Encore *** (1951, Nigel Patrick, Roland Culver, Kay Walsh, Glynis Johns, Terence Morgan, Noel Purcell, Ronald Squire) – Classic Movie Review 10,077

The 1951 comedy drama Encore is the third and final portmanteau-compendium-anthology movie of W Somerset Maugham stories which by and large keeps up the standard of Quartet (1948) and Trio (1950). It was again a hit at the box-office.

Old W Somerset Maugham himself again introduces (talking to camera from his garden on the French Riviera) each of the three enjoyable, lightweight yarns about rival brothers, a grumpy spinster on a cruise, and a worried circus high-diver.

Nigel Patrick is the hit of the show (as he was in Trio) as the idle, reprobate playboy Tom Ramsay pestering his hard-working brother George (Roland Culver) for money in The Ant and the Grasshopper, and Kay Walsh stands out too as the garrulous English spinster Molly Reid takes a sea cruise to Jamaica in Winter Cruise. The only slight dud of the three tales is the high-wire yarn, Gigolo and Gigolette, with Glynis Johns and Terence Morgan as Stella and Syd Cotman (Terence Morgan) who have a successful nightclub act In Monte Carlo.

The Ant and the Grasshopper is directed by Pat Jackson and adapted by T E B Clarke. The cast of The Ant and the Grasshopper are Nigel Patrick as Tom Ramsay, Roland Culver as George Ramsay, Alison Leggatt as Freda Ramsay, Peter Graves as Philip Cronshaw, Margaret Vyner as Gertrude Wilmot and Michael Trubshawe as Ascot Man.

Winter Cruise, from the 1947 collection of Maugham stories Creatures of Circumstance, is directed by Anthony Pelissier and adapted by Arthur Macrae. The cast of Winter Cruise are Kay Walsh as Miss Molly Reid, Noel Purcell as Captain Tom, Ronald Squire as the ship’s doctor, John Laurie as Andrews, the engineer and Jacques François as Pierre, the steward.

Gigolo and Gigolette from the 1940 collection of Maugham stories The Mixture as Before, is directed by Harold French and adapted by Eric Ambler. The cast of Gigolo and Gigolette are Glynis Johns as Stella Cotman, Terence Morgan as Syd Cotman, Mary Merrall as Flora Penezzi and Martin Miller as Carlo Penezzi.

Encore is directed by Pat Jackson, Anthony Pelissier and Harold French, runs 88 minutes, is made by Two Cities Films, is released by General Film Distributors (UK) (1951) and Paramount Pictures (1952) (US), is written by T E B Clarke, Arthur Macrae and Eric Ambler, based on W Somerset Maugham stories, is shot in black and white Desmond Dickinson, is produced by Anthony Darnborough and scored by Richard Addinsell.

It is shot at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,077

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