A Brilliant Conflict

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

You may say that's an old plot, but hand it to David Lean, its going to be fresh as new! Powerful storytelling, masterfully directed. Like Brief Encounter, this too surfs the human soul.

This David Lean romance seems to have been swept under the carpet and yet it may be his most underrated masterpiece, (it's infinitely preferable to such elephantine fare as "Ryan's Daughter" and "Doctor Zhivago"). It marked the first time Lean would abandon the studio for more exotic locations, (in this case, the Swiss Alps), and seems designed as a vehicle for his wife, Ann Todd, who is outstanding as the respectable English wife who dallies with an old flame who happens to check into the room next door at the hotel she's staying in while on holiday. He's Trevor Howard and it's as if this is what might have happened in "Brief Encounter" had the lovers a bit more chutzpah.Howard, too, is superb, (he always was; he remains one of the most underrated of all the great actors), and Todd's husband is the consistently excellent Claude Rains at his very best. As a tale of a genteel marriage threatened by genteel adultery it's beautifully done and why it isn't more highly appreciated is something of a mystery. If, like me, you believe Lean to be one of the great directors then this is essential viewing.

since the reviews differ from the movie I saw.I was on holiday and while channel-surfing found this movie already in progress. (I came in before Todd and Howard's affair was discovered by Rains.) The reason I think there's a second version of this film is because the majority of the reviews harp on the "innocence" of the lovers' third encounter. Their meeting was both accidental AND intentional. Mary Justin discovers her old lover and stares at him until he notices her. They then take off for the day by themselves (a REALLY bad decision if you must later try to convince your spouse that "nothing happened.") Upon their return, Justin's husband observes his wife's lover sneak out of the hotel and her passionate farewell to him. Technically the lovers did not commit adultery (as far as we know) but EMOTIONALLY they both are guilty of committing an act they know to be wrong (otherwise, why do they hide it?).Further, Stephen Stratton is not QUITE the put-upon innocent some would have you believe. He spends hours with Mary Justin without EVER mentioning he is married and has children -- a fact Mary is shocked to discover when she catches up to him at the train station where he is served the bill of divorcement.All in all, this is a fine depiction of some of the intricacies of love and relationships as performed by three wonderful actors.

I was surprised to learn that the original story for The Passionate Friends was written by H.G. Wells. Someone nowadays we identify with the science fiction genre. Certainly it seems to be what has survived best in English literature.The original story was written in 1913 so some considerable updating was done to make it 1949 contemporary. Lovers Ann Todd and Trevor Howard had an affair back in the day which was ended when Todd's husband Claude Rains found out. Eleven years go by and Todd and Howard meet at a mountain ski resort in Switzerland. Howard's now married and moved on, but they spend an innocent afternoon reminiscing. Rains catches them and misinterprets with near tragic results.Ann Todd may be one of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen. She's probably best known in America for being Gregory Peck's loyal wife in The Paradine Case. No wonder Rains is so jealous.Trevor Howard is essentially doing the same part for David Lean that first got him stardom in Brief Encounter. In fact the story could almost be what happens to the protagonists in Brief Encounter if they met up again in the future. Claude Rains is always right on the money with his portrayals. There's a lot of what John Barrymore did in Maytime in what Rains does here.If it were done here in the USA, this would have been labeled a woman's picture. It is in fact a nicely done romantic story.