The Wicked Lady
Encyclopedia
The Wicked Lady is a 1945
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....

 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman
Highwayman
A highwayman was a thief and brigand who preyed on travellers. This type of outlaw, usually, travelled and robbed by horse, as compared to a footpad who traveled and robbed on foot. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads...

 for the excitement. The film has one of the top audiences ever for a film of its period, 18.4 million It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas
Gainsborough melodramas
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures during the 1940s which conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films which had similar themes and frequently recurring actors...

, a sequence of very popular films made during the 1940s.

The story was based on the novel The Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton by Magdalen King-Hall, which in turn, was based upon the (disputed) events surrounding the life of Lady Katherine Ferrers
Lady Katherine Ferrers
Lady Katherine Fanshaw was, according to popular legend, the "Wicked Lady", a highwaywoman who terrorised Nomansland common in the English county of Hertfordshire in the 17th century before bleeding to death from gunshot wounds sustained during a robbery.-Legend:The legend is fairly well...

, the wife of the major landowner in Markyate
Markyate
Markyate is a village and civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire close to the border with Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.-Geography:Having a number of former names, including Markyate Street and Mergyate, it has been a part of all three counties since it was first founded as the county...

 on the main London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 - Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 road.

The film was loosely remade by Michael Winner
Michael Winner
Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :...

 as The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady (1983 film)
The Wicked Lady is a 1983 British drama film directed by Michael Winner. It was screened out of competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. It is a remake of the 1945 film of the same name, which was one of the popular series of Gainsborough melodramas....

in 1983.

Plot

Caroline (Patricia Roc
Patricia Roc
Patricia Roc , born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold, was a British film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as Madonna of the Seven Moons and The Wicked Lady , though she only made one film in Hollywood, Canyon Passage...

) invites her beautiful, green-eyed friend Barbara (Margaret Lockwood) to her upcoming wedding to wealthy landowner and local magistrate Sir Ralph Skelton (Griffith Jones
Griffith Jones (actor)
Griffith Jones was an English film, stage and television actor.Born in London, England, Jones was the son of a Welsh-speaking dairy owner. In 1932, he married Robin Isaac, and they had two children: the actors Gemma Jones and Nicholas Jones...

). A scheming Barbara soon has Sir Ralph totally entranced. Caroline, wishing only his happiness, stands aside, and even allows Barbara to persuade her to be the maid of honour so as to lessen the scandal of the abrupt change of brides. At the wedding reception, Barbara meets a handsome stranger, Kit Locksby (Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...

). It is love at first sight
Love at first sight
Love at first sight is a common trope in Western literature, in which a person, character, or speaker feels romantic attraction for a stranger on the first sight of them...

 for both, but too late.

Married life on a rural estate does not provide the new Lady Skelton the excitement she expected and craves. A visit by her detested sister-in-law, Lady Henrietta Kingsclere (Enid Stamp-Taylor), and her husband (Francis Lister) does not lessen her boredom. Henrietta wins Barbara's jewels, including her most-prized possession, her late mother's ruby brooch, in a game of Ombre
Ombre
Ombre, English corruption of the Spanish word Hombre, arising from the muting of the H in Spanish, is a fast-moving seventeenth-century trick-taking card game with an illustrious history which began in Spain around the end of the 16th Century as a four person game...

. A chance remark about the notorious highwayman Captain Jerry Jackson gives Barbara an idea. Masquerading as Jackson, Barbara holds up Henrietta's coach and takes her brooch (as well as the rest of Henrietta's jewellery).

Intoxicated by the experience, she keeps on waylaying coaches, until one night, she and the real Captain Jackson (James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...

) target the same one. After they relieve the passengers of their valuables and ride away, Jackson is amused to find his competitor is a beautiful woman. They become lovers and partners in crime.

Barbara learns of a valuable gold shipment from a former tenant farmer of Skelton's, Ned Cotterill (Emrys Jones
Emrys Jones (actor)
Emrys Jones was an English actor.Making his film debut in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's One of Our Aircraft Is Missing , he developed a career in the British cinema of the 1940s...

), who is employed as one of the guards. Jackson is against the idea of stealing the gold, as the coach will have double the usual protection, but Barbara talks him into it. However, the robbery does not go smoothly. When Cotterill pursues them, Barbara aims for his horse, but ends up killing Cotterill. However, her conscience is not disturbed for long.

Hogarth (Felix Aylmer
Felix Aylmer
Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television.-Early life and career:...

), an aged family servant, finds out about Barbara's double life. However, his religious fervour to save her and her convincing lies about repenting keep him from revealing what he knows. Barbara tries to silence him with poison and, when that is not quick enough, smothers him.

She then goes to visit Jackson after the prolonged absence caused by Hogarth, but finds him in bed with another woman. Infuriated, she anonymously betrays him to her husband. Jackson is captured and sentenced to be hanged. In London, Barbara goes to view the execution with Caroline, terrified that he will name her as his accomplice. However, he only mentions her indirectly before his hanging. When a riot breaks out afterward, the two ladies are rescued by none other than Kit, who turns out to be engaged to Caroline.

Later, at the Skelton estate, Jackson breaks into Barbara's bedroom and rapes her. Barbara begs Kit to take her away to start a new life. He is sorely tempted, but when Skelton talks him out of it, she decides that drastic measures are needed. She awaits her husband's coach with a loaded pistol. Jackson shows up (his hanging having been botched). When he learns what she intends, it is too much even for him. He rides off to warn Skelton, but Barbara shoots and kills him. When she tries to do the same with her husband, Kit shoots her first.

Mortally wounded, she flees back to her home, where Caroline finds her and ascertains the truth. Caroline sends Kit in alone to see the dying woman. At first, Barbara lies about how she was shot; however she cannot continue the deceit with her one true love. She confesses all and pleads with Kit to stay with her until the end, but he is too repulsed by the magnitude of her crimes. He leaves her to die alone.

Cast

  • Margaret Lockwood as Barbara Worth
  • James Mason
    James Mason
    James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...

     as Captain Jerry Jackson
  • Patricia Roc
    Patricia Roc
    Patricia Roc , born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold, was a British film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as Madonna of the Seven Moons and The Wicked Lady , though she only made one film in Hollywood, Canyon Passage...

     as Caroline
  • Griffith Jones
    Griffith Jones (actor)
    Griffith Jones was an English film, stage and television actor.Born in London, England, Jones was the son of a Welsh-speaking dairy owner. In 1932, he married Robin Isaac, and they had two children: the actors Gemma Jones and Nicholas Jones...

     as Sir Ralph Skelton
  • Michael Rennie
    Michael Rennie
    Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...

     as Kit Locksby
  • Felix Aylmer
    Felix Aylmer
    Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television.-Early life and career:...

     as Hogarth
  • Enid Stamp Taylor
    Enid Stamp Taylor
    Enid Stamp Taylor was a British actress.Taylor first became known when she won a beauty pageant at a young age and this led parts in musical comedies on stage, including The Cabaret Girl , in which she was billed as simply "Enid Taylor"...

     as Lady Henrietta Kingsclere
  • Francis Lister
    Francis Lister
    Francis Lister was a British film actor. He was married to the actress Nora Swinburne.-Selected filmography:* Comin' Thro the Rye * Boden's Boy * At the Villa Rose * Uneasy Virtue...

     as Lord Kingsclere
  • Beatrice Varley
    Beatrice Varley
    Beatrice Varley was a British actress who appeared in a variety of television and film roles between 1936 and 1964...

     as Aunt Moll
  • Amy Dalby
    Amy Dalby
    Amy Mary Dalby was a British actress.-Selected filmography:* On the Night of the Fire * Quiet Wedding * The Night Has Eyes * The Gentle Sex...

     as Aunt Doll
  • Martita Hunt
    Martita Hunt
    Martita Hunt was an English theatre and film actress.-Early life:Hunt was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 30 January 1900 to British parents Alfred and Marta Hunt...

     as Cousin Agatha
  • David Horne
    David Horne (actor)
    -Biography:British actor and playwright David Horne began his film career in the 1930s, after a distinguished early career in the theatre. He was generally seen portraying pompous, self-satisfied characters...

     as Martin Worth
  • Emrys Jones
    Emrys Jones (actor)
    Emrys Jones was an English actor.Making his film debut in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's One of Our Aircraft Is Missing , he developed a career in the British cinema of the 1940s...

     as Ned Cotterill
  • Helen Goss
    Helen Goss
    -Selected filmography:* Important People * The Reverse Be My Lot * Fanny by Gaslight * A Place of One's Own * They Were Sisters * The Wicked Lady * Pink String and Sealing Wax...

     as Mistress Betsy
  • Muriel Aked
    Muriel Aked
    Muriel Aked was a British film actress. She was a student at Liverpool Repertory Theatre for six months but left to do war work. She made her screen debut in 1920 in A Sister to Assist 'Er...

     as Mrs. Munce

Production

The film was made at Gainsborough Studios in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Due to problems with American censors, extensive re-shooting was required before the film was released in the United States (according to Robert Osborne
Robert Osborne
Robert Jolin Osborne is an American actor and film historian best known as the primary host for Turner Classic Movies, and previously a host of The Movie Channel.-Life and career:...

 of Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...

). The problems were that the women's blouses (appropriate for the era portrayed) were very low-cut and showed too much cleavage
Cleavage (breasts)
Cleavage, anatomically known as the intramammary cleft, is the space between a woman's breasts lying over the sternum. Cleavage is exposed by a garment with a low neckline, such as ball gowns, evening gowns, swimwear, casual tops and other garments....

 for the USA motion picture production code
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...

. It was a problem Jane Russell
Jane Russell
Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s....

 had in The Outlaw
The Outlaw
The Outlaw is a 1943 American Western film, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jane Russell. The supporting cast includes Jack Buetel, Thomas Mitchell, and Walter Huston. Hughes also produced the film, while Howard Hawks served as an uncredited co-director...

(1943). TCM sometimes airs the original, uncensored version on its USA basic cable network.

External links

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