Look Before You Love

Look Before You Love is a 1948 British drama film directed by Harold Huth and starring Margaret Lockwood, Griffith Jones and Maurice Denham.[1]

Look Before You Love
Directed byHarold Huth
Screenplay byReginald Long
Story byI Know You by Ketti Frings
Produced byJohn Corfield
Harold Huth
StarringMargaret Lockwood
Griffith Jones
Norman Wooland
CinematographyHarry Waxman
Edited byJohn D. Guthridge
Music byBretton Byrd
Production
company
Burnham Productions
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors (UK)
Eagle Lion (US)
Release dates
  • 7 December 1948 (1948-12-07) (UK)

1950 (US)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot summary

A woman working in the British Embassy in Brazil falls in love and marries a man, but soon discovers him to be a drunken wastrel tied up with serious crime. He tries to get her to marry a dying millionaire so he can remarry her.[2]

Cast

Production

The film was originally known as I Know You and Change of Heart.[3] Margaret Lockwood had been arguing with the Rank Organisation over what films she should make, and had gone on suspension for refusing Roses on Her Pillow, but agreed to do this.[4]

Filming started on 15 March 1948 and took place at Denham Studios under the title Change of Heart.[5] Star Griffith Jones recalled "We hoped for a comedy of wit, and style but it wasn't to be."[6]

Critical reception

In a contemporary review, Variety called the film "an overlong and somewhat corny love story that gives Margaret Lockwood a sympathetic role after her many Wicked Lady characterisations, in which she has been so successfully typed in the past", adding, "it may gratify the out-of-town popular audiences, but its chances of success in any metropolis are scant";[7] while more recently, TV Guide rated the film two out of five stars, dismissing it as a "Ridiculous story played straight; as a farce it might have had some chance."[8]

The film generally received poor reviews.[9] According to Lockwood's biographer "Few British films of the 1940s received a more devastating barrage of criticism than Look Before You Love when it was released in October 1948."[10]

The film's failure contributed to the decline in Lockwood's popularity.[11]

The film was released by Eagle Lion in the US in 1950. It was released without a certificate from the PCA because it thought the film breached it basic theme and detail.[12]

References
  1. BFI.org
  2. "LOOK BEFORE YOU LOVE". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 17, no. 10. 13 August 1949. p. 46. Retrieved 28 September 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. "Lockwood happy in new role". The Sun. No. 2359. Sydney. 27 June 1948. p. 31 (STUMPS). Retrieved 28 September 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "Bing Crosby will go to England to make a film". The Sun. No. 2337. Sydney. 25 January 1948. p. 27. Retrieved 28 September 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "London". Variety. 18 February 1948. p. 54.
  6. Tims p 152
  7. "Variety (December 1948)". archive.org.
  8. "Look Before You Love". TVGuide.com.
  9. "Popular stars out of contest". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 16, no. 38. 26 February 1949. p. 32. Retrieved 28 September 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. Tims p 153
  11. Vagg, Stephen (29 January 2020). "Why Stars Stop Being Stars: Margaret Lockwood". Filmink.
  12. Slide, Anthony (1998). 'Banned in the USA' : British films in the United States and their censorship, 1933-1960. p. 98.

Bibliography
  • Tims, Hilton (1989). Once a wicked lady : a biography of Margaret Lockwood. W.H. Allen.


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