Fanny by Gaslight (1944) review

When the young lady in the title (Phyllis Calvert) returns home from school, she sees her 'father' trampled to death by a horse - this following an altercation with roguish Lord Manderstoke (James Mason) - then she sees her mother pass away, then she discovers her parents owned a brothel and that the man she thought was her father actually wasn't.  This Gainsborough melodrama might have been considered 'bawdy' for its time (women keep talking about how many lovers they've had) but nowadays it's relatively tame and populated with deeply unlikeable characters - Fanny herself is one dimensional and kind of a ditz - with the exception of Mason, who may be a jerk but at least he has some bite: the movie actually gets a jolt of energy when he pops up (as opposed to gallant Mr. Granger, who's a lanky marshmallow).  The U.S. title for this is Man of Evil (referring to Mason), although I would have preferred they doubled down and called it Ass by Streetlamp.