Personal Affair

This contrived British suspense drama could have been a quality "Gone Girl" sort of thriller, but the screenplay by Lesley Storm misses the boat with cliches and unnecessary hokeyness.

Gene Tierney stars as the beautiful wife of Latin teacher Leo Genn, who becomes jealous when he's tutoring a young student played by an overage Glynis Johns (30-year old established star playing a 17-year-old). Contrived circumstances lead to Genn accused of murdering her after small-town rumors mount when she's disappeared for three days, and everyone, especially her aunt well-played (as pure evil, unfortuntely per the script) by Pamela Brown, assumes he's guilty without a shred of real evidence.

No faulting the actors, who all are convincing, but the final twists are dumb, and the last reel melodrama thoroughly manipulative. The quality of British understatement is at war with almost an exploitation movie level of gimmickry and the result is a mishmash.

Obviously a very young (or for cinema's sake, underage-looking) actress in Glynis' role would have maximized the impact of the story, and the main theme of unrequited love could have been handled better, so an audience with a high tolerance for being jerked around by the filmmakers is necessary to enjoy this hokum.