Hugh Mills Movies

Rene Clement's Monsieur Ripois was released in English-speaking countries as The Knave of Hearts and Lovers, Happy Lovers. Relying heavily on voiceover narration and subjective camerawork, the film has Gerard Phillipe in the title role. Believing himself to be love with his wife's best friend (Natasha Parry), Ripois pours out his heart to her by recounting his past amours. Though he has known many women, he has never truly loved any of them. This has proved more troublesome for Ripois than for the ladies in his life, but somehow he never learns his lesson--not even during the film's final scene. British actresses Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood are well cast as Ripois' wife and former girlfriend, respectively, while Germaine Montero has an effective cameo as a warm-hearted prostitute. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Naked Heart was also released as Maria Chapdelaine, which also happened to be the title of its source, a novel by Louis Hemon. Adapter-director Marc Allegret has fashioned the material into a vehicle for one of his most successful discoveries, Michele Morgan. This is the story of a young woman whose romantic fantasies begin spilling over into actuality. The film's novelty value is its setting: a remote village in Northern Canada. Filmed simultaneously in French and English-language versions, The Naked Heart was produced independently on a tiny budget; while the seams begin to show towards the end, for the most part the film works. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Blanche Fury combined two elements that were surefire moneymakers in postwar Britain: a brooding, Gothic-novel storyline and the dazzlingly handsome Stewart Granger. Heroine Blanche Fury (Valerie Hobson) is an impoverished governess who marries into wealth and sets herself up as the mistress of a vast estate. Enter Heathcliffe-like stable boy Philip Thorn (Granger), who intends to run the estate and eventually claim Blanche as his own. After a torrid, bodice-ripping romance between Blanche and Philip, the story segues into a no-names-please reenactment of the infamous 19th-century "Rush Murder." To "explain" the motives of the characters, the screenwriters deviate from the original Joseph Shearing novel by imposing all sorts of 20th-century "psychological disturbances" upon hero and heroine, with an abruptness and lack of logic that takes the viewer's breath away. Up until the end, however, Blanche Fury is a prime example of high-budget postwar British melodrama. Oddly, despite its $1.5 million price tag, con brio performances and superb Technicolor cinematography, Blanche Fury was a box-office disappointment, bringing an end to the "Gothic cycle" that had begun so promisingly with 1943's The Man in Grey. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A golddigger finds that romance doesn't always equal finance in this comedy. Crystal Wetherby (Jean Harlow) is an American widow left stranded in London with a stack of debts incurred by her late husband and barely a shilling to her name. Raymond Dabney (Robert Taylor) is the black sheep of a formerly wealthy family who has just been released from prison for fraud and is looking for work. Crystal hires Raymond to watch over her home so that her creditors won't repossess her belongings; Raymond soon learns that Crystal is being courted by his brother Claude (Reginald Owen), much to Raymond's amusement, since both Crystal and Claude are motivated less by love than the mistaken belief that the other has money. However, Crystal and Raymond become increasingly fond of each other, even though they know they're both flat broke. The supporting cast features two of Old Hollywood's favorite U.K. expatriates, E.E. Clive and Una O'Connor. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The Man in the Mirror is Edward Everett Horton, making one of his periodic professional visits to England. Horton plays Jeremy Dilke, a meek, mild-mannered businessman who allows everyone to use him for a doormat. While looking into his mirror, Dilke is confronted by his brusque, assertive alter ego, who declares "I am the man you have always longed to be." Armed with his newfound confidence, Dilke becomes a go-getting dynamo -- much to the delight of heroine Helen (Genevieve Tobin), who knew he had it in him all along. Moon-faced Alastair Sim plays a wonderful cameo as a foreign interpreter. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi