Dennis Price

Mai Zetterling

Joan Greenwood

Linden Travers

Sonia Holm

Raymond Lovell

Leslie Dwyer

Denis O'Dea

Irene Browne

Virgílio Teixeira

Ernest Thesiger

Gerard Heinz

Cyril Chamberlain

Wilfrid Hyde-White

Henry Oscar

Richard Molinas

Robert Harris

Ronald Adam

Archie Duncan

Barry Jones

Natalie Moya

John Stone

Nora Swinburne

John Salew

Lena Lanare

Betty Lynne

Bernard Rebel

Liam Gaffney

Gilbert Davis

Vincent Holman

Guy Le Feuvre

Aubrey Mallalieu

Desmond Roberts

Zena Marshall

Muir Mathieson

David MacDonald

Maurice Carter

Anthony Nelson Keys

B. C. Sewell

Paul Holt

Philippo Guidobaldi

David Harcourt

James Needs

W.T. Partleton

Laurie Turner

Peter Quennell

Anthony Thorne

Elizabeth Haffenden

Alfred Roome

George Provis

Albert Whitlock

Arthur Alcott

Don Weeks

Claude Hitchcock

Terence Young

Cedric Thorpe Davie

Stephen Dade

Laurence Kitchin

Aubrey Baring

Bill Salter

Les Hammond

Drama

The Bad Lord Byron

Sydney Box Productions

J. Arthur Rank Organisation

United Kingdom

CinemaSerf

Dennis Price doesn't actually look like he is having to do much acting as he portrays the bravely errant soldier-cum-poet in this drama. He is bedridden, seriously ill, and wondering how he might be looked upon by St. Peter as his day of reckoning looms. The film now sets out to show us a little of his reminiscences - his lives and loves, most notably with an on-form Mai Zetterling ("Teresa"), Sonia Holm as his long-suffering wife Annabella and, of course, Lady Caroline Lamb (Joan Greenwood). It takes the form of a trial - with people giving testament to his behaviour and character under the gaze of the sagely, if frequently quite bemused judge (Ronald Adam). Price plays well here, and his scenes with Greenwood remained me of their scenes together in "Kind Hearts and Coronets" (also made in 1949). Sadly, though it starts off quite entertainingly, it becomes very wordy and slow quite quickly and the last forty minutes or so dragged a bit, I thought. I like Price, he has something about him, but this all wears a bit too thin. Maybe his libertine, naughty, side fell foul of the censors, but what we have here is ultimately rather plain. Adequate, nothing more.

English