drednm
Sprawling costume drama casts Margaret Lockwood as a gypsy girl Jassy who has second sight. She gets a job as maid in the household of a once-great family who have lost everything due to father's (Dennis Price) gambling. But she falls in love with the son (Dermot Walsh) whose ambition it is to regain the family estate from the cruel master (Basil Sydney).Later, Jassy gets a job at the school for girls where she befriends the daughter of the cruel master (Patricia Roc) and poses as her friend when the girl is expelled from the school. She moves into the estate where she is made housekeeper. But the cruel master has his eye on her.In another storyline, a brutish blacksmith beats his wife and daughter (Esma Cannon) causing the daughter to lose her voice via a throat injury. She eventually gets a job as maid in the estate where Jassy has gone to live. The "loony" as she is called, becomes the devoted slave to Jassy.After a riding accident, the cruel master is saved by the loony. He is returned to his estate where Jassy takes full control. But after his death Jassy and the loony are accused of murder.Lockwood is terrific as Jassy, the gypsy girl who is kinder and truer than all the grand people around her. Cannon turns is a superb performance as the pitiful loony. Dennis Price, Patricia Roc, Dermot Walsh, and Basil Sydney are also very good. Co-stars include Linden Travers, Ernest Thesiger, Cathleen Nesbitt, Susan Shaw, Hugh Pryse, Jean Cadell, Beatrice Varley, Torin Thatcher, and Nora Swinburne.
malcolmgsw
In 1947 the Labour Government imposed an ad valorem tax on the receipts of American film distributors to stop the flow of sterling out of the country.The Americans boycotted Britain and the government asked Rank to fill the void and he in turn Tasked Sydney Box to churn out dozens of films to show in his cinemas.unfortunately when the films were ready to show the government reached agreement with the Americans who then flooded the market with their films and British films were swamped out of the cinemas.So it is little surprise that this film was the last of the line.It seems to borrow all the best bits from its predecessors eg horse whipping,dissolute behaviour gypsy warnings and second sight.The problem is that there are too many bad bits in between.Curious that Dennis Price is top billed but blows his brains out after 20 minutes.marvellous to look at but overlong and at times dull.
writers_reign
As a cameraman Bernard Knowles worked on some decent British films from the Silent Era through to Talkies but may have been misguided in taking on the role of Director and with only a handful of features to his credit, mostly unsatisfying - Easy Money for example - he saw out his career behind the camera on television series. Jassy came at the tail-end of the Gainsborough years and was the first time the outfit had utilised Technicolor. It's a bit of a dog's breakfast all round, never really convincing in ANY genre it flirts with. Basil Sydney, stepping into a role that James Mason could have phoned in, gave no indication that within the year he would be turning in a fine Claudius opposite Olivier's Hamlet, Margaret Lockwood DOES phone in her titular role and Patricia Roc and Dermot Walsh make no real attempt to offer anything other than cardboard cutouts. It was apparently savaged by the critics but popular with the masses at the time; well, they HAD just been through a major war.
jimsimpson
The last film in the popular Gainsborough Studios costume cycle is certainly beautiful to look at with sumptuous Technicolor and the company's biggest ever budget for lavish period sets.Dramatically the direction is rather lifeless with bitty editing and short Tv style scenes.The second half of the film is much better with an authorititive performance from star Margaret Lockwood and a nasty villain in Basil Sydney. Patricia Roc has a less sympathetic role than usual as the wilful, amoral Dilys but the film really misses the star power of Stewart Granger and James Mason who,several years earlier, would have played the roles take by Sydney and Dermot Walsh.A happy ending is substituted for the tragic one in the original novel..
AD
