David Lean used his wife, Ann Todd,to great affect in this romance. The passion of Mary's life is Stephen (Trevor Howard) but she marries Howard (Claude Rains), a wealthy businessman who meets some of her needs. Their marriage is more of a contract than a union but both are satisfied until Stephen comes on the scene again. And then again.
It is hard to say why this movie works so well because little happens. It's success is shared by the acting of the three principals. The original novel was by H.G. Wells, hard to imagine that. I thought it was very good if you are in the mood for repressed and expressed longing and not much action.The ending works particularly well.
8 comments:
This is one I haven't seen, Patti. It sounds as though the interactions among the characters adds a lot to the story.
I'm a fan of David Lean's work. The man was a genius unlike the "stable genius" we have running things now.
HA! This was a gem if you haven't caught it.
Patti – Thanks for this post. David Lean was an interesting filmmaker, going from small dramas in the 1940s and 50s, to epics in the 60s. A bitter-sweet romance of his you might like is “Summertime” (1955) with Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi in Venice.
Somehow, boy only haven't I seen this, but I had never heard of it. Good people involved.
Why did it change 'not' to 'boy'?
I had never heard of it either until Megan mentioned seeing it.
Wells was a man with a rather complex romantic life, to say the least, and his writing was by no means restricted to his extraordinarily influential sf. A fair amount of contemporary/mimetic fiction work and novels of manners. His OUTLINE OF HISTORY, pop history and critique, was probably the most popular work of his during his lifetime.
Post a Comment