Beautifully directed by Edmund Goulding, this sumptuous, and prestigious adaptation of Somerset Maugham's novel was made in 1946 to great acclaim. It's a tale of manipulation, greed, unrequited love, and the eternal search for spiritual enlightenment. Larry Darrell the central character - and played in the movie by the startlingly attractive Tyrone Power - searches for life's meaning in a journey that takes him from the high society of Chicago to the coal mines of France and then on to the mountains of the Himalayas.
Larry Darrell (Power) is a frustrated man. Having just returned to Chicago after World War 1, and having seen his best friend killed, he dodges a future as a stockbroker and instead goes to Paris to seek enlightenment, much to the chagrin of his wealthy and stuck-up fiancée Isabel Bradley (a gorgeous Gene Tierney). Although her snobbish uncle Elliott Templeton (Clifton Webb), would rather she forget Larry and move on with her life, Isabel, however, continues to be smitten and follows Larry to Paris to force him into a decision.
Once in Paris, Isabel spurns his austere lifestyle and again tries to talk him to coming back to Chicago and earning lots of money by participating in the "American dream." Larry, however, has other ideas and decides to seek his destiny, first in a French coalmine, and later from the Buddhist teachings of an Eastern Holy Man (Cecil Humphries) high atop an Indian mountain. Meanwhile, Isabel, still desperately in love with Larry, marries the sincere and hardworking stockbroker Gray Maturin (John Payne).
Several years later the characters meet up again in Paris, but their lives have taken a turn for the worse. Only Larry, who has found Buddhism a useful tool for living a happy life, can rise above post depression malaise that seems to have swept them all. Most distraught is the young and beautiful Sophie (an incredible Ann Baxter in the performance of a lifetime) who, having lost her darling husband and child in a car accident, has turned to drinking and become a fallen woman.
Goulding indulges in lots of voluptuously lit scenes in front of water fountains. There's also lots of carousing, attempts at seduction, boozing, and some wickedly catty dialogue. Tierney is obviously reveling in the role as Isabel. She's a spoiled rich girl who can't help falling for Larry, but won't give up her social status in the name of love. She painstakingly tries to weave a web of seduction around Larry, but when she discovers that Larry is to marry Sophie in order to save her from a life of debauchery, Isabel does everything within her machiavellian power to send Sophie back to her squalid and drunken life.
Razor's Edge offers a compelling and convincing group of characters as they struggle with appearances and issues that end up dictating and controlling their lives. The movie's narrative arc is unusually dense, which may initially put off some viewers, but the material remains undeniably satisfying, alternating between vitriolic melodrama and copious scenes of the rich enjoying their entitlements.
Power is terrific as Larry; he brings an unusual mix of good looks and suave intelligence to the role, and the incomparably debonair Herbert Marshall puts on a good show as the story's narrator and moral center Somerset Maugham. The scene when he corners an incensed Isabel and soothes her with sycophancy, adulation, and poetic appreciation is one of the best in the film. But the most the celebrated performance is Anne Baxter's tragic Sophie (she got the Oscar), who lacks the will to continue on and who eventually falls victim to the jealousy, selfishness, and insensitivity of her more wealthy friends. Mike Leonard July 05.
"There lived in this age a very remarkable creature."
W. Somerset Maugham's brilliant novel, "The Razor's Edge," was first brought to the big screen via this 1946 adaptation. Tyrone Power stars as the idealistic Larry Darrell, with Gene Tierney taking a turn as his sometime girlfriend, Isabel Bradley. As the film opens, Larry and Isabel are engaged and madly in love, but Larry's plan to "loaf" and discover himself soon breaks them apart. Of course, this split is helped along by her family, particularly her snooty Uncle Elliot (Clifton Webb). However, all participants involved find themselves meeting again and again over the years - sometimes in unlikely places.
"The Razor's Edge" has many undeniably good qualities. First, it's just a gorgeous looking movie, with a multitude of amazing sets; the movie deservedly received an Oscar nomination for art direction. In addition, the direction by Edmund Goulding ("Grand Hotel") is good, and the story zips along nicely despite its length. Ultimately, the movie was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for best picture.
Unfortunately, the casting is questionable and the acting often less than stellar. Tyrone Power has the requisite blandness to play Larry, but he sometimes actually exhibits a bit too much edge. Larry is supposed to be naïve: the paragon of goodness. However, Powers can't quite pull off this difficult task and become the "remarkable creature" about which Maugham wrote. Anne Baxter won an Oscar for her supporting role as the alcoholic Sophie, but she actually comes off worst of all. She simply does not possess the range needed to portray Sophie, as is painfully clear in the Paris nightclub scenes. Clifton Webb also received an Oscar nomination for supporting actor. He's appropriately bitchy, but his performance is over-the-top in his critical final scenes, draining much of the pathos from the finale.
The script by Lamar Trotti ("The Ox-Bow Incident") is quite faithful to the novel, which is unusual for a book with such a complicated storyline. Unfortunately, in including so much of the basic plot, the soul of the book has somehow been diluted. The book tackles issues of philosophy and life, but the movie focuses a bit too much on the surface, resulting in a soap opera rather than a soul-searching treatise that the book manages to be. Of course, criticizing a movie because it doesn't live up to its source material is not completely fair. In addition, overall "The Razor's Edge" is a fine movie that is likely to be enjoyed by many audiences, whether they have read the book or not. Despite its flaws, "The Razor's Edge" is solid 1940s filmmaking. Highly recommended.
mature masterpiece
'The Razor's Edge' is truly a rare masterpiece. this movie is slowly paced but not at all plodding. a profound message lies within the sophisticated dialogue. the viewer must have a mature patience to reap the enriching experience from this excellent film. this one was definitely a superior film. it deserved the oscar but unfortunately there were 2 other masterpieces released tha year (1946), one of which garnered the oscar (The Best Years Of Our Lives). a true classic that deserves more recognition than it has received thru the years.
as for the DVD, it is a good clean transfer. the only true extra is the commentary. it is still well worth the money.
This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Leave Her to Heaven is one of the most unblinkingly perverse movies ever offered up as a prestige picture by a major studio in the golden age of Hollywood. Gene Tierney, whose lambent eyes, porcelain features, and sweep of healthy-American-girl hair customarily made her a 20th Century Fox icon of purity, scored an Oscar nomination playing a demonically obsessive daughter of privilege with her own monstrous notion of love. By the time she crosses eyebeams with popular novelist Cornel Wilde on a New Mexico-bound train, her jealous manipulations have driven her parents apart and her father to his grave. Well, no, not grave: Wilde soon gets to watch her gallop a glorious palomino across a red-rock horizon as she metronomically sows Dad's ashes to the winds. Mere screen moments later,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Cornel Wilde Director(s): John M. Stahl DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The long-awaited emergence of Nightmare Alley into the light of DVD should achieve two things: make a legendary film noir available to a new generation, and restore the horrific charge to the lately watered-down term geek, a concept that once had the power to give people very bad dreams indeed.
To his lasting credit, Tyrone Power--20th Century Fox's extraordinarily handsome but not terribly interesting star of the '30s and '40s--begged for the chance to play Stan Carlisle, the predatory charmer who snakes his way through this bracingly unwholesome story. A spieler for--and lover of--carnival mind reader Zeena (Joan Blondell), he displays uncanny skill at "reading" the susceptible rubes, including a tough sheriff who turns to jelly after Stan psychs him out. Once Stan's... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tyrone Power - Joan Blondell - Coleen Gray Director(s): Edmund Goulding DVD Release Date: Released the 07 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Before he made the classic All About Eve, writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz made this clever story about three wives who spend an afternoon at a children's picnic mulling over a letter all three had just received, from a woman who says she's just run off with one of their husbands. As the wives--a former farm girl (Jeanne Crain), a radio soap opera writer (Ann Sothern), and a social climber from the wrong side of the tracks (Linda Darnell)--mull over the troubles of their marriages, each begins to think that she's the one left behind. A Letter to Three Wives doesn't have the crackling show-biz milieu of Eve, but it has the same mix of snappy dialogue and topnotch performances. The tone ranges from florid sentiment to unblinking cynicism, yet Mankiewicz... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jeanne Crain - Linda Darnell - Ann Sothern Director(s): Joseph L. Mankiewicz DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In Old Chicago was 20th Century Fox's grandest production of 1938, and it's still worthy of classic status. Along with MGM's 1936 earthquake drama San Fracisco, it ranks among the finest of the early disaster films, and the climactic depiction of the great Chicago fire of 1871 is still impressive, with some shots that are just as amazing as the digitally rendered disaster effects of present-day Hollywood. It's a highly fictionalized account of the O'Leary family, whose legendary milk-cow kicked over the lamp that set Chicago ablaze, and the teaming of Tyrone Power, Don Ameche, and Alice Faye (as O'Leary brothers Dion and Jack, and Jack's showgirl wife Belle) proved so popular that they were reunited, along with director Henry King, in Darryl F. Zanuck's follow-up production... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tyrone Power - Alice Faye - Don Ameche - Alice Brady Director(s): Henry King DVD Release Date: Released the 09 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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