The Passionate Stranger

The Passionate Stranger
UK 1-sheet poster
Directed by	Muriel Box
Produced by	Peter Rogers Gerald Thomas
Written by	Muriel Box Sydney Box
Starring	Margaret Leighton Ralph Richardson
Music by	Humphrey Searle
Cinematography	Otto Heller
Distributed by	British Lion Films
Release dates	26 February 1957 (UK) 27 August 1957 (U.S.)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	₤140,000[1]

The Passionate Stranger (U.S. A Novel Affair) is a 1957 British drama film, directed by Muriel Box and starring Margaret Leighton and Ralph Richardson. It uses the film within a film device, with the "real" part of the plot shot in black-and-white and the "fictional" element in colour. The interior scenes were shot at Shepperton Studios, with location filming taking place at Chilworth, Surrey.

Box stated that the film was intended "to debunk the sentimental novel...a mild satire on romance as opposed to reality, and the unhappy consequences of confusing the two".^[2] New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther understood the intention, but described the premise as "thin and even tedious" and felt that the lengthy central fantasy sequence "is so ponderous, and it so completely outweighs the little black-and-white whimsy that surrounds it, that it drags down the whole idea." He did however concede that "thanks to adroit performances by Miss Leighton and Sir Ralph...this little bit of nonsense from Muriel and Sydney Box is not quite as flimsy and pretentious as it may at first sound."^[3]

Plot

Judith Wynter (Leighton) is a novelist who pens torrid escapist romantic fiction for the popular women's market, although in real life she is a respectable, unassuming woman, happily married to husband Roger (Richardson). She uses people she knows and situations she encounters as the raw material for her fictional flights of fancy. As Roger recuperates from an illness which leaves him temporarily immobile, she pens the rough draft of her latest novel, a lurid tale of a bored and unsatisifed woman with a pompous disabled husband she despises, who embarks on a wild affair with her chauffeur and finds herself expecting his child. The husband dismisses the chauffeur, who vows revenge, and matters escalate melodramatically towards a deadly conclusion.

The Wynters' new chauffeur Carlo (Carlo Giustini) stumbles on the manuscript, reads it, and jumps to the conclusion that it is wish fulfilment on Judith's part. Assuming that she harbours a repressed passion for him, he begins trying to signal to her that he knows and understands. To Judith's bewilderment and horror, he starts to attempt to recreate situations and conversations from the novel. Feeling extremely uncomfortable, she brushes off his attentions and he becomes confused and angry. Meanwhile Roger, fully aware of the situation, revels in the amusement of his wife's excruciating embarrassment and Carlo's absurdly misinformed assumptions.

Cast

Additional critical reception

Allmovie described the film as "something of a comic precursor to The French Lieutenant's Woman";^[4] while Sky Movies noted, "Ralph Richardson delivers more than the script can reasonably expect." ^[5]

References

External links

• The Passionate Stranger at the Internet Movie Database
• The Passionate Stranger at the British Film Institute's Film and TV Database
• The Passionate Stranger at AllMovie