Like CLUNY BROWN/’46; DUEL IN THE SUN/’46 and MADAME BOVARY/’49; Jennifer Jones once again must choose between a butter-and-egg man or someone more attractive and dangerous. This time in the splendid wilds of Shropshire, under the artsy sway of Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, writing/producing/directing as The Archers, and the saturated TechniColor gaze of lenser Christopher Challis/Freddie Francis camera operator. No surprise to find a slightly ‘off’ quality in the storytelling, The Archers cultivated handmade artisan qualities, especially in design & arrhythmic editing. Jones, wild as the countryside, is living with her coffin-making Dad and pet fox, when she catches the eye of ravish-ready squire David Farrar and his opposite number, consummation-delaying Parson Cyril Cusack. Naive and knowing, Jones marries one, falls for the other, repents too late.* Powell has trouble getting this one off the ground, it’s awkward as Jones’ fleeting passions, and the large cast are almost too characterful. But once the pieces are laid out, the film yields a strange, heady atmosphere all its own. Much helped by Brian Easdale’s fine score. (Stateside, Jones’ producer/husband David O. Selznick, in a destructive re-edit, added some unneeded clarifying signs & close-ups, and lopped off half an hour, releasing it as THE WILD HEART in 1952. Watch the final reel of each on the convenient KINO DVD to compare.*) One of those films that require sympathetic viewing, but worth the effort.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Perhaps this story might have worked better as a romantic ballet. With RED SHOES star Moira Shearer as lead?
DOUBLE-BILL: *Imagine this cast & crew magically imported to get David Lean’s problematic RYAN’S DAUGHTER/’70 right.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Damned if Selznick didn’t try the same trick on his next Euro-project for Jones, re-editing Vittorio De Sica’s flawed, but flavorsome STAZIONE TERMINI down half an hour into the disastrous INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE/’53.
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