Personal Affair (1953) User Reviews

Talky but still good

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 15 August 2010]

"Personal Affair" is from Rank Films and stars Leo Genn, Gene Tierney, and Glynis Johns. Johns was nearly 30 when she played Barbara Vining, a student in love with her teacher, Stephen Barlow (Genn). Stephen has Barbara come to his home for tutoring; while she's there, Barlow's wife Kay confronts Barbara about her feelings. Embarrassed and upset, Barbara runs from the house. A distressed Stephen calls her at home and arranges to meet her in an out of the way area. When Barbara doesn't come home, suspicion falls on Stephen.

This is a really neat and suspenseful film, thanks to its good cast, writing, and direction. The audience (this audience anyway) isn't really sure what went on between teacher and student, if anything, so it keeps you guessing as to what happened, and the gossip condemns Barlow.

Pamela Brown is terrific as Barbara's bitter aunt who seems to get a lot of pleasure out of the suffering of others; Walter Fitzgerald and Megs Jenkin are wonderful as Barbara's agonized parents. Johns is very sweet and comes off as very young and innocent. Leo Genn is always good. Tierney has probably the most interesting role as a beautiful, somewhat snobby woman who nevertheless is insecure. She does it very well.

Well worth seeing.

Interesting British thriller

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 14 August 2010]

You can't really call it a noir because it's not like the characters here are unsympathetic, nor can you call it a crime drama because it's not clear until the end whether or not any crime has even taken place.

The film revolves around Stephen Barlow (Leo Genn), who teaches Latin to teen-aged girls at the nearby school. 17 year old Barbara Vining (Glynis Johns) is a student in the school with a major league crush on the rather bland Barlow who appears as a cultured and even rather mysterious man of the world in her young eyes. Barlow's wife, Kay (Gene Tierney), is for some reason jealous of the girl and suspicious of the entire relationship. One night, when Barbara is at their home studying Latin with Stephen, Kay waits until she and Barbara are alone and confronts the girl about her feelings for Stephen. Barbara flees from the house understandably humiliated about the subject of their conversation. Stephen, angry with his wife for embarrassing Barbara, runs out after the girl to try to put things right.

That would be the end of it except that Barbara Vining does not return home that night nor the next day, and her parents contact the police and initiate a search. Tongues in the small town begin to wag about the fact that this 30-something schoolmaster was walking about in the middle of the night with his teen-aged student. Barbara's father is a newspaper reporter and, having seen murderers who are quite calm after the passion of the crime is over throughout his career, does not have his fears allayed by seeing Stephen's composed and civilized demeanor. Even Stephen's own wife has her doubts when she catches Stephen in a lie relating to that night's events. Add to all of this that some male obscene caller keeps phoning the Barlow home - did he kill or abduct the girl himself and is he tormenting this very public suspect?.

Plus, one of the creepiest persons ever committed to celluloid is Barbara's own aunt. Now about 40, she is morbidly consumed with a love affair that ended disastrously for her some twenty years before and seems almost elated that history might have repeated itself for her niece. Neither Rebecca's Mrs. Danvers nor Uncle Fester have anything on Aunt Vi Vining in the way of weirdness.

This movie is more about character development than action, but it is by no means boring and should keep you engaged if not on the edge of your seat throughout. One strange thing about the casting - Gene Tierney is playing a woman about her own age at the time - 33. However, Glynis Johns is playing a teen aged girl when she was less than three years younger than Ms. Tierney. However, both carry out their roles quite convincingly.

Beating Hearts, Wagging Tongues

[rpvanderlinden · 8/10 · 14 August 2010]

"Personal Affair" is a crisply written, beautifully photographed, thoughtfully directed thriller about a teenage girl (Glynis Johns) who disappears, one night, from a small town and the schoolteacher (Leo Genn) who is suspected of being implicated in her disappearance. People do notice things and people in the town have noticed that there was something between them. They don't know what, he's an outsider, anyway, so they figure he's guilty. The film is a study of how feverish imagination becomes gossip, and gossip becomes the truth, how suspicion breeds fear and undermines love and trust, how crazy you can become from the whispers and half-truths swirling around you and you don't have a rock to hold onto.

The schoolteacher has a beautiful American wife (Gene Tierney) who loves him deeply but becomes detached from that rock when certain suspicions she has regarding her husband and the girl turn out to have weight. He's innocent of any criminal culpability, but he hasn't quite told the truth, which has something to do with love. The film talks a lot about this tricky emotion. At various points in the film each of the main characters - the teacher, his wife, the girl, her parents, her aunt - bring up the subject of love, and their own experiences with it. It is the aunt who has been damaged by love who harbours all kinds of toxic feelings and spreads the most lies and chaos.

The stage play and screenplay, I note, were both written by one Lesley Storm. The film has been nicely opened up, runs a tight 88 minutes and is very cinematic. Do note that beautiful metaphor at the end of the film - turbulent waters and still waters. Really a lovely little film.

It gives you a lot to ponder.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 27 September 2010]

Leo Genn plays a teacher at a British school. He does not realize that one of his students (Glynnis Johns) is infatuated with him, though his wife (Gene Tierney) quickly picks up on this. When the wife confronts the student about this, the teen leaves in tears--and isn't heard from for some time! Considering that the teacher followed her and talked with her, he was the last to see her and the assumptions are that she either killed herself or he killed her. Regardless, people in the town begin to assume he was responsible. I won't say what happens next, as this would spoil the film, though IMDb DOES give away the girl's whereabouts on the main page for the film! Oops.

This movie gives the viewer quite a bit to consider. First, the male teacher clearly was irresponsible being alone with a student--particularly a female one. As a retired teacher, I knew NEVER to put myself in such a situation for exactly the reasons you see in the film. I would venture that at least subconsciously the teacher was flattered by the crush--which is pretty disturbing since it resulted in his not taking reasonable precautions. Second, the wife clearly read the script, as when she meets the teen, she IMMEDIATELY knows he has a crush on the teacher--but how did her character know this?! This is an apparent weakness in the script and she is clearly the weakest written character in the movie. Third, it's a nice portrait of what happens when hysteria and the court of public opinion run amok--snowballing to insane conclusions. Fourth, it leaves you wondering why they picked a 30 year-old woman (Johns) to play a 17 year-old! Oops.

You'll notice that a couple things I mentioned above are problems with the film. Well, despite these minor concerns the rest of the film is pretty good--and thought-provoking...and well worth seeing.

What we do is secret

[JohnSeal · 7/10 · 3 September 2009]

This next to unknown feature from Two Cities Films is an intelligent, mature, and well-made feature about secrets, sex, and gossip. Leo Genn delivers a finely nuanced performance as Stephen Barlow, a schoolteacher who has a budding relationship with student Barbara (Glynis Johns). Stephen also has an American wife (Gene Tierney) who is both jealous and suspicious, and she quickly discerns that he is taking a special interest in the teenager. When Barbara disappears after meeting with him late one night, jaws start flapping, the police begin an investigation, and the girl's father (Walter Fitzgerald) suspects foul play. Beautifully shot by Reginald Wyer, Personal Affair also benefits from superb supporting performances from Megs Jenkins and Pamela Brown as Barbara's mother and aunt.

suspenseful well acted intelligent

[filmalamosa · 7/10 · 24 November 2012]

A school teacher (Genn) is implicated in the disappearance of one of his female students (Johns). This student who has a crush on the teacher is humiliated when the teacher's wife (Tierney) accuses her of the truth.

The girl flees the house teacher follows and girl disappears. We are left in suspense as to what actually happened to her as we see the small town net close in around the teacher.

More of a filmed play than a movie this film is intelligently directed and well acted and holds your suspense very well up to the denouement.

As other reviewers have stated the only casting flaw is the girl (Johns) who is too old for the role.

Nice suspenseful well acted watch.

RECOMMEND

An affair to remember

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 16 April 2020]

Really liked the idea for the story and it is the sort of film that appeals to me. While there were reservations of seeing 'Mary Poppins' Glynnis Johns as a teenager, which has been one of criticisms directed against it, and seeing mixed reviews here and from trusted users, just seeing the stunning Gene Tierney (star of 'Laura' and 'The Ghost of Mrs Muir') was reason enough to see 'Personal Affair'. As well as seeing Leo Genn as a lead. The potential was definitely there.

This potential was not fully realised in my view (which is in a way frustrating), but it is a long way from squandered either, the latter of which would have annoyed me much more as that is a peeve of mine. Could 'Personal Affair' have been a better film? Yes, it definitely could have been with a tightening up and more subtlety. Is it worth watching? Yes it is, and no it is not just for Tierney though she certainly is one of the reasons as to why 'Personal Affair' is worth the viewing.

'Personal Affair's' script can be too talky and could have done with a bit more succinct trimming or tightening up. The story can get over-heated in places.

Do agree that Johns is far too mature for her role and it is not easy at all to overlook.

However, Tierney is radiant and sincere, would have liked more development to her character but she plays her very well and didn't feel out of place to me. Genn is smooth and doesn't overplay or look disengaged, he does just fine as a leading man and actually had no problem at all with his chemistry with Tierney. My favourite performance comes from Pamela Brown, sinking her teeth into a fun and formidable part.

It is directed with thought and control, and the film is pretty gorgeously shot. The script does have thought-provoking and intriguing moments and the story is crisply paced enough and doesn't feel stagy, treating the viewer with respect.

Overall, pretty good if not great. 7/10

A very personal affair

[clanciai · 10/10 · 1 October 2018]

It's all about love, the deadliest thing in the world, constantly causing suicides and billions of fatal heartbreaks. Here is another slant on this timeless eternal predicament - the most impossible thinkable love affair on only one side by a student of her teacher, and he doesn't even know it. Her crush leads to typically womanish oversensitive caprices, which in their turn cause avalanches of complications, totally unintended, of course, - but the most precarious thing about love is that it is always irresponsible when it is true. The victims simply can't be held responsible for their feelings or their consequences. Pamela Brown plays the opposite case - she has killed her feelings, she sees everything perfectly coldly, like a scientist dissecting or using live animals in a laboratory, she thinks she knows and controls everything and sees everything clearly, but she knows nothing, because she feels nothing. Having killed her love, she is dead, and if she steps in to meddle in a love case, she can only cause further damage.

It's a drama of extremely high tension, almost like one of the most unendurable thrillers by Hitchcock, and it is marvellously filmed at that, with William Alwyn's tremendous music, the innovative cinematography making the dramatic cascades play an important part as an ominous accompaniment to the high tension drama. Glynis Johns as a seventeen year old girl is just that and couldn't be one year older - this must be one of her best performances, although they are so many. And Gene Tierney is more beautiful than ever as the ideal wife - of Leo Genn, always a marvel of a safe character on screen, especially memorable as the doctor in "The Snakepit". This is truly a gem of highest psychological and human calibre, and it's perfectly natural if you want to cry your eyes out.

Teenager in love.

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 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?

Mild British mystery

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 23 January 2020]

PERSONAL AFFAIR is a mild mystery drama very much made in the British mould. I was expecting a little more from it given the usual quality of 1950s fare but this one takes a sedate approach to the mild contentious material. Gene Tierney is rather out of place in her role and appears to have been included in the story to bring some much-needed Hollywood glamour to the proceedings. Leo Genn is better as the schoolteacher with a dark side, but the presence of an overaged Glynis Johns as the schoolgirl was a little too problematic for me - she looks in her 40s rather than 17. The film does keep you watching just to find out what happened, even if it turns out to be not particularly interesting.

Interesting exploration of gossip

[johnggriff · 10/10 · 14 August 2009]

Taunt tight suspenseful drama, I don't want to to say to much about the plot. Gene Tierney is very good in this very talkie film. Tierney is expressive and restrained and gives a great performance. Despite a few flaws in the script the film held my attention. Leo Genn was also very good as the besieged teacher, nice to see him in as a leading man. Glynis Johns seems a little too mature for the part of a teenage girl, overlooking that a nice performance. Pamela Brown is wonderful as the bitter Aunt. The direction seemed very controlled. Overall an interesting film about gossip and the damage it can do to peoples lives. The performances from the two stars to supporting cast make this Film, Tierney and Genn stands out. The strong production value of the film is grade A. Beautifully filmed in England.

Highly recommended but the jury is still out...

[j_paul_murdock · 6/10 · 31 July 2021]

Glynis Johns plays Barbara, a 17-year-old schoolgirl who has a crush on her popular Latin teacher, played by Leo Genn. When he gives Barbara extra tuition at his home, his wife, played by Gene Tierney, confronts Barbara about her crush. (Is the wife, a lonely, friendless, insecure American woman, jealous of the girl?) Confused, Barbara rushes home. When the teacher finds out what has happened, he phones Barbara and agrees to meet her to explain in all innocence. This proves to be the last time Barbara is seen alive as she goes missing.

This causes everyone to look at themselves in a kind of An Inspector Calls way. The teacher, at first shunned, is forced by the Head Master to resign. His wife gets more neurotic, especially when a strange man starts to make threatening calls. Barbara's parents are in despair, especially her mother, played by Megs Jenkins. They aren't helped by Barbara's strange, frustrated, chain smoking and accusatory maiden Aunt, played by Pamela Brown who is the spitting image of Anna Massey!

In the end, after 3 days of rumour mongering and dredging the river, Barbara returns almost like a ghost, having fled to an old school friend in London to sort her mind out. The teacher, having been brought in for questioning, is released, but his wife, now thinking the worst, doesn't answer the phone to be told about her husband's release as she thinks it's the hoax caller. Instead, she runs to the church and then to the bridge. About to throw herself over the edge, she is saved by her husband's arrival. They laugh and embrace, and everything is right with the world. The End... My trouble with the film is mainly the dialogue, which is so stilted, and even almost Shakespearean in places, as to be unnatural. The only natural performance comes from Megs Jenkins as the mother, who slowly loses control of things on a mix of worry and prescription sleeping pills.

The other thing is that everybody is so old for their parts, especially the two main men - Leo Genn as the teacher and Walter Fitzgerald as the father. Genn is dashing and kind, but isn't young enough for any 17-year-old to have a crush on. Fitzgerald doesn't seem of this world and is the most Shakespearean of them all. The conversation between the teacher and the father doesn't make sense, with the father turning on a sixpence, and believing and understanding the teacher on grounds that would lead anyone else to hate the teacher even more.

The worst, though, is Glynis Johns as Barbara who was touching 30 when she played this 17-year-old. The comparison with the teacher's wife at the beginning works as Glynis Johns is good enough an actress to carry it off. The problem comes at the end when the father has a heart-to-heart talk with his wayward daughter. Most 17-year-olds wouldn't have the foggiest idea what he is on about. As if Barbara has gone through some rapidly ageing Epiphany, she is forced to accept what her father says like a 30-year-old!

What at times could have been a good film, even a Brit noir, seems to lose its way. The effect which gave us the montage of everyone that represents their inner thoughts could have been repeated at the end as a recap while the teacher's wife feels 'trapped' by the shadows round the church's west door. The film never loses its 'tweeness' and insight into Britain in the 1950s. This is emphasised by Thora Hird's performance as the teacher's housekeeper...

Dull Lackluster Drama

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 13 September 2012]

This film suffers from so many basic defects that it is difficult to understand how it was ever made.The casting is a major problem.Leo Genn and Gene Tierney have no chemistry and fail to make one believe that they are married or ever cared for each other.Glynis Johns is nearer 30 than the 17 years of the character and consequently looks far too old to be a teenager.There are so many unresolved issues left hanging in the air.Mainly whether or not Genn was in love with Johns and whether they had any sort of affair.The fact that this question is never fully addressed is a major flaw which undermines the whole script.As is often the case with British films of the fifties a fading American star is brought in to play a leading role in the hope that this will secure an American distributor.

Wish I'd known about this film before!

[MtnShelby · 8/10 · 27 November 2014]

I'm a huge Gene Tierney fan, but apparently not enough of one, because I only discovered this film while browsing through Amazon. Wish I'd known about it years ago. The quality is good, the pace is fast, the acting solid, the themes surprisingly brazen for the times (or so it seems to me). There's a touch of melodrama, mystery, even film noire. The Aunt Evelyn character is almost as wicked as dear old Mrs Danvers. If you're debating about watching this film, don't. It's worth the time, especially for a fan of classic black and white films. Thanks to the viewers who took the time to rate this film! otherwise I would never have discovered it.

The Damage of idle gossip

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 12 August 2015]

After watching Personal Affair my major question is who over at Two Cities Films had the brilliant idea of casting 30 year old Glynis Johns as a love struck teenager? The horrible miscasting ruined what could be a decent film about the damage of idle gossip.

The best speaking voice in the English language Leo Genn plays a school teacher in rural England who teenage Glynis has conceived a passionate crush on. When Genn rolls out those Latin phrases who wouldn't be enthralled, the only voice better is that of Ronald Colman.

But Genn's already married to Gene Tierney and that's beauty enough for anyone. Still after a meeting with Genn where he rejects her advances, Johns disappears and the police start investigating after her father Walter Fitzgerald reports her missing. After that the questions, speculation, and gossip start.

Another problem is something another reviewer pointed out, Tierney and Genn have no real chemistry together. This was another case of American star imported to the United Kingdom to give some American box office draw to one of their films. Who really gives a fine performance is Pamela Brown, Glynis's maiden aunt who is one warped frustrated old maid. Seems like Brown is a modern day Miss Favesham who was jilted and takes it out on whatever humanity happens to be around.

Some better casting and Personal Affair would rate a notch or two higher.

Consequences of a School Girl Crush

[kidboots · 8/10 · 14 March 2013]

Impressionable Barbara Vining (Glynnis Johns) has a crush on her Latin teacher, Stephen Barlow (Leo Genn) but only his wife, Kay (Gene Tierney) seems to realise it. When Barbara comes over for extra tuition Kay questions her about her feelings and the girl flees the house. I kept thinking that an actress like Celia Johnson, Phyllis Calvert or Margaret Leighton would have been better suited for the role, in keeping with a more reserved British feeling. Tierney did quite well but she seemed too glamorous for Genn and it just didn't ring true that she felt he would have returned gauche Barbara's feelings. Also she seemed to know from her first meeting with Barbara that there was something between them and even though, as the movie progressed, Stephen did confess to having feelings about Barbara, it wasn't at all obvious initially. Tierney was overshadowed by other, more powerful, performances and towering over them all is Pamela Brown's neurotic Aunt Evelyn. She is Barbara's spinster aunt who has been nursing a broken love affair for 20 years and now hopes, in her own twisted way, that Barbara will follow in her footsteps.

When Barbara fails to return home, Stephen confesses that he met with her to convince her the crush was pointless and he saw her safely onto the bus but she doesn't go home and within a few days rumour and accusations are flying around the village, Barlow has been let go by the school and the lake is soon to be dragged. Until now Aunt Evelyn has seemed like the rock of the Vining family - cool, calm and collected when mother (terrific Megs Jenkins) becomes such a wreck she is being kept in her room and the father, who works on a local paper doesn't know where to turn or what to believe. She sees Barbara as the village lovelorn heroine and is probably half hoping that she is found drowned in the lake. She forces the father to take notice when a couple of babbling schoolgirls come to impart all the gossip they have heard and at the end visits Kay and lets all her pent up neurosis fly when she tells what she thinks (in her own mind) really happened to Stephen and Barbara.

The end is tied up a little too neatly - Barbara returns after fleeing to London for a few days to sort herself out. Stephen and Kay embrace on the little bridge - but he had been sacked, how are they both simply going to pick up the pieces and start again after this - especially in a small village where the gossip was too easily believed. Everything seemed fixed up within a few minutes. Even Aunt Evelyn is given her marching orders - to which she responds "I'll go now, I have lots of friends" but would she? Would a person like her have any life outside the family?

There have been a few comments about Glynnis Johns ability at 30 to portray a teenage girl but I thought the very versatile Miss Johns did tremendously well. With her little girl voice and very youthful looks, I don't think she would have found it at all hard.

Highly Recommended.

Good beginning, but the 'thriller' fizzles out

[HotToastyRag · 3/10 · 30 August 2021]

When this film started, I thought it was going to be another version of Laurence Olivier's Term of Trial. After all, it circled around a British teacher relatively happily married to a non-English woman, whose underaged student has fallen in love with him. She gets extra time with him by coming to his house for "tutoring". But that's where the similarities stop. Personal Affair turns into a cheap, boring thriller that doesn't hold your attention.

Glynis Johns plays the teenager, and Leo Genn is the object of her affection. He makes a great argument with his jealous wife, Gene Tierney, that it's practically necessary for his students to develop crushes on him. It shows they're growing up and picking a healthy ideal for their romantic fantasy. They're not fantasizing about the resident bad boy, and they're not fooling around with boys their own age. Instead, they drool over their teacher, who hasn't the slightest inkling of taking advantage of them. Even after his sensible point is made, Gene is extremely jealous. She confronts Glynis and makes her feel ashamed of her crush; then, Glynis flees the house and disappears. Her parents and the police are frantic with worry - but there is one person who saw her after her disappearance.

The plot twists really aren't very interesting, and Gene Tierney's melodramatic performance leaves much to be desired. I liked Leo Genn's even-keeled persona, like a watered-down Robert Newton, but it just wasn't a good movie. For a much better take on the student-teacher plot device, watch Term of Trial.

Village People

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 19 April 2021]

A quietly flashy (the image even turns to negative at one point) cross between 'Le Corbeau' and 'Term of Trial' adapted from her own play 'A Day's Mischief' by Lesley Storm that once more lifts the lid on the passions simmering not far below the surface of conservative fifties Britain.

Obligatory American star Gene Tierney melds unobtrusively with a cast of largely female Brits ranging from bitter, chainsmoking maiden aunt Pamela Brown to an unbilled Nanette Newman as a gossiping teenager; the best performance as usual coming from Megs Jenkins as Glynis Johns' careworn mother.

Hot for teacher. Teenage angst.

[michaelRokeefe · 8/10 · 14 April 2015]

An age old, but timeless state of affairs. This drama directed by Anthony Pelissier expounds the evil of gossip. A teenage schoolgirl Barbara Vining(Glynis Johns)develops a passionate affection for one of her professors. Stephen Barlow(Leo Genn)is a suave, middle aged man happily devoted to his charming wife Kay(Gene Tierney). Barlow is flattered, but has no real concern for the young girl other than being his pupil. But on the other hand, the professor does nothing to discourage the smitten young lady. He mentions what may be happening to his wife, who comes unraveled when Barbara disappears. Harsh gossip rears its ugly head as the community is all but certain the lass is victim of foul play; and her professor is responsible of trying to cover up a tawdry affair...that didn't even happen.

Well written dialogues, with characters you can find apathy and sympathy for. The screenplay belongs to Lesley Storm. Other players include: Pamala Brown, Walter Fitzgerald, Megs Jenkins and Michael Hordern.

Taut script, believable issues confronted

[moakie-97102 · 8/10 · 11 August 2020]

Watched this on demand. Gene Tierney is even more stunning than in "Laura" 8 years earlier. Leo Genn holds his own as the teacher who undergoes suspicion when his student vanishes, Ms. Tierney's husband. Also watch him in "Ten Little Indians." Nicely executed melodrama with suspense and genuinely rendered emotions as parents face the loss of a child and the teacher and wife teeter on the brink of martial destruction.