A great movie if you read the book.by rlbFL

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July 18, 2009: Reading of the book is a great aid as the movie stays along the story line, I recommend this one over the remake of the Razor Edge.

A faithful adaptation of Somerset Maugham's novelby Anonymous

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December 07, 2003: Somerset Maugham had no peer in describing the human condition in painstaking detail as anyone who has read The Razor's Edge or Of Human Bondage will attest. He is an author who is an expert in pacing and tone. Therein lies the challenge for anyone wishing to turn one of his books into a film. It is in this regard that Director Edmund Gouulding really shines. He manages to take the tone and pacing of the novel and translate it to the screen. Much of Maugham's work focuses on the human condition from the inside, so it is quite a feat to take the thoughts of the protagonist and make those thoughts come alive on screen without narration or explanatory dialogue, but he makes it happen. Tyrone Power plays the lead character, Larry Darrell, a World War I vet who has his life saved by another man who ends up dying in the attempt. Darrell, profoundly affected by this man's selfless act, can not stop wondering and searching for the reasons he has been allowed to live and what he is supposed to do with his life. No doubt that Power was probably as popoular a star as Hollywood had at the time and this role was his first after a stint in the Army during WWII, and we all realize that while Power was a very handsome man and probably a joy to photograph, he wasn't much of an actor. More of an action star really, who overacts terribly later on in the classic Witness for the Prosecution. But this film is probably his finest role. While not gifted as an actor, Power does his best to play the role with the restraint the role requires and he most definitely carriees himself with the air of a true movie star. At times he looks like a blank slate and one wonders what a James Dean might have done with the role if he had been around at the time, but Power was a child of the Hollywood studio system - there were no method actors around yet - so it may be a bit unfair to critisize him. You can't help but wonder if the balnks looks are part of the role or if he really just didn't know what expression to give the character. It's a tough role, not very glamorous, very internal,and with his limitations as an actor, he manages to pull it off. Gene Tierney, beautiful as ever, plays the cunning Isabelle, out for money above all else, consumed with status, privilege and lifestyle. My hat's off to her, she in no way tries to turn Isabelle into a sympathetic character. She plays it straight forward and lets you see the charater as, I believe, Maugham intended. If you have any doubt about her range as an actress, watch her in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and then watch her here. She goes completely from one end of the spectrum to the other. Clifton Webb is always excellent, and seems to do the same kind of acting as did Cary Grant or John Wayne - that is to say, that in no matter what role they play, they are always playing their film persona. Cary Grant is always Cary Grant, John Wayne is always John Wayne and Webb is always Webb. That's not to say that they can't act, just that in every role they play, their movie star imagine is not far from the surface. Webb does a tremendous job of turning an utter hypocrite into someone we actually feel sorry for. His deathbed scene near the end is right-on and delivers the emotional impact lesser actors would have not have been able to deliver. His film character transcends the character from the book. Few people ever comment on John Payne, an actor perhaps best known for playing Fred, the...

This review was written about the VHS edition.