A Lady Surrenders (1944) Poster

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7/10
wickedly underrated lockwood shines.
alphabettysoup13 October 2001
this lovely and stylish film, shows the highly underrated talents of Ms. Margaret Lockwood. She is the Pianist, with a secret, who falls in love with a man, also hiding a secret. she makes the biggest sacrifice for him, "when you love somebody set them free." the cast is incredibly likeable, and good acting all round
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8/10
Tugs At My Heart Strings
m0rphy18 March 2004
Warning: Spoilers
I'm a sucker for any film which portrays wonderful skill at pianoforte (I even liked dear old Cornel Wilde playing Frederic Chopin!) and better still with the deliciously beautiful, raven haired Margaret Lockwood - I've been a fan of hers ever since she portrayed the Gainsborogh Films, "Wicked Lady (1945)".Add to that her co star in that film, the attractive Patricia Roc and Gainsborough stalwart, Stewart Grainger then add a delightful Cornish location setting with empty roads you can remember as a kid, driving down to that county from London in the mid 1950s; and for me that is a recipe for a great film.

I was not disappointed having bought this rare film (not generally seen today on tv networks) by successfully bidding on "EBay.com".The music played by Harriet Cohen to Hubert Bath's score was a major enjoyable feature.What is it about these beautiful actresses of the 1940s I find so appealing?It certainly is not the way they keep lighting up on screen but my mother told me that during WWII virtually everyone she knew smoked.I suppose your life expectancy could be short when you began to realise any day could be your last before a German bomb landed on you.Considering I was born in 1946, I personally find brunette actresses such as Margaret Lockwood, Jennifer Jones, Hedy Lamarr, Gene Tierney etc. a hundred times more sexy than todays obvious sirens.

As this is rather a rare film, I will provide a plot so readers may judge for themeselves whether to investigate it further.Sorry for the spoiler:

Margaret Lockwood plays Lissa a talented and successful concert pianist based in London.Lissa feels she should apply to the WRAF to help the war effort before her agent is about to arrange another international tour.However Lissa fails her statutory medical and is then alarmed to discover by illicitly reading her confidential medical file that she has only three months to live!As she has spent too much time on her art but not enough enjoying a holiday, she arranges a break for herself in Cornwall (for non-cognoscenti it is a county in the extreme south west of England, famous as an internal holiday resort - remember this is war time).She checks into a hotel and there meets an avuncular guest who is a wealthy retired industrialist who befriends her and agrees to finance the play to be produced there.Whilst there, Patricia Roc (who plays a London professional actress) comes down to Cornwall to stay with the intention of producing the play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream".Also there is Patricia's friend, an ex miner cum archaeologist called Kit, (Stewart Grainger) who is cynical about the world as only these two know his sight is failing and an operation is too risky to contemplate.He practices in secret for the time he will become blind.

Whilst out on the cliffs looking at an old mine shaft Kit meets Lissa and they initially become friends.Kit however keeps reciting the song of the "Miller of Dee" (Musically) "I care for nobody, no not me and nobody cares for me"; meaning he does not want any serious emotional entanglement as he does not think it fair he should inflict a cripple on any future partner.Lissa however finds she is falling in love with him and tries but just cannot keep to the "only fun" agenda.On the music front, Cornwall (the sound of the sea, seagulls crying overhead etc.) inspire her to write "Cornish Rhapsody" for pianoforte.Kit even announces his engagement to Patricia Roc but really they are just platonic friends who grew up together.Realising her romance is apparantly doomed from the outset, Lissa plans a return to London but not before she gives her debut of "Cornish Rhapsody" before the play can start as Patricia first has serious emotional problens to contend with and cannot go onto the improvised exterior stage which has views of the sea and where the audience sits on the rocks and cliffs.

Kit then suddenly appears at the London debut (The Royal Albert Hall) of "Cornish Rhapsody" after he and Patricia both realise they would merely be going through the motions if they married.He discloses to Lissa his infirmity and is comforted by her belief that although the odds are against it, he should have the corrective op.Mercifully it is a success but then Lissa has her own health problem to disclose to Kit.The film ends on a hopeful note.We all want Lissa to live happily with Kit but fate must be tested first.I always think whether the producers of films between 1939-1945 are trying to tell us the viewer an allegorical story of struggle of good against an implacable foe in such cases.

Highly enjoyable for me 8/10.
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7/10
Re-discovering one of Britain's true great beauties.
mark.waltz5 April 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Rivaling fellow dark haired British leading ladies like Vivian Leigh and Merle Oberon, Pakistani born Margaret Lockwood is a treasure. American classic film fans mainly knew her as the heroine in Hitchcock's classic mystery, "The Lady Vanishes", she swept into my top list of favorites with a series of delicious scheming roles in Gainsborough melodramas such as "The Wicked Lady". Alternating between man killers and heart breakers, she is finally coming into her own thanks to the release of a good majority of her films in formats of DVD that we can watch here. Once you see her, you'll never forget her.

In this sleeper, she's a nice girl, a concert pianist who finds that she has a terminal illness. Determined to enjoy life, she fights this dark victory to take a trip that she fears may be one way passage. Along the way, she wins the hearts of many, particularly the handsome Stewart Granger (along with James Mason her mist regular leading man).

Yes, this is a trite, often repeated plot, similar to an American melodrama, "The Other Love", which starred Barbara Stanwyck. Handsome Granger seduces the audience with his trim physique clad only in tight swimming trunks. Excellent supporting cast and a romantic and often humor filled atmosphere makes this a sweet formula women's picture that adds a World War II setting to increase the timeliness of when this was made.

This is just more than romance and tragedy; there's also a bit of social drama too as Granger deals with possible blindness. Patricia Roc and Hugo Walling are both great supporting cast members involved in the individual dramas of these beautiful young people who are facing individual tragedies with their individual forms of dignity. Lockwood proves herself to be more than just a beauty; Even at her coldness, she was absolutely seductive. Whether kitten or black widow spider, she is not somebody whom you can turn your eyes off of.
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Masterpiece of poetry; may be Phillis Calvert was in the cast?
Copelius28 June 1999
The first time I saw "Love Story" it was in London fifty years ago, and till now, when I take this movie into consideration, I unceasingly hear - together with the accurate, majestic and melancholic theme of Hubert Bath "Cornish Rhapsodie" - the sea-mews flying and crying on the cliff! In my opinion, "Love Story" is a masterpiece of poetry: a simple film that was able to speak to the heart of a generation of people concerned in the most terrific war, and who understood the charm of hope and of life.
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7/10
Enjoyable, soapy Gainsborough serving with a not-so-wicked Lockwood and Granger
jem13217 October 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This 1944 Gainsborough melodrama was not a costume production, yet LOVE STORY retains and builds upon many of the trademark Gainsborough elements. The film was made as a sort of morale booster/romantic escapist drama in the midst of World War Two. Looking at it today, it does seem outdated and melodramatic in many ways, yet it is still remarkably poignant in it's theme of "When you love someone, you set them free".

Lockwood and Granger star together in this film, a year on from the smashing success of THE MAN IN GREY. However, Miss Lockwood is no wicked, social-climbing villianess here. Instead she's a charming pianist who learns that she has a heart condition that will soon lead to her death. Determined to make the most of what little time she has, Lockwood's character Lissa Campbell checks into a Cornish hotel. There she meets Kit Firth (Stewart Granger), a former RAF pilot who is also harboring a painful secret. He is going blind. The pair quickly fall in love, yet both cannot bring themselves to tell the other the truth. Granger's childhood friend Judy (Patrica Roc)also begins to cause trouble between the pair, as she's secretly in love with Kit.

The plot is melodramatic, yet it's quite entertaining. The performances are generally good, with Lockwood showing she could play a sympathetic heroine as well as she could play a scheming bitch (THE MAN IN GREY). Granger makes an attractive lead, while Roc gets quite an interesting role. Roc was usually the second lead to either Lockwood or Phyllis Calvert in the Gainsborough dramas, yet her Judy is not the tearful milksop of THE WICKED LADY. She is a strong, independent, caring yet jealous and manipulative friend of Granger, who will do almost anything to covet his affections. Roc gets some nice catty scenes with Lockwood, and she pulls them off well.

While the script descends into slush at times and some of the location work is rather ordinary (not to mention the "faking" of Miss Lockwood's concert scenes), LOVE STORY is generally an entertaining melodrama with quite a few virtues. I prefer my Gainsborough dished up with a dose of Mason and played out in Regency-era England (or Italy, in the case of the delicious MADONNA OF THE SEVEN MOONS), yet LOVE STORY is a worthy entry in the Gainsborough romantic cycle.
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6/10
Better than I expected
t-pitt-129 January 2015
In giving Love Story 6 stars I am very conscious that I am judging it by today's standards rather than the standards of 1944 when the film was released. Soppy and melodramatic it may be, but nevertheless there there is a lot to enjoy and appreciate in it. I was particularly interested in the Cornish setting, with some quite spectacular coastal scenery which is well photographed in black and white. Margaret Lockwood is excellent as dying pianist Lissa, but I'm afraid I found Stewart Granger very hard to swallow. Someone else described him here as wooden and supercilious and I can only agree. The supporting cast are all very good and in the background of the story is WW2, which at the time of the film's release was still in full swing. As a piece of romantic escapism I can imagine it would have been very popular with British audiences who were carrying on with a stiff upper lip and enduring terrible privations and the constant fear of death,,either their own or that of loved ones. The music, Herbert Bath's Cornish Rhapsody, is memorable and very well played. Something of a curiosity, it is well worth a look.
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6/10
Corn in Cornwall
richardchatten17 February 2021
Described by the late David Shipman as 'riotous'. Both Margaret Lockwood and Stewart Granger (who makes no mention of it in his memoirs) suffer nobly in this glossy and garrulous early example of the 'disease' genre that swept the cinema in the seventies after the 'other' 'Love Story'.

One of the few Gainsborough romances in a contemporary setting, it's basically 'Last Holiday' done as a chick flick with concert pianist Lockwood pounding the ivories in as glamorous a wardrobe as wartime clothing restrictions permitted.
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8/10
a pleasant surprise, British reserve holds sentiment at bay
commonwombat23 February 2006
Had heard of this movie, more particularly with concern to its music but my first opportunity to actually watch it was last night when ABC showed it as a early hours of the morning item, which coincided with a does of my insomnia.

One shudders to think that Hollywood may have done with this, as the premises of the skyline would so easily lend to laying on the melodrama and clichéd sentiment with a trowel. Thankfully, British understatement, be it in direction and performance, makes this an effective and tasteful exercise.

The musical motif, the Cornish Rhapsody, is possibly being the most famous legacy of this film. It was one of a number of series of rather similar quasi- piano concertos from British films of that era that found a place in the musical memory. The most noted of these being the Warsaw Concerto. I was interested to read an earlier post stating that it was Harriet Cohen who played the piece, as I did have a thought that it may have been a job for Eileen Joyce.
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5/10
None So Blind, None So Bland
writers_reign3 February 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Travelling by train to Cornwall to shoot location footage Stewart Granger shared a carriage with director Leslie Arliss who asked casually what Granger thought of the script. Unaware that Arliss had a co-writer credit Granger replied succinctly 'crap'. I have little time for Granger as an actor, finding him both smug and wooden but I can't fault his critical faculties, or at least not in this case. Someone involved in the writing had clearly been blown away by One-Way Passage and thought they could do just as well. Boy, did they get a wrong number and it wasn't Cornish Rhapsody. For the record One-Way Passage featured a doomed shipboard romance between two people returning by sea to America, she to die of an incurable disease, he to be executed. The perpetrators of Love Story give us a terminally ill Margaret Lockwood opting to spend her last few months in Cornwall where she meets soon-to-be-blind Stewart Granger neither, of course, revealing the truth to the other. Tom Walls and Patricia Roc are also along for the ride and acquit themselves as well as can be expected under the circumstances. It was probably designed as escapist fodder |(it was produced in 1944) but ironically it is the audience who seek freedom.
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9/10
a very first film
michelboudot13 February 2003
this is the first film i saw more then 50 years ago..it was the first british film shown in montreal after the war in 1945...I would like to see this film again..but it is not showing on t.v.and they dont'have it in the video store..the music I have never forgot..a memorable film ..a great love story ..it made me a fan of stewart granger..margaret lockwood and patricia roc.
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1/10
Dumb British war time romance.
Mozjoukine19 September 2006
The English films of this time - with a few exceptions - are stunningly awful, as this relic reminds us.

Packed with derivations from films that weren't any good in the first place (DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT, BEETHOVEN'S GREATEST LOVE) we get the studio-with-location-insets romance of classical pianist (wouldn't you know) Margaret Lockwood, who is not quite as awful as she would be in her post war efforts, and soon to be blind (he practices walking in mine shafts !) Stewart Granger, which inspires her to go riding in Pony Carts singing traditional numbers then pushed by the radio and composing the Cornish Rhapsody, in which she entombs the sound of sea gulls and breaking waves.

Never convincing and never throwing up appealing fantasies, this twaddle just offers a complacency which disturbs in its historical context. Despite it's attempts at high gloss, it's also remarkably drab.
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8/10
All secrets come out in the end
bkoganbing16 June 2015
I have no doubt that the title of this film was changed due to the popularity of the Ryan O'Neal/Ali McGraw film of a later generation. But Love Story has certainly stood the test of time no matter what you call it.

A couple of the most beautiful women of the British cinema, Margaret Lockwood and Patricia Roc of the World War II era, compete for the affections of Stewart Granger. Granger and Lockwood have some secrets that they are withholding from each other. Granger is an RAF flier on leave because his eyes were injured during a bomb explosion and he is going blind. But an untried and tricky operation might save him. Lockwood had a bout of rheumatic fever which has left her with a weakened heart that won't get any better. She's a famous concert pianist who discovers she's slowly dying when she's examined after trying to enlist in the service for war work.

They meet at a seaside resort where Granger has gone back to his old trade of mining engineer looking for valuable molybdenum deposits for the war effort. In the end everybody's secrets do come out including a couple that Lockwood's rival Patrica Roc has.

Almost as much a character in the film as the players is the seaside area of Cornwall. Miles from any large city where population and war industry made it a target of the Luftwaffe, the seaside of Cornwall has never been more beautifully photographed. You'll not hear a shot or a bomb, the only explosion involved is during a key sequence in an old mine. Granger's keeping his secrets and some think he's a slacker not being in the war, but he proves he has the right stuff.

Love Story really cements Granger's star status in British cinema and at the end of the decade he's in Hollywood. Lockwood and Roc both had some American film credits but never attained the international status Granger did. Love Story on the other side of the pond ranks with films like Love Letters, Casablanca, and I'll Be Seeing You as great World War II romantic dramas.
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8/10
Protagonists who are going blind/dying
murray-allison941 May 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I love anything with Margaret Lockwood in it. Stewart Granger also had something, I think. The settings are great and the music too. I've never been to that spot where the open air concert takes place but its on my list. But mostly what I like about this film is the totally ludicrous plot. It's one of those truly whacky films of the forties where nobody tells anybody anything but the characters variously are dying/ suffering from a serious condition such as amnesia or (as here) encroaching blindness but, because they're British, they can't tell each other or anybody else. It's obviously completely bonkers but they just don't make them like it now.
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10/10
Really good film welll worth watching.
rxelex2 July 2020
This film shows Stewart Granger's acting to great effect. Tom Wall's Yorkshire accent slipped into posh English at times but was very nice to listen to. Scenery superb and made me want to go stand on those rocks and look at that clear water.
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9/10
A Fine Film
jromanbaker8 May 2022
During the dark days of 1944 this film showed hope and endurance. It is in the widest sense of the word a romantic film, but the dark undertones of personal illness and impending blindness must have struck a very realistic response in the audience of the time, wondering for how long they had to endure the hazards of war. No spoilers but Margaret Lockwood faces her problem and Stewart Granger comes to terms with his. Patricia Roc, who is equally in love with Granger, must face life as it is, and her acting is faultless. Well directed and with superb photography nothing jars, and the haunting music of ' Cornish Rhapsody ' ranks with the best of film music, and Lockwood who plays a pianist ( and supposedly ) composes it herself does it full justice. Romantic with an edge it is a landmark of good British film making. The scenes set in the Minack Theatre in Cornwall are brilliantly filmed, especially when the ' Cornish Rhapsody ' is played by Lockwood in for me her greatest role. The final dialogue must have deeply resonated with those watching back then, and in many ways still do.
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