The Reluctant Widow (film)
Encyclopedia
The Reluctant Widow is a 1950 British drama film
directed by Bernard Knowles
and starring Jean Kent
, Guy Rolfe
, Paul Dupuis
and Lana Morris
. It is based on the novel The Reluctant Widow
by Georgette Heyer
, with the screenplay written by Gordon Wellesley
and others. A French
governess
marries a British aristocrat
, and inherits his country house when he dies. The ongoing Napoleonic Wars
see her become embroiled with a spy ring.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Bernard Knowles
Bernard Knowles
Bernard Knowles was an English film director, producer, cinematographer and screenwriter. Born in Manchester, Knowles worked with Alfred Hitchcock on numerous occasions before the director emigrated to Hollywood...
and starring Jean Kent
Jean Kent
Jean Kent is a British film actress who appeared in a number of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s.-Biography:Jean Kent was born in Brixton, London as Joan Mildred Summerfield. She started her theatrical career as a dancer in 1931. Initially, she used the stage name of Jean Carr when she...
, Guy Rolfe
Guy Rolfe
Guy Rolfe was an English actor born in London.He made his screen debut in 1937 with an uncredited appearance in Knight Without Armour. Notable roles include: Prince John in Ivanhoe , Ned Seymour in Young Bess , Caiaphas in King of Kings , and Prince Grigory in Taras Bulba...
, Paul Dupuis
Paul Dupuis
Paul Dupuis was a French Canadian film actor who was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and performed in British films during the late 1940s. The roles he played were mainly as the romantic leading man...
and Lana Morris
Lana Morris
Lana Morris, born Averil Maureen Anita Morris was a British film, stage and television actress during the 1950s and 1960s....
. It is based on the novel The Reluctant Widow
The Reluctant Widow
The Reluctant Widow is a Regency romance novel by Georgette Heyer which describes the story of the heroine Elinor Rochdale who has her life turned upside down when she enters the wrong carriage on her way to be a governess to sustain herself. The story is set in early 1813...
by Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer was a British historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer...
, with the screenplay written by Gordon Wellesley
Gordon Wellesley
Gordon Wellesley was an Australian-born screenwriter and writer. Born in Sydney, New South Wales in 1894 he wrote over thirty screenplays and television scripts in Britain often collaborating with the director Carol Reed. He was married to the scriptwriter Katherine Strueby...
and others. A French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
governess
Governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
marries a British aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
, and inherits his country house when he dies. The ongoing Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
see her become embroiled with a spy ring.
Cast
- Jean KentJean KentJean Kent is a British film actress who appeared in a number of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s.-Biography:Jean Kent was born in Brixton, London as Joan Mildred Summerfield. She started her theatrical career as a dancer in 1931. Initially, she used the stage name of Jean Carr when she...
as Helena - Guy RolfeGuy RolfeGuy Rolfe was an English actor born in London.He made his screen debut in 1937 with an uncredited appearance in Knight Without Armour. Notable roles include: Prince John in Ivanhoe , Ned Seymour in Young Bess , Caiaphas in King of Kings , and Prince Grigory in Taras Bulba...
as Lord Carlyon - Paul DupuisPaul DupuisPaul Dupuis was a French Canadian film actor who was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and performed in British films during the late 1940s. The roles he played were mainly as the romantic leading man...
as Lord Nivelle - Lana MorrisLana MorrisLana Morris, born Averil Maureen Anita Morris was a British film, stage and television actress during the 1950s and 1960s....
as Becky - Kathleen ByronKathleen ByronKathleen Byron was a British actress of stage, screen and television.-Early life:Byron was born Kathleen Elizabeth Fell in West Ham – now in the London Borough of Newham...
as Mme. Annette de Chevreaux - Scott ForbesScott ForbesConrad Scott-Forbes , popularly known as Scott Forbes, was a movie and television actor and screenwriter. In his later career as a screenwriter, he was credited as C. Scott Forbes.-Early years:...
as Francois Cheviot - Anthony Tancred as Nicky
- Peter HammondPeter Hammond (actor)Peter Hammond Hill was an English actor and television director.He made his film début in Waterloo Road in 1945 and went onto carve a career playing handsome boy next door types throughout the late forties and early fifties most notably as Peter Hawtrey in The Huggetts Trilogy - Here Come the...
as Eustace Cheviot - Jean CadellJean CadellJean Cadell was a Scottish character actress.Born in Edinburgh, she performed in the cinema and on the stage. One of her best known cinema roles was in the Ealing Studios comedy Whisky Galore! . She once performed opposite W.C. Fields in Hollywood, cast as Mrs...
as Mrs. Barrows - Andrew CruickshankAndrew CruickshankAndrew John Maxton Cruickshank was a Scottish supporting actor, most famous for his portrayal of Dr Cameron in the long-running UK BBC television series, Dr Finlay's Casebook, which ran for 191 episodes from 1962 until 1971.-Life and career:Andrew Cruickshank was born to Andrew and Mary...
as Lord Bedlington - George Thorpe as Colonel Strong
- Ralph TrumanRalph TrumanRalph Truman was an English actor, usually cast as either a villain or an authority figure. He possessed a distinguished speaking voice...
as Scowler - James Carney as Major Forbes
- Allan JeayesAllan JeayesAllan Jeayes was a British stage and movie actor.He starred as Howard Joyce in the original 1927 Broadway production of The Letter and played Sir Lawrence Wargarve in the 1943 London production of And Then There Were None.Jeayes made his film debut in the 1918 Nelson as Sir William Hamilton...
as Colonel - Hector MacGregor as Sir Malcolm Torrens