Screen adaptions of the work of British playwright W. Somerset Maugham.
by meliajanssen | created - 06 Apr 2020 | updated - 06 Apr 2020 | PublicThese movies are based on the writings of W. Somerset Maugham.
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1. The Land of Promise (1917)
50 min | Drama
Based on the 1913 play The Land of Promise by W. Somerset Maugham about Nora Marsh and her life which ends in a farm.
Director: Joseph Kaufman | Stars: Billie Burke, Thomas Meighan, Helen Tracy, Jack W. Johnston
Votes: 14
2. Smith (1917)
Romance
A rich man weds his housekeeper and eventually falls in love with her.
Director: Maurice Elvey | Stars: Elisabeth Risdon, Fred Groves, Manora Thew, Guy Newall
3. The Divorcee (1919)
50 min | Drama
Based on the 1907 play 'Lady Frederick' by W. Somerset Maugham, this tells the story of Betsy O'Hara in her pursuit of romance and love.
Director: Herbert Blaché | Stars: Ethel Barrymore, E.J. Ratcliffe, Holmes Herbert, Naomi Childers
4. East of Suez (1925)
70 min | Drama
After being educated in England, Daisy Forbes returns to China, the country of her birth, and discovers that her father has recently died and that she has become a social outcast, owing to ... See full summary »
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Pola Negri, Edmund Lowe, Rockliffe Fellowes, Noah Beery
Votes: 15 | Gross: $0.21M
5. The Circle (1925)
Passed | 71 min | Comedy, Drama
An unhappy woman considers leaving her dull husband for another man.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Eleanor Boardman, Malcolm McGregor, Alec B. Francis, Eugenie Besserer
Votes: 695
6. The Canadian (1926)
Passed | 80 min | Romance
A couple undergo hardship homesteading in Alberta, where they are plagued by bad weather and financial woes.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Thomas Meighan, Mona Palma, Wyndham Standing, Dale Fuller
Votes: 50
7. The Magician (I) (1926)
Passed | 83 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A magician/alchemist, seeking to create life, finds that he needs the "blood of a virgin" to continue his experiments. He sends out his dwarf assistant to pick out the right girl.
Director: Rex Ingram | Stars: Alice Terry, Paul Wegener, Firmin Gémier, Iván Petrovich
Votes: 865
8. Sadie Thompson (1928)
Unrated | 97 min | Drama
A prostitute seeking a fresh start becomes the obsession of a religious extremist.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Lionel Barrymore, Blanche Friderici, Charles Lane, Florence Midgley
Votes: 2,821 | Gross: $2.18M
9. The Letter (1929)
Passed | 65 min | Drama
Jeanne Eagels plays the bored and restless Leslie Crosbie who turns to another man, Geoffrey Hammond (Herbert Marshall) for attention when neglected by her husband Robert (Reginald Owen). ... See full summary »
Director: Jean de Limur | Stars: Jeanne Eagels, Reginald Owen, Herbert Marshall, Irene Browne
Votes: 878
10. Charming Sinners (1929)
Passed | 66 min | Drama, Romance
Set in London, Kathryn Miles's marriage is threatened when she discovers her husband's longstanding affair with her best friend but surprises everyone when she uses it to create a new life for herself.
Directors: Robert Milton, Dorothy Arzner | Stars: Ruth Chatterton, Clive Brook, Mary Nolan, William Powell
Votes: 105
11. Rain (1932)
Passed | 94 min | Drama
A prostitute newly arrived in the South Pacific finds herself at odds with a stern missionary determined to save her soul.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Joan Crawford, Walter Huston, Fred Howard, Ben Hendricks Jr.
Votes: 3,034 | Gross: $1.17M
12. The Narrow Corner (1933)
TV-PG | 69 min | Drama
An Englishman sought for murder escapes to South Seas island.
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Patricia Ellis, Ralph Bellamy, Dudley Digges
Votes: 341
13. Our Betters (1933)
Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Although the British upper class may be thought our betters in society, but they are certainly not our betters, and perhaps our equals, in morality.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Constance Bennett, Violet Kemble Cooper, Phoebe Foster, Grant Mitchell
Votes: 855
14. Of Human Bondage (1934)
Passed | 83 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A young man finds himself attracted to a cold, unfeeling waitress who might ultimately destroy them both.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Bette Davis, Leslie Howard, Frances Dee, Kay Johnson
Votes: 8,387
15. The Painted Veil (1934)
Passed | 85 min | Drama, Romance
A wife neglected by her husband, a medical researcher in China, falls in love with a dashing diplomatic attaché.
Director: Richard Boleslawski | Stars: Greta Garbo, Herbert Marshall, George Brent, Warner Oland
Votes: 1,720 | Gross: $1.17M
16. The Right to Live (1935)
Approved | 69 min | Drama
Maurice and Stella Trent are happily married. When Maurice is crippled in an airplane crash, he and his mother send for his brother Colin to come help keep Stella busy. He is to show her a ... See full summary »
Director: William Keighley | Stars: Josephine Hutchinson, George Brent, Colin Clive, Peggy Wood
Votes: 217
17. Secret Agent (1936)
Not Rated | 86 min | Mystery, Thriller
After three British Agents are assigned to assassinate a mysterious German spy during World War I, two of them become ambivalent when their duty to the mission conflicts with their consciences.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: John Gielgud, Madeleine Carroll, Robert Young, Peter Lorre
Votes: 9,044
18. The Tenth Man (1936)
68 min | Drama
George Winters is a self-made man, a wealthy unscrupulous businessman and M.P. for Middlepool who has married into the impoverished nobility for reasons of status. But when his wife ... See full summary »
Director: Brian Desmond Hurst | Stars: John Lodge, Antoinette Cellier, Athole Stewart, Clifford Evans
Votes: 68
19. Isle of Fury (1936)
Passed | 60 min | Adventure, Romance
In the South Seas, Val Stevens and Lucille Gordon are getting married when a ship goes down offshore. Val rescues Captain Deever and passenger Eric Blake. Later Eric saves Val from an ... See full summary »
Director: Frank McDonald | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Woods, E.E. Clive
Votes: 749
20. Another Dawn (1937)
Approved | 73 min | Drama
Colonel John Wister, on duty with the British army in the desert region of Dubik, returns to England on leave. There he falls in love with Julia Ashton, who cares deeply for him but ... See full summary »
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Kay Francis, Errol Flynn, Ian Hunter, Frieda Inescort
Votes: 709
21. The Beachcomber (1938)
Passed | 92 min | Drama
In the Dutch islands, the sister of a pious missionary attempts to reform a womanizing, drunken beach bum.
Director: Erich Pommer | Stars: Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Robert Newton, Tyrone Guthrie
Votes: 346
22. The Beachcomber (1954)
Approved | 82 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
In the Indian Ocean, the new British Resident of the Welcome Islands tangles with loneliness, angry natives, a drunken troublemaker and a sudden outbreak of cholera.
Director: Muriel Box | Stars: Glynis Johns, Robert Newton, Donald Sinden, Paul Rogers
Votes: 370
23. The Letter (1940)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort
Votes: 14,596
24. Too Many Husbands (1940)
Passed | 81 min | Comedy, Romance
Long-missing Bill Cardew returns to find his wife Vicky remarried...and in no hurry to settle for just one husband.
Director: Wesley Ruggles | Stars: Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, Melvyn Douglas, Harry Davenport
Votes: 1,696
25. The Moon and Sixpence (1942)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, Romance
Loosely inspired by Gauguin's life, the story of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged stockbrocker who abandons his middle-class life, his family, and his duties to start painting, as he has ... See full summary »
Director: Albert Lewin | Stars: George Sanders, Herbert Marshall, Doris Dudley, Eric Blore
Votes: 878
26. Christmas Holiday (1944)
Not Rated | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A young femme fatale-type woman realizes that the man she married is an incorrigible wastrel.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly, Richard Whorf, Dean Harens
Votes: 1,645
27. The Hour Before the Dawn (1944)
Approved | 74 min | Drama, Romance, War
A beautiful Austrian refugee in England--who is also a Nazi agent--marries a scholarly English pacifist. He lives near a secret military base she needs to get information about so she can help in Hitler's planned invasion of England.
Director: Frank Tuttle | Stars: Veronica Lake, Franchot Tone, John Sutton, Binnie Barnes
Votes: 219
28. Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946)
Not Rated | 65 min | Drama, Musical
A sexy, enticing dancer from Harlem makes things happen in a sleepy Caribbean island resort.
Director: Spencer Williams | Stars: Francine Everett, Don Wilson, Katherine Moore, Alfred Hawkins
Votes: 319
29. The Razor's Edge (1946)
Approved | 145 min | Drama, Romance
An adventuresome young man goes off to find himself and loses his socialite fiancée in the process. But when he returns 10 years later, she will stop at nothing to get him back, even though she is already married.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, John Payne, Anne Baxter
Votes: 6,787 | Gross: $5.00M
30. Of Human Bondage (1946)
Approved | 105 min | Drama
A medical student with a club foot falls for a beautiful but ambitious waitress. Based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Paul Henreid, Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith, Edmund Gwenn
Votes: 755
31. The Unfaithful (1947)
Approved | 109 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Los Angeles socialite kills a man while home alone one night and claims he was an intruder she did not know. It seems like a clear case of self defense until the story hits the papers and people connected to the dead man come forward.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden
Votes: 1,617
32. Quartet (1948)
Approved | 120 min | Drama, Romance
Four of W. Somerset Maugham's short stories are brought to the screen with each introduced by the author. In "The Facts of Life", a young man with great potential on the tennis courts goes ... See full summary »
Directors: Ken Annakin, Arthur Crabtree, Harold French, Ralph Smart | Stars: Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Ian Fleming, Jack Raine
Votes: 986
33. Trio (1950)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Romance
Three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham, "The Verger", "Mr. Know-All", and "The Sanatorium" are introduced by the author.
Directors: Ken Annakin, Harold French | Stars: James Hayter, Kathleen Harrison, Felix Aylmer, Lana Morris
Votes: 905
34. Somerset Maugham TV Theatre (1950–1951)
30 min | Drama
A short-lived attempt to adapt the works of the veteran British writer William Somerset Maugham for a television audience. Introductions and epilogues often depicted the writer himself, and... See full summary »
Stars: W. Somerset Maugham, Robert H. Harris, Ross Martin, Joan Chandler
Votes: 42
35. Encore (1951)
Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
Adaptations of three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham comprise this anthology film in which the celebrated author introduces each segment of the film in front of the camera.
Directors: Harold French, Pat Jackson, Anthony Pelissier | Stars: Nigel Patrick, Roland Culver, Alison Leggatt, Charles Victor
Votes: 602
36. Miss Sadie Thompson (1953)
Approved | 91 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A self-righteous missionary man seeks to save the soul of a former prostitute.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Rita Hayworth, José Ferrer, Aldo Ray, Russell Collins
Votes: 1,691
37. The Seventh Sin (1957)
94 min | Drama
In post-WWII Hong Kong, unhappily married Carol has an affair with a married man. Her husband discovers it and presents her with a choice: travel with him to a remote mainland village or face the scandal of a very public divorce.
Directors: Ronald Neame, Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Eleanor Parker, Bill Travers, George Sanders, Jean-Pierre Aumont
Votes: 331
38. The Beachcomber (1954)
Approved | 82 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
In the Indian Ocean, the new British Resident of the Welcome Islands tangles with loneliness, angry natives, a drunken troublemaker and a sudden outbreak of cholera.
Director: Muriel Box | Stars: Glynis Johns, Robert Newton, Donald Sinden, Paul Rogers
Votes: 370
39. Adorable Julia (1962)
97 min | Comedy
A successful and married, although not quite young, actress at a London theatre, falls for a young man, only a little older than her son, involved with a young actress who uses him to advance her career and upstage the leading lady.
Director: Alfred Weidenmann | Stars: Lilli Palmer, Charles Boyer, Jean Sorel, Jeanne Valérie
Votes: 166
40. Of Human Bondage (1964)
Approved | 100 min | Drama
A medical student becomes obsessed with his faithless lover.
Directors: Ken Hughes, Henry Hathaway, Bryan Forbes | Stars: Kim Novak, Laurence Harvey, Robert Morley, Siobhan McKenna
Votes: 1,101 | Gross: $3.82M
41. W. Somerset Maugham (1969–1970)
50 min | Drama
An anthology series based on the varied stories by W. Somerset Maugham divided into three categories: "Rule Britannia" about colonial life, "Women of the World" which focus on female characters, and "Victims of Fate".
Stars: Kim Kee Lim, Ken Nazarin, Ahmad Jamal, Eileen Atkins
Votes: 19
42. Somerset Maugham Hour (1960–1963)
60 min
Stars: Hugh Williams, Daniel Farson, Ian Hunter, Jill Bennett
Votes: 19
44. Teatris (1978)
136 min | Comedy, Drama
Human attempts to understand why when acting they are all going through the heart, but in real life are playing a role.
Director: Janis Streics | Stars: Vija Artmane, Gunars Cilinskis, Elza Radzina, Ivars Kalnins
Votes: 332
45. The Letter (1982 TV Movie)
96 min | Drama
The wife of a Malaysian planter kills an employee of her husband one night, but her motive begins to appear not entirely truthful.
Director: John Erman | Stars: Lee Remick, Ronald Pickup, Jack Thompson, Ian McShane
Votes: 83
46. The Razor's Edge (1984)
PG-13 | 128 min | Drama, Romance, War
He had everything and wanted nothing. He learned that he had nothing and wanted everything. He saved the world and then it shattered. The path to enlightenment is as sharp and narrow as a razor's edge.
Director: John Byrum | Stars: Bill Murray, Theresa Russell, Denholm Elliott, Catherine Hicks
Votes: 5,955 | Gross: $6.55M
47. Up at the Villa (2000)
PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A widow finds choosing a new husband might not be her choice at all, as the actions of her various prospects confine her freedom.
Director: Philip Haas | Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Sean Penn, Anne Bancroft, James Fox
Votes: 2,846 | Gross: $2.93M
48. Being Julia (2004)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Set in 1930s London, this movie involves stage actors and actresses and their experiences with love and revenge.
Director: István Szabó | Stars: Annette Bening, Michael Gambon, Maury Chaykin, Jeremy Irons
Votes: 12,928 | Gross: $7.74M
49. The Painted Veil (2006)
PG-13 | 125 min | Drama, Romance
Dr Walter gets married to the beautiful Kitty but soon finds out that she is cheating on him. Battling his way through problems, he heads to China to fight a dreaded disease spread in a small village.
Director: John Curran | Stars: Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Catherine An
Votes: 95,942 | Gross: $8.06M
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