Who wrote the 1940 novel ‘Fanny By Gaslight’?
Fanny by Gaslight (film) and Anthony Asquith were attached to the project by October 1942. It was the second most popular film in Britain during 1944, after "This Happy Breed". However, it performed very badly at the box office in the US. The film deals with themes of illegitimacy, social class, blackmail, gender politics, and sexuality. Fanny by Gaslight (film) Fanny by Gaslight (US title – Man of Evil) is a 1944 British drama film, produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a novel by Michael Sadleir (also adapted as a 1981 mini-series). It was the second of its famous
Fanny by Gaslight (film) directors I worked with at Gainsborough." Fanny (Phyllis Calvert) finishes at boarding school in 1880 and returns to London, where she witnesses Lord Manderstoke (James Mason) fight and kill her supposed father. She soon learns that her family has run a brothel next door to her home and (on her mother's death) that he was not her real father. She goes to meet her real father – a respected politician – and falls in love with Harry Somerford (Stewart Granger), his advisor. Manderstoke continues to thwart her happiness. The film was based on a novel published in 1940. Phyllis Calvert