James Mason – The Man that Got Away

This talk celebrates the work of one of Britain’s greatest film actors.

James Mason was indisputably the biggest British film star of the 1940s, a golden era for the national industry.

Launched by The Man in Grey (1943), he quickly became identified with brutish villainy in a series of wildly popular Gainsborough melodramas such as The Wicked Lady (1945).

His romantic appeal was then confirmed by his role as Ann Todd’s remote, sadistic guardian in The Seventh Veil (1945). Mason also appeared in more critically respectable films during this period, notably Odd Man Out (1947), but he was frustrated by his image, and found the British film industry parochial and unadventurous.

Mason left for Hollywood in 1947, and was based there for over a decade.

He never achieved the mainstream success he sought, or ever really escaped his villainous image, but he appeared in a number of exceptional films, including The Reckless Moment (1949), A Star is Born (1954), Bigger than Life (1956) and North by Northwest (1959).

He later judged his American venture as a mistake, but he looks in retrospect to have made some of the most interesting films, and worked with some of the most important directors, of the era.

With his dark good looks, James Mason was a great camera subject. His purring voice confirmed a dangerous romantic appeal.

This talk will discuss his image and career in this period, the hommes fatal he played so well, the portrayals of barnstorming brutes as well as the nuanced depictions of failure and despair.

It will also consider his corresponding public persona, which was characterised by blunt criticisms of both the British and Hollywood industries.

About the speaker:

Adrian Garvey teaches film at Birkbeck, University of London and did his PhD on James Mason .

NOTES:

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