Fanny by Gaslight (film)

Fanny by Gaslight
UK promotional poster
Directed byAnthony Asquith
Written byDoreen Montgomery
additional dialogue
Aimée Stuart
Based onFanny by Gaslight by Michael Sadleir
Produced byEdward Black
StarringPhyllis Calvert
James Mason
Wilfrid Lawson
Stewart Granger
Margaretta Scott
Jean Kent
John Laurie
Stuart Lindsell
Nora Swinburne
Amy Veness
Ann Wilton
Helen Haye
Cathleen Nesbitt
John Turnbull
Helen Goss
CinematographyArthur Crabtree
Edited byR. E. Dearing
Music byCedric Mallabey
Production
company
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors
Release dates
  • May 1944 (1944-05) (UK)
  • 1946 (1946) (France)
  • 1948 (1948) (USA)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£90,000
Box office$17,285 (US rentals)
£300,000 (UK)
786,581 admissions (France)

Fanny by Gaslight (US title – Man of Evil) is a 1944 British drama film, directed by Anthony Asquith and produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a 1940 novel by Michael Sadleir (also adapted as a 1981 TV serial).

It was the second of its famous period-set "Gainsborough melodramas", following The Man in Grey (1943). Its US release was delayed for its breaking the Hays Purity Code and 17 minutes were removed.

Stewart Granger later said he "didn't like" the film because of its "drippy characters" but thought "Asquith was much the best of those directors I worked with at Gainsborough."