Michael O'Keefe An age old, but timeless state of affairs. This drama directed by Anthony Pelissier expounds the evil of gossip. A teenage schoolgirl Barbara Vining(Glynis Johns)develops a passionate affection for one of her professors. Stephen Barlow(Leo Genn)is a suave, middle aged man happily devoted to his charming wife Kay(Gene Tierney). Barlow is flattered, but has no real concern for the young girl other than being his pupil. But on the other hand, the professor does nothing to discourage the smitten young lady. He mentions what may be happening to his wife, who comes unraveled when Barbara disappears. Harsh gossip rears its ugly head as the community is all but certain the lass is victim of foul play; and her professor is responsible of trying to cover up a tawdry affair...that didn't even happen.Well written dialogues, with characters you can find apathy and sympathy for. The screenplay belongs to Lesley Storm. Other players include: Pamala Brown, Walter Fitzgerald, Megs Jenkins and Michael Hordern.

kidboots Impressionable Barbara Vining (Glynnis Johns) has a crush on her Latin teacher, Stephen Barlow (Leo Genn) but only his wife, Kay (Gene Tierney) seems to realise it. When Barbara comes over for extra tuition Kay questions her about her feelings and the girl flees the house. I kept thinking that an actress like Celia Johnson, Phyllis Calvert or Margaret Leighton would have been better suited for the role, in keeping with a more reserved British feeling. Tierney did quite well but she seemed too glamorous for Genn and it just didn't ring true that she felt he would have returned gauche Barbara's feelings. Also she seemed to know from her first meeting with Barbara that there was something between them and even though, as the movie progressed, Stephen did confess to having feelings about Barbara, it wasn't at all obvious initially. Tierney was overshadowed by other, more powerful, performances and towering over them all is Pamela Brown's neurotic Aunt Evelyn. She is Barbara's spinster aunt who has been nursing a broken love affair for 20 years and now hopes, in her own twisted way, that Barbara will follow in her footsteps.When Barbara fails to return home, Stephen confesses that he met with her to convince her the crush was pointless and he saw her safely onto the bus but she doesn't go home and within a few days rumour and accusations are flying around the village, Barlow has been let go by the school and the lake is soon to be dragged. Until now Aunt Evelyn has seemed like the rock of the Vining family - cool, calm and collected when mother (terrific Megs Jenkins) becomes such a wreck she is being kept in her room and the father, who works on a local paper doesn't know where to turn or what to believe. She sees Barbara as the village lovelorn heroine and is probably half hoping that she is found drowned in the lake. She forces the father to take notice when a couple of babbling schoolgirls come to impart all the gossip they have heard and at the end visits Kay and lets all her pent up neurosis fly when she tells what she thinks (in her own mind) really happened to Stephen and Barbara.The end is tied up a little too neatly - Barbara returns after fleeing to London for a few days to sort herself out. Stephen and Kay embrace on the little bridge - but he had been sacked, how are they both simply going to pick up the pieces and start again after this - especially in a small village where the gossip was too easily believed. Everything seemed fixed up within a few minutes. Even Aunt Evelyn is given her marching orders - to which she responds "I'll go now, I have lots of friends" but would she? Would a person like her have any life outside the family?There have been a few comments about Glynnis Johns ability at 30 to portray a teenage girl but I thought the very versatile Miss Johns did tremendously well. With her little girl voice and very youthful looks, I don't think she would have found it at all hard.Highly Recommended.

MartinHafer Leo Genn plays a teacher at a British school. He does not realize that one of his students (Glynnis Johns) is infatuated with him, though his wife (Gene Tierney) quickly picks up on this. When the wife confronts the student about this, the teen leaves in tears--and isn't heard from for some time! Considering that the teacher followed her and talked with her, he was the last to see her and the assumptions are that she either killed herself or he killed her. Regardless, people in the town begin to assume he was responsible. I won't say what happens next, as this would spoil the film, though IMDb DOES give away the girl's whereabouts on the main page for the film! Oops.This movie gives the viewer quite a bit to consider. First, the male teacher clearly was irresponsible being alone with a student--particularly a female one. As a retired teacher, I knew NEVER to put myself in such a situation for exactly the reasons you see in the film. I would venture that at least subconsciously the teacher was flattered by the crush--which is pretty disturbing since it resulted in his not taking reasonable precautions. Second, the wife clearly read the script, as when she meets the teen, she IMMEDIATELY knows he has a crush on the teacher--but how did her character know this?! This is an apparent weakness in the script and she is clearly the weakest written character in the movie. Third, it's a nice portrait of what happens when hysteria and the court of public opinion run amok--snowballing to insane conclusions. Fourth, it leaves you wondering why they picked a 30 year-old woman (Johns) to play a 17 year-old! Oops.You'll notice that a couple things I mentioned above are problems with the film. Well, despite these minor concerns the rest of the film is pretty good--and thought-provoking...and well worth seeing.

rpvanderlinden "Personal Affair" is a crisply written, beautifully photographed, thoughtfully directed thriller about a teenage girl (Glynis Johns) who disappears, one night, from a small town and the schoolteacher (Leo Genn) who is suspected of being implicated in her disappearance. People do notice things and people in the town have noticed that there was something between them. They don't know what, he's an outsider, anyway, so they figure he's guilty. The film is a study of how feverish imagination becomes gossip, and gossip becomes the truth, how suspicion breeds fear and undermines love and trust, how crazy you can become from the whispers and half-truths swirling around you and you don't have a rock to hold onto.The schoolteacher has a beautiful American wife (Gene Tierney) who loves him deeply but becomes detached from that rock when certain suspicions she has regarding her husband and the girl turn out to have weight. He's innocent of any criminal culpability, but he hasn't quite told the truth, which has something to do with love. The film talks a lot about this tricky emotion. At various points in the film each of the main characters - the teacher, his wife, the girl, her parents, her aunt - bring up the subject of love, and their own experiences with it. It is the aunt who has been damaged by love who harbours all kinds of toxic feelings and spreads the most lies and chaos.The stage play and screenplay, I note, were both written by one Lesley Storm. The film has been nicely opened up, runs a tight 88 minutes and is very cinematic. Do note that beautiful metaphor at the end of the film - turbulent waters and still waters. Really a lovely little film.