GONE TO EARTH (THE WILD HEART)

UK, 1948, 110 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack, Esmond Knight, Sybil Thorndike, Edward Chapman, George Cole, Hugh Griffith, Beatrice Varley.
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

Gone To Earth is a colourful 19th century melodrama. It was written and produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. They adapted the screenplay from a novel by Mary Webb. The settings, issues and treatment are reminiscent of the work of Thomas Hardy. Powell and Pressburger had collaborated on many films during the '40s, many of them classics including The 49th. Parallel, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus).

The film was co-produced by Alexander Korda's London Films and David O. Selznick for his wife Jennifer Jones. She is supported by a strong English cast including Cyril Cusack, Hugh Griffith and Sybil Thorndike.

The film is set in the English counties at the end of the 19th. century, the transition to the modern era. Jennifer Jones portrays a gypsy living as a daughter of nature, superstitious rather than Christian. She is seduced by the local squire, is married by the local parson. One wants her body, the other her soul. She is torn-between the two. This is all symbolised by the fox-hunt and Hazel's devotion to a fox - to protect from the baying hounds and falls to her death.

The colour photography and locations is quite striking - surrealistic often rather than a realistic re-creation of the times. The film was not a success on first release and was shortened and re-released as The Wild Heart.

1. An interesting and entertaining film? A 19th. century melodrama?

2. The colour photography and the experiments with colour, the location photography, English counties in the 1890s? Manners, parsonages, the streets and the markets, the wild fields and the moors, the hunts? The presentation of nature - the mountains, rock outcrops, the sky? Thunder and lightning and clouds? An environment for Hazel's story?

3. The title and the call of the fox disappearing from the hounds? The opening with the hunt? Hazel and the fox? The fox as symbol? The well and the danger? Hazel protecting her fox and their both being pursued by the hounds, her falling down the well to her death? The final cry of 'Cone to earth'?

4. The atmosphere of the late 19th. century? Growing technology, changes in manners and style? The primitive families of the moors? The gypsies? The link with nature? Being controlled by nature, superstition and religion? The contrast between English civilisation and primitive Britain? How well explored were these themes?

5. Jennifer Jones as Hazel Woodus: as a gypsy girl, in harmony with nature, her father and his fiddling, his looking after the dead? The foxes? Her life out in the country? The visits to the city and her friendship with her cousin Albert, her aunt Prowde? Her attracting the eye of the squire, his pursuing her, taking her home, making her promises, the dresses? Her going back home? Her being protected by Andrew Vessons? Her father's reaction? The possibility of marriage? Her oath that she would marry the first person who asked her? The encounter with the parson, his proposals, her marrying? The encounter with Jack Reddin and his pressure on her, especially at the carnival? The marriage, the celebrations, Jack Reddin's pressure? The parson's reserve with her on the marriage night? Her going off with Jack Reddin, being installed in his manor? The criticism of Andrew? The parson's visit to her, her return home? The hostility of the people wanting her out? The parson’s mother and her disapproval and leaving the house? Hazel's grief, bewilderment? Choices and freedom? The fox escaping, her chasing it, being caught up with the hounds and her death? A melodramatic tragedy?

6. Edward Marston as the gentle parson, his arrival in the village, his hopes? His mother looking after the household? His attraction towards Hazel. his paying court to her, her response? The decision to marry? His realisation of her promise? His reaction on the wedding night, letting her be? Letting her go to Jack Reddin? Visiting the manor to get her back? His winning her back again? The hostility of his mother and his firm stance? His grief at her death?

7. The contrast with Jack Reddin - the squire, the hounds, the manor, Andrew Vessons serving him? His wanting to install Hazel and giving her the dresses? Her escape? The symbolism used of the dark rider - a satanic figure and his looming in her dreams and imagination? Imagination and reality? His pursuing Hazel at the fair, his pressure on her and her feeling that she must go with him, her leaving Edward, her being installed in the house, her growing to dislike and hate Jack? Her decision to leave? His riding to hounds and present at her death?

8. Mrs. Marston, her tolerance on Hazel, the preparations for the marriage, Hazel's leaving and return - and her refusal to live under the same roof? The townspeople sharing her view? Intolerance?

9. Andrew Vessons and his serving the squire, dislike of him, helping Hazel, resigning?

10. The characters in the village from Albert and his liking for Hazel, Aunt Prowde. and her warnings? Mr. James and his leading the group disapproving Hazel?

11. The lifestyle in the town: religious, business, recreation? The celebrations - and Hazel's father and his fiddling at the celebrations?

12. An interesting melodrama? A portrait of a child of nature? The symbolism of Hazel and the fox? Good and evil? Body and soul? The film as a colourful, melodramatic fable?