Set around the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in the border area of Wales the wild woman Hazel (Jennifer Jones) becomes the object of obsession between weedy parson Cyril (Edward Marston) and the cad of a squire Reddin (David Farrar). There are a host of supporting characters including extras from the actual town to give it a more authentic air.

This one jumped out at me from the program as it was not one, I had heard of from Powell and Pressburger and it is currently not available on its own except for the release of Wild Heart as a second disc that costs $200 on eBay. David O. Selznick attempted to sue the directors and ended up getting rights in the North American market to release his own version. From the discussion after the movie, it seems Jennifer Jones did not like him interfering on set and would throw things at him. She also used to run around in the field playing with the fox barefoot.

You can learn more from a failure than a success it seems and while this does not rise to the highs of the Red Shoes, Black Narcissus or the Tales of Hoffman it is very “of its time” and there were surprised laughter and delight throughout from the lines of the many supporting characters and locations.

A lot of the characters are very stiff-shirted which contrasts greatly with the character of Hazel. In particular the farm servant who is proud of his 66 years of male virginity as he doesn’t want a woman to tell him what to do. “Didn’t get my tartlet!” was one of my favourite lines as was Hazel’s cousin talking about margarine and telling her she looked “Jam” in the new dress.

There are a lot of histrionics and you can pretty much tell what is going to happen by the end of the film when Chekov’s abandoned mineshaft is introduced. Honestly both of the male leads are so entirely useless I would have jumped down the mineshaft myself! It is too easy to introduce a feminist reading onto something that never actually had it being made all by men but go for your life with this one!

Well worth your time seeing this one if you can find a copy online, remember to get the original version rather than Wild Heart as they said in the discussion afterwards it is not really as good. David O. Selznick seems really annoying; I would have jumped into the sea to get away from him and thrown this at him too like Jennifer Jones did.

Movie details:

Director: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell

Producer: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, David O. Selznick

Screenwriter: Mary Webb, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Key Cast: Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack, Sybil Thorndike

Length: 107 mins

Country: UK

Language: English

Genre: Drama, Romance, Period