Alicia I love this movie so much

Steineded How sad is this?

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

mark.waltz That seems to be the motive of the troubled heroine played here by Sally Gray, the illegitimate daughter of Catherine Lacey and Stanley Holloway who is desired for adoption for three monsterous great aunts and kept with her natural parents when they decide to marry. Told by her mother as a young girl that she has the potential to become a much desired stage star, she does just that, becoming a popular young ballerina and the object of much affection. Brought up to act like a great lady, she's also strong willed, selfish and uppity, the hallmark of many a classic soap opera diva, but happiness is not to be hers. An ill-fated romance with the dashing but struggling artist Michael Wilding leads her into an extremely unhappy marriage with visiting farmer Bernard Miles whose religious fiend of a mother (Nancy Price) badgers him to become insanely possessive and judgmental towards everything that Gray does.There's much left to be assumed about the leading character, seemingly a sweet little girl but oh so haughty when she grows up, filled with resentment to anything lower class and determined to hit the top and erase her past as much as she can. It's a great acting exercise for the gorgeous Sally Gray who is as regal as a young lady can be, but nothing in the script indicates that her long suffering mother raised her to rise above her station. Some of the performances are quite dark (Miles), over the top (Price) or so low key (Wilding) that you barely notice them. Jean Kent is quite good as Gray's best friend, an interloper who infiltrates her way onto a private dinner between Wilding and Gray. The film starts off darkly, lightens up a bit, then goes way off the beam in the last few reels. Still, the photography and musical score are haunting and the other production values first rate, so it's hard to completely find fault with the film as a whole.

clanciai Everything is perfect about this film, although it is a shocker. Naturally you get worried as you get involved in the fates and faulty characters of all these personages, where everyone has a crux of her own, while only Jennie Pearl seems to come clear of everything, and yet it is impossible to foresee how events will turn out, as unexpected things happen all the time, twisting their fates around and taking you unpleasantly for more than one surprise ride.The story is Compton Mackenzie's, who also gave us "Whisky Galore" among other priceless classics, a masterful story-teller and brilliant wit especially for dialogue, which permeates this whole film, while also the director worked on the script with even Peter Ustinov. Just for the dialogue, the film is worth watching at least twice.The actors are all brilliant, from the jovial and incorrigible Stanley Holloway as the father, Catherine Lacey as his self-torturing wife, Sally Gray herself as something between Glenda Jackson and Katharine Hepburn and a marvellous dancer as well, this film is mainly about ballet and art and the problems artists of these crafts are facing, and Michael Wilding is overwhelmingly charming as usual. To this comes the astonishing and towering character that Bernard Miles is creating, who almost takes over the entire film. The grand finale in Cornwall crowns the masterpiece.This was apparently Stanley Haynes' only film, while his main contributions was as a producer.It's very difficult to say what is best about this film, since everything is so perfect, especially the sparkling dialogue and brilliant interplay of the actors, there are many adorable scenes, and the music adds to it, actually composed (like the ballets) exclusively for this film, which therefore could be regarded as something of a foreplay to the emerging of the greatest of all ballet films, "The Red Shoes" two years later.

Alex da Silva Not one cockney in sight but you can't really blame simpleton country farmer Bernard Miles (Trewhella) for his humorous comment referring to Londoners in this way. A lot of northerners even today refer to all Londoners as cockneys and I know this as I'm a Londoner living up north. Anyway, the central casting of Sally Gray as dancer Jenny or Ginny is completely wrong in this film. She is meant to be born into a working class family but has this ghastly air of superiority only found in the most confident of wealthy children. And her accent is pure upper class. This is completely wrong for the film. Also, her name changes in the film – she definitely starts off as a Ginny and by the end of the film and the cast list at the end of the film, she has turned into a Jenny. She was called Ginny! Loads of times! The film suffers as its two main characters – Gray and artist Michael Wilding (Maurice) are totally unappealing and we just don't care what happens to them as they are awful. The two characters who stand out are Stanley Holloway (Charlie) as Gray's dad who portrays a working class dad correctly and with a dash of humour and Bernard Miles as the humble farmer from down South who undergoes a character change and walks away with the film's acting honours. Nancy Price is also memorable as the uber-religious nut-case mother of Miles.The story is one of taking the wrong path when it comes to love and the effect it has when everyone gets it wrong! Holloway and artist Michael Clarke (Fuzz) are the most likable characters and your sympathies are with them. Back to the story, you can see how this will end and I just didn't care. Back to northerners, they also say "tea" when they mean "dinner" and I'm just another blasted cockney from South Kensington!

calvertfan Carnival is a great movie, and a great story, but the wonderful Jean Kent is truly wasted in such a small role. The actress who played Jenny Pearl was harder to warm to than Miss Kent would have been in the same role, and it's a shame their casting wasn't reversed. That said, the role of Irene was quite similar to that of Lucy in "Fanny By Gaslight", though drastically smaller.Jenny Pearl is a beautiful girl born into a poor family. She can't keep away from the stage and performing from a young age and, with friend Irene, becomes a ballet dancer, with no shortage of male suitors. However, she pushes away the one man she truly loves and ends up marrying another, after her mother's death, to provide security for herself and her crippled sister, May. This ultimately ends in tragedy for all involved. 8/10, and I still hold that Jean should have played Jenny!