IMDb > The End of the Affair (1955)

The End of the Affair (1955) More at IMDbPro »


Overview

User Rating:
6.5/10   410 votes
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Director:
Writers:
Lenore J. Coffee (writer)
Graham Greene (novel)
Contact:
View company contact information for The End of the Affair on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
May 1955 (USA) more
Genre:
Plot:
In wartorn London Maurice Bendrix falls in love with neighbor Sarah Miles. They begin an illicit romance behind Sarah's husband's back... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 nomination more
NewsDesk:
Van Johnson: 1916 - 2008
 (From IMDb News. 14 December 2008, 1:27 PM, PST)

User Comments:
Something Surprising From 1955. more (16 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Deborah Kerr ... Sarah Miles

Van Johnson ... Maurice Bendrix

John Mills ... Albert Parkis

Peter Cushing ... Henry Miles

Michael Goodliffe ... Smythe
Stephen Murray ... Father Crompton
Charles Goldner ... Savage
Nora Swinburne ... Mrs. Bertram
Frederick Leister ... Dr. Collingwood
Mary Williams ... Maid
O'Donovan Shiell ... Doctor
Elsie Wagstaff ... Bendrix Landlady
Christopher Warbey ... Lancelot Parkis
Nan Munro ... Mrs. Tomkins
Joyce Carey ... Miss Palmer
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Additional Details

Runtime:
105 min
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Gregory Peck was offered the male lead. more
Goofs:
Continuity: After the bomb explosion, when Sarah leaves, she stops in doorway and grabs the door side with the right hand. Between cuts, she appears without hand on the door at all. more
Quotes:
Sarah Miles: What do you believe in, Henry? All these years I've been married to you I've never really known; I've never even asked. Do you believe that there's a hell and a heaven, and an immortal soul, and a god who rewards and punishes and answers prayers?
Henry Miles: It's not exactly the sort of thing to go into over a cup of tea.
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FAQ

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11 out of 12 people found the following comment useful.
Something Surprising From 1955., 8 January 2007
Author: tjonasgreen from New York, N.Y.

This is an astonishing artifact from 1955 -- astonishing because it is so grownup and sophisticated in its outlook, and because it grapples with moral complexities and ambiguities that English language films of this period never went near. An adulterous affair begun with a certain amount of cynicism on both sides grows into a true and passionate love affair, which in turn raises issues of guilt, trust, duty, self-denial and religious belief. As a story, it holds our interest and causes us to wonder where it will end. As a parable and philosophical meditation on belief and its role in love and contemporary life, it is both stimulating and unexpectedly moving.

That a novel as layered and difficult was attempted with major stars at this time is surprising enough. That THE END OF THE AFFAIR succeeds on so many levels seems miraculous, especially in the context of most mainstream film product of the mid-'50s.

Van Johnson is not as expressive or deep an actor as the excellent Deborah Kerr and Peter Cushing (and John Mills, Michael Goodliffe and Nora Swinburne) yet his character's relaxed masculinity, reluctant anguish and saturnine, rather malicious jealousy are well-conveyed, and he manages to be a presence you remain interested in. As Greene's Mary Magdalene character, the woman in whom the sacred and profane are mingled, Kerr is terrific in a complex role that is an interesting inversion of her promiscuous, childless woman in the far more famous and popular FROM HERE TO ETERNITY of just two years before. ETERNITY, done for Columbia, the same studio that released this, was far more shallow and conventional in the way it dealt with Kerr's Karen Holmes and her redemption. Just as shallow (and evasive) was TEA AND SYMPATHY, which Kerr did after this, and which received far more fame and attention than was merited.

This 1955 version of THE END OF THE AFFAIR deserves to be much better known and remembered, and all concerned deserve belated kudos for attempting such a provocative film in the midst of Hollywood's synthetic movies of the period. I saw this after recording it on TCM, and would like to see it scheduled in prime time, to perhaps begin to get the wider audience it deserves and to hear commentary from moderator Robert Osborn (for that matter, he ought to do one hour interviews with both Kerr and Johnson while they are still around).

Let the rediscovery and rehabilitation of this good film begin . . .

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Affair WAS consumated - early on MagHag05
The Nature of Love and Faith VelvetVoice
CAN ANYONE IDENTIFY THE LOCATION...? GladysThong
According to the Roman numerals... finchna
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