Dirk Bogarde didn't serve much of a supporting role apprenticeship in the movies - he was playing leading men pretty much from the get go. In hindsight it's not that hard to understand, with his dark, Byronic good looks he was so easily castable. (He stepped in for a role that was meant to be played by Stewart Granger.) He is clearly inexperienced here but he isn't bad as the dashing man who seduces poor old Esther Waters and knocks her up, causing her no end of grief.
That ushers in the best section of the film for me - Esther copping it from nasty employers, trying to make a go of it. Then Bogarde comes back with a dodgy moustache and there's this plot about him being a bookie and lots of scenes of horse racing.
Kathleen Ryan is a sensible, not overly pretty heroine - no-nonsense and very British, like a smarter Phyllis Calvert. It's pretty minor melodrama, lacking the flourish of the best Gainsborough - no one really seems to have any fun and Bogarde lacks the sensuality of a Granger or James Mason. Still, he's a lot better than many British leading men of the time.
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