disgusting, overrated, pointless

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

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.

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.

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.

"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.