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.

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.

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.

"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.