Dulcima

British film-makers are so obsessed with urban decay that rural life is often overlooked. This adaptation of HE Bates's story may be overly ripe, but at least it attempts to redress the balance. John Mills gives a rambunctious performance as the Gloucestershire farmer who risks losing his carefully stashed wealth when he falls in lust with gold-digging Carol White. Writer/director Frank Nesbitt indulges in a little crude comedy, and Mills can't quite manage to avoid caricature. By the time White seduces gamekeeper Stuart Wilson, however, the tone has descended to the level of penny-dreadful melodrama.