This period adventure yarn about a sadistic nobleman was the film that really started the box-office turnstiles clicking for Gainsborough Films, soon to become Britain's most successful company of the Forties, as they rolled out a series of costume dramas about highwaymen, adventuresses and other romantic figures of bodice-ripping fiction. All four stars - Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, Phyllis Calvert and especially James Mason as the evil Marquis of Rohan - gave fine performances which assured their popularity for years to come.

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