JASSY

UK, 1947, 102 minutes, Colour.
Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc, Dennis Price, Basil Sydney, Dermot Walsh, Nora Swinburne, Linden Travers, Ernest Thesiger, Cathleen Nesbitt?, John Laurie, Clive Morton.
Directed by Bernard Knowles.

Jassy is one of the many colourful Gainsborough period melodramas from the mid and late '40s. Stars like Margaret Lockwood and Patricia Roc appeared in many of these films - like The Man in Grey, Fanny By Gaslight, Madonna of the Seven Moons, Blanche Fury.

This is a star vehicle for Margaret Lockwood. She portrays the daughter of a gypsy who eventually rises to be the owner of the country estate. There is a good supporting cast including a foppish Dennis Price and a villainous Basil Sydney.

The 19th century provided many of these stories of high living, romance, violence and intrigue.

1. Enjoyable period melodrama? The British film industry of the '40s? Popularity of melodramas?

2. Re-creation of period, costumes and decor, atmosphere, colour? Musical score?

3. The situation: the gentry, their gambling, whims, losses - even of property? Loss of dignity? Landlords and peasants, uprisings, exploitation? The world of finishing schools? The world of romantic novels?

4. Jassy as the woman of two worlds? Her mother the gypsy and her departure, her father the upright man who loved her? Her visions? Premonitions of death? Her rescue by Barney? Going to work, in the house, her skills? Being transferred after the death of her father? The finishing school, friendship with Dilys? Her return with Dilys? The relationship between Barney and Dilys? Nick and the household, imposing her will, organising the house, marrying him with the bargain about the property? Her care for him? His death? Her premonition? Her kindness towards Lindy? The trial, her dignity, motivation? Lindy's confession? Heroine? Reconciliation with Barney?

5. Barney as the stolid hero, his family in the mansion, work, experience? His caring for Jassy? His love for Dilys? His father's loss of the house? Moving out with his mother, betrayal? The servants? His love for Dilys? Her marrying into the wealthy family? The trial, reconciliation with Jassy? The return to the house?

6. Nick, the drinking, his gambling and winning, slovenly, his wife and her lover and his ousting her, his disregard of his daughter, the servants, carrying on with the maid? Jassy's arrival with Dilys? Chess, organising the household, his proposal, her condition? His accident, illness, his being saved from death? Lindy and the murder? Type, against the peasants, the uprising and the shooting of Woodruff?

7. Dilys, her mother, the mother and the lover and her being ousted? Dilys and her wealth, going to school, being jilted, the return, friendship with Jassy? Playing with Barney, the engagement to Steven, turning on Jassy?

8. The finishing school, the teachers and their conduct, the soldier and the elopement?

9. Lindy, at home, the beatings she got, mute? Her devotion to Jassy? Her fear for her, watching, administering the poison in the brandy? Her talking at the trial, collapsing and dying?

10. The world of the peasants, exploitation, the uprising?

11. The popularity of this kind of melodrama? Traditional values? Class systems? Melodramatic intrigue?