Editing Michael Rennie (section)

===''I'll Be Your Sweetheart'' and ''The Wicked Lady''===
With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Rennie was given his first film break, when cast alongside [[Margaret Lockwood]], then at the peak of her popularity, in the musical ''[[I'll Be Your Sweetheart]]'' (1945), directed by [[Val Guest]] for [[Gainsborough Studios]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26143594 |title=Famous Stars Return to the Fold |newspaper=[[The Mercury (Hobart)|The Mercury]] |volume=CLXII |issue=23,410 |location=Hobart |date=15 December 1945 |access-date=25 March 2017 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref name="val">{{cite web|url=https://historyproject.org.uk/interview/val-guest|website=British Entertainment History Project|first=Roy|last=Fowler|date=1988|title=Interview with Val Guest}}</ref> Rennie was billed below Lockwood and [[Vic Oliver]], given an "introducing" credit, but his character was the actual protagonist of the film. The movie was not a large hit but Rennie received excellent notices, including a review from the US trade paper ''Variety'' which said his performance made the film "noteworthy" and that he was "likely Hollywood material... the best bet in the way of a new male star to have come out of a British studio in many years. Rennie not only has a lot on the ball as a straight lead, he knows the value of visual tricks. Femmes will go for him in a big way."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/stream/variety159-1945-07#page/n61/mode/1up |title=Film Reviews: I'll Be Your Sweetheart |newspaper=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=11 July 1945 |page=14}}</ref>

He followed this in another movie with Lockwood at Gainsborough, the sensual costume adventure ''[[The Wicked Lady]]'' (1945). Rennie was the fifth lead, beneath Lockwood, James Mason, [[Patricia Roc]] and [[Griffith Jones (actor)|Griffith Jones]], but it was a good part as the one true love of Lockwood's character. It was an excellent project to be associated with, the year's biggest box-office hit, subsequently ninth out of the ten highest-grossing British films of all time.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xtGIAgAAQBAJ&dq=hungry+hill+film+box+office&pg=PA209| first=Robert| last=Murphy| title=Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939–48| date=2 September 2003| publisher=Routledge| page=209| isbn=978-1134901500}}</ref>

Rennie's prestige was also raised when he was given a single prominent scene as a commander of [[Roman Empire|Roman]] centurions in [[Gabriel Pascal]]'s production of [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]'' (also 1945), starring [[Vivien Leigh]] and [[Claude Rains]]. The film's expense caused it to lose a large amount of money, despite its being highly successful at the box office, particularly in the U.S.

Rennie was now established as a leading actor. One report called him "the bobbysoxers' dark idol... Gainsborough's 1945 discovery."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22227865 |title=Australian Actor, John MacCallum, Has Lead in New English Film |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |issue=31,031 |location=Melbourne |date=13 February 1946 |access-date=25 March 2017 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He was mobbed by female fans on a personal appearance tour.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47209739 |title=His tour of Britain exhausted this new star |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=13 |issue=37 |date=23 February 1946 |access-date=25 March 2017 |page=31 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

Gainsborough teamed him with one of their biggest female stars, [[Phyllis Calvert]], in the melodrama ''[[The Root of All Evil (1947 film)|The Root of All Evil]]'' (1947).