Quartet (1948)

Quartet
Directed by Ken Annakin, Arthur Crabtree, Harold French, and Ralph Smart
Written by W. Somerset Maugham and R.C. Sherriff
1948/UK
Gainsborough Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Prime

 

[box] Himself, Host: In my twenties, the critics said I was brutal. In my thirties, they said I was flippant; in my forties, they said I was cynical; in my fifties they said I was competent – and then, in my sixties, they said I was superficial.[/box]

I find some of my best surprises on Amazon Prime.

This is an anthology film which brings four short stories by Somerset Maugham to the screen.

The first is “The Facts of Life”.  A nineteen-year-old is going abroad on his own for the first time to play at a tennis tournament in Monte Carlo.  His father (Basil Radford) warns him against gambling, women, and lending money.  We find out what happens when the son disregards every bit of this advice.

Next comes my favorite, “The Alien Corn”.  A young man of good family (Dirk Bogarde) announces that he has decided to study to become a concert pianist instead of going to Oxford as expected.  His father and girlfriend (Honor Blackman) offer him a deal.  They will agree to two years of piano study.  If, at the end of that time, an expert does not think he has potential to turn professional he will give up and go to Oxford.  The outcome is not what anyone hoped for.

Dirk Bogarde in “The Alien Corn”

In “The Kite”, a young man is a wizard at designing high-flying kites.  He falls in love and decides to marry to the mighty disapproval of his mother (Hermione Baddely) and father.  The new wife is jealous of all the time her husband spends flying kites with his family.  In a fit of pique, she destroys his experimental masterpiece.  The couple separates and the man is repeatedly thrown in jail for failing to pay support.  This is the most comic of the stories.  Much of the fun is in the resolution.

The final story is the longest.  In “The Colonel’s Lady”, a stuffy middle-aged man finds out that his wife is a poet.  Furthermore, her book of poetry becomes a best-seller,  The husband can’t find time to read the book until he is told how steamy it is.  When he does, the old adulterer is appalled to think that his dowdy wife could have any such thoughts.

The colonel gets precious little sympathy from his mistress (Linden Travers) in “The Colonel’s Lady”

I liked this a whole lot.  The acting is superb and each of the stories has an interesting twist.  They last long enough to let you care about the characters but don’t wear out their welcome.  Recommended.  The film is also currently available on YouTube.