W. Somerset Maugham appears as narrator to three divergent tales of his. The
first two are of the comic variety and the third is a tender romance laced with
looming tragedy.
James Hayter and Kathleen Harrison are a church janitor and his landlady whom
after he is fired from his job proposes marriage to her and she agrees. Hayter and her go into business with a tobacconist shop and they do quite well.
They've prospered so much that bank manager Felix Aylmer has a serious talk
about the bank investing some of his considerable deposits. No thank you is
Hayter's answer and he reveals a secret. All I'll say is that behind every good
man there is a good woman.
I guarantee you will love Nigel Patrick's performance as the boorish nouveau
riche lout that everyone on the cruise ship he's on shudders when he comes
near. One of those who is an expert on everything. Only Wilfrid Hyde-White
who is his cabin roommate can't avoid him. But when it comes to a matter of
discretion regarding Anne Crawford, Patrick shows he has some grace.
The last is a tender romance at a tubercular sanitarium in Scotland. A couple
of patients Jean Simmons and Michael Rennie fall in love. They are as opposite
as can be. Simmons hasn't seen much of the world and Rennie is a high living
rake whose hedonistic ways have caught up with him. Sometimes Maugham
writes himself into his stories and here Roland Culver plays a version of him.
It's through his eyes we see the story unfold. In any event Simmons and Rennie make a life altering decision.
You'll laugh pretty good at the first two stories especially at Nigel Patrick. And
the third would reduce a Medusa to tears.
A fine film from British Gainsborough films that holds up well.
