7/10
Teenager in love.
31 August 2020
The subject might remind you of the more known "terms of trial" in which Sarah Miles fell in love with her teacher Laurence Olivier married to Simone Signoret .

But its screenplay is drastically different :here the teacher (Leo Genn) is not a failure ,he's a teacher with a good reputation , highly regarded by everyone , married to an extremely attracting woman (Gene Tierney!).Besides he gives free private tuition to a deserving student.

It's an intimate drama , with a very good depiction of an English town , with all the gossips and all the mischievous young teenagers -"in the classroom he (and she) has only eyes for her (him)" -eager to see a life distroyed by scandal; the black and white cinematography of the promenades by the river , of its turbulent waters is almost gloomy ;the teacher and his wife live in a comfortable house ,they have a servant :in direct contrast with this quiet easy life ,we have the young student's family : they are working-class , the parents live with an aunt , a spineful spinster ,who can't stand people falling in love , mainly her own niece : she spits out her venom on the teacher's wife .

Glynis Jones is excellent as the teenager with still the child in her eyes :when she mysteriously disappears,after a secret meeting with her teacher , one loses himself in conjectures about her fate: did she jump into the water or was she pushed?
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