The Seventh Sin (1957)

Director:

Ronald Neame

Writers:

Karl Tunberg (screenplay), W. Somerset Maugham (novel)

Stars:

Eleanor Parker, Bill Travers, George Sanders

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Eleanor Parker	...	Carol Carwin
Bill Travers	...	Doctor Walter Carwin
George Sanders	...	Tim Waddington
Jean-Pierre Aumont	...	Paul Duvelle
Françoise Rosay	...	Mother Superior
Ellen Corby	...	Sister Saint Joseph

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

china | infidelity | extramarital affair | hong kong | epidemic | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1958 (Austria)

Also Known As:

Hongkong war ihr Schicksal

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

While the picture takes place between 1945-1950 in mainland China (see the Republic flag in the hospital), the clothes (dresses, shoes and hairdo) that Eleanor Parker wears are contemporary to when the picture was made in the mid-1950s.

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Connections

Version of The Painted Veil (1934)

User Reviews

Garbo's role in "The Painted Veil" goes to Eleanor Parker...

THE SEVENTH SIN is a remake of the Greta Garbo vehicle, "The Painted Veil", taken from a Somerset Maugham novel about a woman's journey to redeem herself. This time the unhappily married woman is ELEANOR PARKER and the husband is played by BILL TRAVERS (rather than the jilted dullard Herbert Marshall played in the Garbo version). Obviously designed to satisfy movie-goers who loved romantic stories of this sort, it manages to hold interest without ever becoming a great film.

Parker is poised and beautiful throughout, giving a very understated performance as a woman caught in the throes of what she believes is a great romance with JEAN-PIERRE AUMONT, who disappoints her when he refuses to divorce his wife. She flees to China with her doctor husband who is going to administer to those caught in a plague of cholera, eventually realizing that her selfish nature is capable of undergoing a change and working at a convent for orphaned Chinese children.

The plot resolution is a bit disappointing for anyone expecting a happy ending, but it's all tastefully handled material performed admirably by Parker and Travers. GEORGE SANDERS, as a brandy guzzling friend with some acid comments (in the Sanders manner), gives the story a lift with his wit and cynical charm.

Not bad as these sort of melodramas go, but nothing really special.