A good movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, did it really deserve to be on the prestigious list? Probably not but I understand why it is still highly regarded. Apparently, it was a huge hit when it was released in the UK and the 4 main actors all became stars thanks to this movie. The fact that I saw it on YouTube without subtitles probably didn’t help but, in my opinion, the story was too convoluted. However, what I really enjoyed were the characters. Indeed, Hester, Clarissa and Lord Rohan were all fairly complex, more complex than the characters that you usually get in such vintage dramas. It was also intriguing that, in spite the title and in spite the fact that James Mason was displayed prominently on all the promotional material, he wasn’t the main character after all. It’s interesting that even though Mason was, in my opinion, so charismatic and spellbinding in this movie, he actually despised his performance. In fact, this movie was above all about these 2 women who were much more complex than you might expect. Clarissa was much more than a nice naïve spoiled rich woman and  Hesther was also much more than a cold ambitious social climber. Indeed, Hesther was pretty clear from the start that Clarissa shouldn’t become her friend and Clarissa knew from the start what it would mean to get married with Lord Rohan so none of these characters were really clueless or flawless but they were all quite intriguing to behold. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

P.S.: I forgot to mention that this Toby character with some blackface make-up was just awful and really did add nothing to the whole thing so why did they take a white boy without this make-up to play this character?

7/10