The Passionate Friends **** (1949, Ann Todd, Trevor Howard, Claude Rains, Betty Ann Davies, Isabel Dean) – Classic Movie Review 7087

David Lean’s 1949 film The Passionate Friends is an underrated Brief Encounter-style romantic drama about a woman (Ann Todd) caught between two men – her husband (Claude Rains) and her first love (Trevor Howard).

Director David Lean’s 1949 film The Passionate Friends is an underrated Brief Encounter-style romantic drama, about a woman, Mary Justin (Ann Todd), caught between two men – her older, rich banker husband Howard Justin (Claude Rains), and her first love, lecturer Professor Steven Stratton (Trevor Howard). Todd and Howard meet again in the Swiss Alps, and they enjoy one final fling.

With the screenplay based on a novel by H G Wells, this is a rich, enjoyable bitter-sweet experience, safe in the capable hands of a trio of perfectly cast actors and a committed director, who handles all the flashbacks in high style.

The film focuses so much on the three stars that there are only five credited actors. Betty Ann Davies plays Miss Joan Layton and Isabel Dean plays Pat Stratton. The other characters are just cyphers. Also in the cast are Arthur Howard, Wilfrid Hyde White, Marcel Poncin, Frances Waring, Max Earle, Ina Pelly, Helen Piers, John Hudson, Guido Lorraine, Natasha Sokolova and Hélène Burls.

Composer Richard Addinsell’s score is directed by musical director Muir Mathieson and is played by the Philharmonia Orchestra of London.

Lean of course directed Brief Encounter and Howard starred.

The Passionate Friends (also known as One Woman’s Story) is directed by David Lean, written by Eric Ambler, David Lean and Stanley Haynes, based on a novel by H G Wells, runs 95 minutes, is shot in black and white by Guy Green and Oswald Morris, scored by Richard Addinsell, and designed by John Bryan.

It is the first of three consecutive films Todd and Lean made together, followed by Madeleine (1950) and The Sound Barrier (1952). They were married from 1949 till their divorce in 1957.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7087

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