REVIEW: The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958)

The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958)

The film opens in a basement full of “betting gentlemen” watching Sir Paul Deverill (Keith Michell) struggle with a greased pig.  He is supposed to be marrying Vanessa Ruddock (Clare Austin), though he doesn’t love her.  As he rides home in a coach with her father, he promises him they will marry regardless.  Meanwhile, two gypsies, Belle (Melina Mercouri) and Jess (Patrick McGoohan) are making their way on foot in the same direction as Deverill.

Belle enters the Deverill kitchen to try and “sell her wares”, and gets kicked out, stealing some cooked chicken in the process.  She brings the food to Jess, who is building a fire, and she states she is not a gypsy, since her father was a “gentleman”.  Meanwhile Deverill has a hot bath, a luxury to the gypsies. 

Aunt Lady Caroline Ayrton (Helen Haye) visits Paul and his sister Sarah (June Laverick), who Caroline says will get her fortune, not Paul, who will squander it away.  Caroline is in love with a medical student, John Patterson (Lyndon Brook). 

The band of gypsies hold a sort of fair, full of locals, and Deverill holds a boxing match.  He promises to pay the winner “a purse”, but after the match, he discovers his pocket has been picked.  Blame is put on Belle, who the crowd turns on.  She seeks safety in Deverill’s arms, and returns his purse.  She flirts with him, and he proceeds to give her freedom… and the money.  Deverill will get another purse for the winning boxer.

Next we meet Sarah’s intended, as well as Deverill’s. 

One rainy night, Deverill’s coach is passing Bess and Jess’s camp, and she runs up to the road and finagles herself into the coach.  She tells him sister Sarah that she isn’t a real gypsy, because her father was a gentleman.  She is offered a roof over her head for the night.  This ends up being a night in Deverill’s bedroom.

Belle ends up living at the house, Sarah doesn’t like it, Belle steals the second purse of money intended for the boxer, Deverill is called on to decide which woman to keep, Belle or Vanessa, he chooses Belle, etc etc etc.   Belle and Deverill get married.  Sarah tells her there is no money, just debts.  Belle gets mad.  But she sticks around, determined to be something more than poor.

Time passes, and it appears most of the valuables in the Deverill house have been sold to pay creditors.  Most of the staff is gone.  Jess manages to become Deverill’s “man”, taking care of horses, etc.  He lives over the stable.  Belle occasionally flirts with him, but also hits him like she hits the last remaining maid.  He makes it clear Belle can’t treat him that way, and also if he ends up having to run, he will run alone. 

Aunt Caroline passes away, and the family lawyer comes to the house.  He explains the terms of her will.  Sister Sarah will get her fortune if she marries before she turns 21.  Belle and Jess start working on making sure she can’t get married in time, scheming with the lawyer. 

Jess locks Sarah inside a “folly” on the estate, what looks like an Oriental tower of sorts, surrounded by water.   She often met her boyfriend John there.  So when John arrives looking for her, he goes to see if she is there.  Jess pretends he is living in the folly, and John leaves. 

Sarah ends up escaping the folly, and makes it to London.  Belle, Jess, and Deverill head there as well.  Belle and Jess meet up with the lawyer and Jess suggests having Sarah committed to an insane asylum.  She is found, then kidnapped and brought to the asylum.  Bess gets a drunken Deverill to sign the proper paperwork to keep his sister locked away.

Sarah’s friend Mrs. Haggard (Flora Robson) finds out, and tries to free her.  She succeeds in convincing the corrupt head of the hospital to let her go instead of being exposed to the public.

Deverill suddenly sobers up enough to go to his lawyer’s office.  He discovers what has been going on behind his back, and suddenly grows a spine. 

The movie ends with Sarah and Mrs. Haggard in a coach speeding away from the asylum, followed by Jess and Belle on another coach.  Deverill is on horseback racing toward them from the opposite direction.  They meet on a stone-arch bridge over a swift waterway.  Jess and Belle fall into the water.  Deverill jumps in after Belle, as Jess swims toward the shore.

Belle yells out for Jess, as Deverill keeps her above water.  Deverill has saved Belle’s life, but she only wants Jess.  Jess keeps swimming and gets onto the shore.  He looks back, but sees no one.  Deverill decides to drown Belle and himself.

This movie can be found online with some digging.  It appears to have been released on DVD in a few countries (such as Region 0/Spain)

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This film is somewhat notorious for McGoohan fans (female ones, anyway) thanks to that beard and the smooching scenes.  To what extent his infamous no-kissing policy actually extended, we may never know.  But his Rank roles did require kissing women, no more so than in this story.  Though, you never really see lips touching lips!

I had already formed an opinion of this movie thanks to female fans' comments regarding his kissing scenes (positive), McGoohan's own opinion of his Rank films (negative), and even one newspaper editorial from years ago where a woman was rather upset at his non-Secret Agent-like character (scoundrel). I found a copy of the film posted online and gave it a view...

The whole film actually has a decent "look" to it. Even a less-than-stellar online copy had good color, though McGoohan's eyes didn't look at all blue, so a good copy from a good print probably would look amazing. But there are plenty of outdoor scenes, elaborate sets, and colorful costumes.  It doesn’t look cheap.

But the plot looses your interest after a while, and the ending is rather trite.

The two lead characters, Belle and Sir Paul Deverill, are, well... CADS. It is very hard to be sympathetic to either of them. They both ask for what they get.

I found Melina Mercouri rather annoying.  I probably shouldn’t fault her, but her character instead.  She sure was fiery!  But she just seemed to be pushing the sexy-thing too much. Her whole performance was a bit over the top. Her outfits made the most of her teeny waist and were cut to make the most of the upper-half of her.  Let’s just say she was no Dagmar (look her up…).

Keith Michell as Sir Paul Deverill also annoyed me.  But, again, his character is a spoiled jerk you have no sympathy for, either.  I found myself wondering if I, the viewer, was supposed to hate him for dumping nice Sarah Deverill for slutty Belle, or feel for him because he is being duped.  His death in the end is no great loss…

The "nice" characters are pretty run-of-the-mill, though Flora Robson is a bit of a stand-out as Mrs. Haggard.  June Laverick likewise was OK as Sarah Deverill, if a bit too mousy. 

As for McGoohan's character, Jess, one minute he seems nice, then nasty, then a bit of both, then also a cad.  But how can you hate a character that sits and gently pets a white ferret?  It doesn’t really matter, because he looks darn sexy in his beard.  And I am generally no fan of beards! 

I didn’t find his infamous “love scenes” with Mercouri as steamy as fans always suggest.  I still didn’t see any lip-on-lip contact, he still seems distracted (by food or a purse of money), and the scenes still fade out just in time.  There also didn’t seem to be any sort of connection between the two actors, unlike his kiss at the end of “Nor the Moon by Night”. 

But all that smooching aside (and there is a lot implied in this film), McGoohan’s best scene, acting wise, may actually be the one where Jess pretends to live in the folly.  He’s a totally different character, and actually gets some dialog to say.

Now, if you like horses, there are a lot of them in this one.  I couldn’t quite tell which actors were actually doing their own high-speed riding, some of it side-saddle, but there is one thing I just have to ask:  HOW does McGoohan get onto his horse like that??

Watch it if you must, but have a good reason to, like I did...