Fanny by Gaslight | |
---|---|
Directed by | Anthony Asquith |
Written by | Doreen Montgomery additional dialogue Aimée Stuart |
Produced by | Edward Black |
Starring | Phyllis Calvert James Mason Wilfrid Lawson Stewart Granger |
Cinematography | Jack E. Cox |
Edited by | R. E. Dearing |
Music by | Cedric Mallabey |
Production company | |
Release dates | May 1944 (UK) 1946 (France) 1948 (USA) |
Running time | 107 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £90,000[1] |
Box office | $17,285 (US rentals)[2] over ₤300,000 (UK)[3] 786,581 admissions (France)[4] |
Fanny by Gaslight (US title – Man of Evil) is a 1944 British drama film, produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a novel by Michael Sadleir (also adapted as a 1981 mini-series).
It was the second of its famous period-set "Gainsborough melodramas", following The Man in Grey (1943). Its US release was delayed for its breaking the Hays Purity Code, and 17 minutes were removed for this release.
Stewart Granger later said he "didn't like" the film because of its "drippy characters" but thought "Asquith was much the best of those directors I worked with at Gainsborough."[5]
Fanny (Phyllis Calvert) finishes at boarding school in 1880 and returns to London, where she witnesses Lord Manderstoke (James Mason) fight and kill her supposed father. She soon learns that her family has run a brothel next door to her home and (on her mother's death) that he was not her real father. She goes to meet her real father – a respected politician – and falls in love with Harry Somerford (Stewart Granger), his advisor. Manderstoke continues to thwart her happiness.
The film was based on a novel published in 1940.[6][7]
Phyllis Calvert and Anthony Asquith were attached to the project by October 1942.[8]
The film's release in the US was delayed over three years due to American censor concerns over scenes set in a brothel.[9]
It was the second most popular film in Britain during 1944, after This Happy Breed.[10] However, it performed very badly at the box office in the US.[2]
The film deals with themes of illegitimacy, social class, blackmail, and duelling.[11][12][13]