Indeed, The Man in Grey opened a new, highly exploitable sub-genre of period bodice - ripper melodramas that
war - weary audiences whole - heartedly embraced, and not just in England; it also did respectable business on the far side of the Atlantic.It was also Crabtree's
permanent ticket out of low -
budget cinema and to work with some of the more prestigious filmmakers of the period, most notably Anthony Asquith on Fanny By Gaslight (1944).