Personal Affair
Director: Anthony Pelissier
Year Released: 1953
Rating: 2.5
A Latin teacher (Leo Genn) gets a little too familiar with a infatuated student (Glynis Johns) by bringing her over to his house for some "extra tutoring" - the teacher's wife (Gene Tierney), sensing the girl's attraction to her husband, behaves irrationally by calling her out on her crush forcing the girl to run away for days - as a result of this, town gossip destroys the teacher's career and reputation. Though it deserves credit for at least acknowledging that Genn's character is, on some level, attracted to Johns, the film is nonetheless stiffly presented: for example, the soundtrack gets pumped up to high decibels while the screen shows rushing water to suggest the passions brimming. Genn's character is intended to be an composed, urbane intellectual many of his actions (not to mention Tierney's overreaction to the girl's presence) are strongly ill-considered.
