Auteursits love this because it was cut about by David O Selznick (see! It wasn’t Powell’s fault it flopped! It was the mean nasty producer!). But it’s a bit of a mess.
Maybe I’d like it more if I was more enamored of Jennifer Jones, who is very much centre stage and her attractiveness and appeal is what is meant to drive the story. But it's a silly story - Jones is an Earth girl, in touch with the environment (they should have made this in the 60s) lusted after an evil squire (David Farrar) and loved by a nice reverend (Cyril Cusack). There's nothing more to it than that.
I guess it's like The Red Shoes in that a woman is torn between two guys, one dark and dangerous the other nice and bland, but Jennifer Jones doesn't have a job she's into like ballet dancing.
It looks stunning, has that touch of magic which all the best Powell-Pressburger films had, features some awkward acting. Maybe I'd love it more if say Moira Shearer was in the lead - or Pamela Brown or Deborah Kerr; for me Jones just didn't make the grade.
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