Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

clanciai This is an oddity among James Hilton's novels, the closest he got to a social and Dickensian novel with perhaps the only crook he ever produced, and she is more stealthily disguised as such than any villain in Shakespeare or Dickens. This is a psychological drama charting the psyche of a very dangerous woman - she is born rich and powerful and can never do without that as a kind of birthright, and when she is thwarted she is destroyed. Until she is thwarted she destroys all her men including her children.This is a thriller in disguise. James Hilton was the most gentlemanly author in England's 20'th century together with John Galsworthy, and also this Bleak House drama is told very suavely with a gentleman's kind politeness all the way. You have to love Olivia Channing as much as John Mills does, until he has to face the facts when almost everything is too late.To see this novel realized on screen I experienced as a miracle. I knew it existed and searched for it for years, and suddenly it was there - with even James Hilton himself as speaker, with his gentle and perfectly clear Cambridge diction. I always enjoyed James Hilton almost more than any other English author of that century for his always musical language, which even that is fully realized in the film.A few years later Edward Dmytryk, exiled from Hollywood, made his masterpiece "Give Us This Day" about Italian immigrant workers in New York 1929 completely filmed in London (with New York recreated in studios), another important milestone of social realism (see my review). This is less dramatic and pathetic and tells a less upsetting story but is instead more convincing. Trevor Howard had just made his "Brief Encounter" perfect gentleman of a doctor, while he here is hard on the bottle from the beginning to end, although John Mills after twenty years only has to carry him home from the pub twice a week.Martha Scott finally is perfect as Olivia, beautiful, charming and mysterious, giving from the beginning quite a good impression of herself as a beauty of mysteries that could be dangerous not only for your peace of mind.

Amy Smith Martha Scott was an actress that has been acknowledged consistently as a "Good Actress", yet never achieved the Superstar status that she truly deserved- not for celebrity, but for sheer acting skill alone. She is excellent here as a narcissistic, maneuvering woman who lacks the depth to appreciate the man she has pledged herself to in marriage. When she seeks to cheat the Law of sowing what you reap, you see the machinations of a woman desperate to evade the loneliness that she herself has unwittingly planned.....John Mills, the unsung hero here, is wonderful as the pragmatic, yet compassionate man who would redirect himself if need be to follow this true heart. Trevor Howard is once again first-rate, entirely believable in the role of a beleaguered doctor....Well-written,and inspirationally cast, this film is a keeper!

tombancroft2 A web search for Hectic House Records will bring up their website. They are based in Macclesfield and on their site is some excellent detail about the film with some stills included. You can order the VHS tape on line or they give addresses of stockists if you live in the UK and are within striking distance of Maclesfield. It's worth asking if they have it on DVD yet - I wouldn't be surprised if they have. Because they are based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, they have a good reason for keeping the film alive as all the exterior footage was shot in the area and it provides an excellent historical record of how the town looked in the 1940's. Try www.macc.me.uk to find them.

mrpentax One man's quest to change the environment of the slum he grew up in, against all odds. Unthinkably, the woman he used to love becomes an almost insurmountable obstacle. A great film with plenty of great characters carefully and skillfully intertwined to tell a powerful story. Not so predictable you'll be bored, and great settings in spite of being shot in B&W. Try it. You'll like it.