One Woman's Story (1949) The Passionate Friends (original title)

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

H.G. Wells (novel)
Eric Ambler (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

26 January 1949 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Their affair took on a life of its own.

Plot:

The Passionate Friends were in love when young, but separated, and she married an older man. Then Mary...

Plot Keywords:

Switzerland | Forgiveness | Professor | Lake | Picnic

Cast

Ann Todd	...	Mary Justin
Claude Rains	...	Howard Justin
Trevor Howard	...	Professor Steven Stratton
Betty Ann Davies	...	Miss Joan Layton
Isabel Dean	...	Pat Stratton
Arthur Howard	...	Smith - the Butler
Guido Lorraine	...	Hotel Manager
Marcel Poncin	...	Hall Porter
Natasha Sokolova	...	Chambermaid
Hélène Burls	...	Flowerwoman
Jean Serret	...	Emigration Official
Frances Waring	...	Charwoman
Wenda Rogerson	...	Bridge Guest
Helen Piers	...	1st Woman - Albert Hall
Ina Pelly	...	2nd Woman - Albert Hall
John Huson	...	1st Man - Albert Hall
John Unwin	...	2nd Man - Albert Hall
Max Earle	...	3rd Man - Albert Hall
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Lawyer

Directed by
David Lean

Writing credits
H.G. Wells		(novel)
Eric Ambler		(screenplay)
David Lean		(adaptation) &
Stanley Haynes		(adaptation)

Produced by
Ronald Neame	....	producer
Norman Spencer	....	associate producer
Eric Ambler	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Richard Addinsell

Cinematography by
Guy Green		(photographed by)

Film Editing by
Geoffrey Foot
Clive Donner		(uncredited)
Jack Harris		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Margaret Furse

Makeup Department
Biddy Chrystal	....	hairdresser

Production Management
Pat MacDonnell	....	assistant production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
George Pollock	....	assistant director
Laurie Knight	....	third assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
John Bryan	....	set designer
T. Hopewell Ash	....	assistant art director (as Tim Hopewell-Ash)

Sound Department
Stanley Lambourne	....	sound recordist
Gordon K. McCallum	....	sound recordist
Winston Ryder	....	dubbing editor
Peter Davies	....	first assistant dubbing mixer (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Oswald Morris	....	camera operator

Editorial Department
Jim Pople	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Muir Mathieson	....	conductor
Leonard Isaacs	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
J. Arthur Rank	....	presenter
Maggie Unsworth	....	continuity (as Margaret Sibley)

Production Companies

• Cineguild

Distributors

• General Film Distributors (GFD) (1949) (UK) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1949) (USA) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1956) (USA) (TV)
• J. Arthur Rank Film (1949) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Divisa Home Video (2011) (Spain) (DVD)

Other Companies

• The Philharmonia Orchestra of London  soundtrack performed by
• Universal International Pictures (UI)  us releasing agent

Also Known As:

"The Passionate Friends" - UK (original title)

Runtime:

Spain:86 min | USA:95 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:16 | UK:PG (DVD rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France

Company:

Cineguild

Trivia:

First film of Isabel Dean.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Passionate Friends (1923)

Soundtrack:

Auld Lang Syne

Brilliantly told, lushly photographed, familiar romantic conflicts, but superbly packaged

The Passionate Friends (1949)

You wonder how this movie would be told without the Hays Code (and its British counterpart) hovering over the scriptwriter and director. But here we have David Lean's version of the much older H.G. Wells novel (from just before WWI) with all the restraint of movie romances of the period. That is, without our modern idea of passion.

And that's one of the things that makes this really work. It's not about making love on the sly, or going rapturous on screen. It's about the complicated emotional needs and conflicts of three people. That's what passion boils down to, at least in a way that we want to spend time with. And though this is not a full fledged love triangle like "Jules and Jim" (it's one woman caught between two men), it does play with the clashing and melding of three personalities and their passions.

Oddly, you learn fairly soon that the passion of the older man, played by Claude Rains, is deliberately not passionate. That's not what he wants in love. The younger man (not by much) is played by Trevor Howard and he is a sweetheart, with a family, and yet he still has that pure ideal love for the woman he can't shake. Even though she is married to the older man.

The woman holds it all together, both in the story, since she is involved with both men, and in the movie, played with amazing force and nuance by Ann Todd. When she first appeared on screen, thinking to herself on a plane taking off, I thought she was a little like Joan Fontaine, and since I love Fontaine, I was going to be open to this inferior version. But she wasn't inferior one bit. The longer the movie went on, the more I realized what a deeply felt, complex performance Todd gives. She not only has to be a different kind of woman with each of the men, she has to do so in different time periods over about eight years. Great stuff. I want to watch it again just to appreciate her. She was almost wholly a British actress, not moving to Hollywood, and so she never had an American audience the way some of the more famous stars here naturally did. Too bad for everyone.

The movie, as such, has a little inevitability to it--not that we know how it will end, exactly, but that we know how it will probably end, the one or two main options. The rivalry, the jealousy, the caught looks across a train station, the views from the Italian Villa, all the clichés are here. They are all perfectly handled, for sure, but an edge of originality would have helped a lot. I'm very curious to read the Wells book just to see how complex he makes the woman, and the story. And to check the ending he had in mind in 1913.

Lean, the director, is a legend of course. He made so many really fine films, important ones, it's easy to overlook this one. Even the slightly similar (in feel) "Brief Encounter" from 1945 casts a huge shadow here. Throw in "Lawrence of Arabia," "Dr. Zhivago," "Blithe Spirit," "Bridge over the River…." You get the idea.

See this. Expect nothing sensational, and you'll be sucked into a really superb, conventional, beautiful romantic drama. I just read (and gave a thumbs up) to a long review for this film that seems incredibly perceptive, but which maybe forces too much analysis onto the motives of the players here--especially for someone who hasn't seen it yet. I suggest getting sucked in and taking the advice to be patient, but also forging your own view of the events and hearts involved.