Just because Gainsborough stopped making melodramas, didn't mean other producers would stop - here Two Cities hired the excellent screenwriter Charles Bennett to write and direct and Gainsborough's former first lady Margaret Lockwood to star. The result has a poor reputation but actually I like it.
It's derivative certainly, and is full of scenes/characters/tropes you encounter in other movies, but Bennett's done a pretty good job and on the whole it's well executed, with acting that ranges from decent to excellent. It's only at the end he muffs it.
Margaret Lockwood is decent as the young woman going blind who falls for wealthy Paul Dupis, not realising that his friend Kathleen Byron is in love with him and wants her dead. This is a good set up for a film - indeed, it was used in Rebecca. There's also elements of Gaslight (moving items around), The Spiral Staircase (crippled heroine), Leave Her to Heaven (nasty woman tries to engineer drowning).
There's also a strong third act, when Lockwood regains her sight, but doesn't tell anyone as she returns to the mansion. At this point I was going "alright!" and waiting for Lockwood to kick arse/do something clever but it never really happens - Bennett muffs the climax, Lockwood reveals herself to Byron way too soon and then Byron drives off a convenient cliff with Maxwell Reed. Reed is also under-used - he's a mysterious figure who is on to Byron but never does anything really bad even though you keep expecting him to. There is also too much overhearing and coincidences.
But for all that it was an enjoyable movie and it's a shame Bennett didn't direct more.
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