Blanche Fury (1948)

Like his contemporary James Mason who came up roughly the same time as he did, Stewart Granger seemed to be born to play in these romance novel roles. In Blanche Fury he's got a nasty grudge against the Fury family who have kept him working as a groom on their estate. He's one of them, but born on the wrong side of the blanket as they said in those days. There's a dual focus in this film and it's on Valerie Hobson playing the title role as well. She's also knocked about a bit kind of like George Eastman in An American Tragedy, she's one of them, but only distantly. Still she's on the right side of the blanket and she determines to marry Michael Gough the heir to the estate for a life of ease and comfort.Granger like the real life James Scott the Duke of Monmouth searched for a connection to his father King Charles II to prove he was heir to the throne. Didn't happen for him and didn't happen for Granger But what does happen is that he gets Hobson's mojo going far more than the insipid and privileged Gough does.These are the ingredients of Blanche Fury and if you like these movies and read these novels you can pretty much guess what happens. Hobson and Granger are a stirring romantic pair, but Granger in his desire to improve his station goes quite a bit off kilter. Hobson has a choice to make and she makes it.As for who gets the Fury estate. For that you have to see Blanche Fury.

It seems clear that someone with clout had the good sense to import Marc Allegret to direct this over-heated Gothic wet dream and thus invest it with a touch of class. Allegret - elder brother of Yves, also a fine director and the first husband of Simone Signoret - enjoyed a long and illustrious career punctuated by titles such as Fanny (the second of the great Pagnol trilogy Marius-Fanny-Cesar), Entree des artistes, Gribouille, etc and his touch is evident in the stunning camera-work especially the early scene-setting. The leads Valerie Hobson and Stewart Granger acquit themselves well enough despite a lack of chemistry but on the other hand Hobson continually strived toward the genteel and didn't do sensual whilst Granger more or less plays himself, an arrogant, vain narcissist. No doubt it has its admirers.

Blanche (Valerie Hobson) gets invited to Clare mansion by her uncle Simon (Walter Fitzgerald) to be governess to his grand-daughter Lavinia (Suzanne Gibbs). His son, Laurence (Michael Gough), stands to inherit the estate and sees Blanche as his future wife. The surname that they take is "Fury", after generations of descendants with that name, and Blanche is told to adopt the new surname. However, Simon is not a true "Fury". The only person with a claim to being a true "Fury" is Philip Thorn (Stewart Granger) who is the illegitimate son of Adam Fury. Simon keeps Philip employed as a servant and both he and Blanche are warned not to socialize by Simon. The story sees Philip trying to prove his rightful inheritance while Blanche is pushed into a marriage with Laurence.....however, destiny intervenes for Philip and Blanche....Its a good story thats well-acted by all. The version that I watched was slightly too dark in that I couldn't really make out what was happening in the night scenes. However, the colour, costume and settings add to the atmosphere - you may guess the ending but it doesn't take any of the enjoyment away from the story.It was a better film than I thought it would be.

I first discovered this little gem on tv a few years ago and loved it , i taped it and for some unknown reason kept watching it over and over it has a kind of hypnotic pull to i mean you have to really get into, i guess its not for everybody but it has been held in some regard up until recently,martin scorseses mentioned this as one of his guilty pleasures in film comment years ago and popular film presenter and critic from australia bill collins said while presenting another film that this would have to be one of the best british films from the forties.I totally agree it has a great gothic feel and the decor is marvelous as is the estate it was filmed on it has good solid performances and stewart granger is espescially good.Take note of the gypsy elements because at the time these points were crowd pullers other granger films to watch out for with similarities - "moonfleet","caravan","saraband for dead lovers","madonna of the seven moons"