The name is absent

Appendix 3.2: Sample films - Synopses and character groups
THE WICKED LADY UK 45

becomes her lover. Jackson is satisfied with small scale hold-
ups but Barbara, ever thirsty for new adventures, escalates
the scale of their crimes until she murders the guard of a
gold bullion consignment. This crime is discovered by
Hogarth, an aged and obsessively religious manservant who
undertakes to guard the secret and save Barbara’s soul in
return for her apparently abject contrition. Eventually she
murders him too, but when she returns to the inn where she had
habitually met Jackson she finds him with another woman.
Fulfilling a threat she had made earlier, she betrays him to
the authorities and he is arrested and condemned to be hung
for the murder of the bullion guard. Caroline meanwhile has
become engaged to the architect Kit, not knowing that he and
Barbara had fallen in love at first sight when they met at the
dance following Barbara's marriage to Ralph. The denouement
involves Ralph, Caroline and Kit discovering that the four are
inappropriately paired and resolving to rearrange themselves,
but Barbara has set out to hold up Ralph's carriage and shoot
him in order to free herself to marry Kit. On seeing Kit,
unexpectedly, in the carriage with Ralph she hesitates and Kit
shoots her, believing her to be a highwayman. Finally they all
discover her crimes and she dies alone after a horrified Kit
has backed away from her deathbed confession. The film closes
as it had opened, with Ralph and Caroline looking forward to a
life of happiness together.

Female Characters in order of appearance, character groups

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