling Geoffrey that he has destroyed his wife, she tells Geoffrey that she is leaving him, and after being shouted at, runs out of the house into an oncoming car. Geoffrey tries to blackmail Lucy at the coroner's court, telling her that she can look after his daughter if she protects him. Lucy instead tells the court that Geoffrey killed Charlotte and drove her to alcoholism. Vera leaves the country with her lover. The film ends with Lucy and William happily taking care of the children of the other sisters.
The Wicked Lady
(1945) dir. Leslie Arliss
Barbara - Margaret Lockwood
Caroline - Patricia Roc
Sir Ralph - Griffith Jones
Captain Jackson - James Mason
Kit - Michael Rennie
Hogarth - Felix Aylmer
Synopsis: Shortly before their wedding, Caroline tells Sir Ralph that she has asked her closest friend Barbara to be her maid of honour. After arriving, Barbara seduces Sir Ralph, and tells Caroline that they are in love. Caroline tells them that the marriage can still go ahead, but with Barbara instead of her as the bride. At the wedding reception, however, Barbara meets Kit and they are instantly attracted to each other. Barbara, deciding that she wants a separate room to Sir Ralph, goes with Caroline to see a room not previously used for years. Caroline shows Barbara that the room has a secret passage leading into the grounds. After being humiliated in a card game by Sir Ralph's sister and losing a brooch left to her by her mother, Barbara uses the secret passage to leave the house and, disguised as 'Captain Jackson', a notorious highwayman, takes the brooch back. After this, Barbara continues to operate as a highwayman, and, in holding up another carriage, encounters the genuine Captain Jackson. Although initially concerned by this encroachment into his territory, and mistaking Barbara for a man, Jackson takes her to an inn and they embrace. However, Hogarth, a particularly religious servant of Sir Ralph's, tells Barbara that he has been following her and knows what she has been doing. Instead of informing Sir Ralph of her actions, Hogarth agrees to try to save Barbara. Barbara instead poisons him, of which he is unaware until, dying in his bed, Barbara sends the others away and smothers him with a pillow. Finding Jackson at the inn with another woman, Barbara swears revenge and lets Sir Ralph know where he can be found. In London, Barbara and Caroline take a carriage to the gallows where Jackson is to be hung. Seeing Barbara in the crowd, he sends a message asking her to give some money to the woman that he was with at the inn, an old friend of his. The woman refuses to accept this money and a large riot starts as Jackson hangs. Back home, Sir Ralph is told of the riot, and that as Jackson was removed from the gallows before he could be examined, he may be still alive. Barbara then begins an affair with Kit until she is, a while later, visited by Jackson, who, not accepting that she is no longer interested in him, rapes her. Travelling back to the home, Sir Ralph, Caroline and Kit decide to arrange things so that Sir Ralph can be with Caroline and Kit with Barbara. Barbara has already, however, made an alternative plan; to intercept the coach and kill her husband. As she sets out to do this, she encounters Jackson again. On being told of her plan and disgusted by it, he attempts to shoot her, but is shot first. Barbara stops Sir Ralph's coach, but pauses in shock when she sees Kit. With her guard dropped for a moment, Kit shoots her, and Barbara flees. Unaware that it was Barbara, not Jackson, that they shot, they arrive back at the house. Finding her door locked, Caroline gets one of the servants to force it. Caroline finds the room empty, but sees Barbara's pendant. As she is examining it, Barbara returns through the secret passage and Caroline helps her to the bed. Telling Kit that she is dying, he goes to Barbara, but on discovering that she was a highwayman, and has killed several people, abandons her to die as Sir Ralph and Caroline, in another part of the house, are happy to be together.