The Passionate Friends (1949)

The Passionate Friends (AKA “One Woman’s Story”)
Directed by David Lean
Written by Eric Ambler, David Lean, and Stanley Haynes from a novel by H.G. Wells
1949/UK
Cineguild
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] I think people remember pictures not dialogue. That’s why I like pictures. — David Lean[/box]

Imagine Brief Encounter if the lovers had not made a clean break of it but had tortured each other with unresolved desire for a couple of decades.  The plot did not work for me but with Claude Rains at his best and the beautiful visuals, I enjoyed this any way.

The story opens at a Swiss resort where Mary Justin (Ann Todd) and her husband Howard Justin (Claude Rains) are set to spend their first vacation together in several years.  It just so happens that, unbeknownst to her, Steven Stratton (Trevor Howard) has checked in for his own get-away in the room adjoining theirs.  From some uncertain point in time, Mary begins a narration that will take us to a series of episodic flashbacks.  I found the story rather hard to follow until I was well into it.

Evidently, Mary and Steven were in love as young people.  Mary, who wants to “belong to herself” rather than to any man, decides that the incredibly wealthy and powerful Howard is a better match and marries him despite her continuing eternal passion for Steven.

They meet by chance while Howard is away doing some big business detail in Germany in 1939 and start seeing each other.  The sparks rekindle almost immediately.  Steven persuades Mary to break with Howard and go away with him.  A dramatic confrontation with Howard (most of which we do not witness) changes Mary’s mind.  Howard convinces her that she is not looking for the type of romantic, all-consuming love Steven has to offer.

Nine years pass and we return to the post-war present and begin to follow Mary’s reunion with Steven in the Alps.  Steven is now married with children and Mary says her relationship with Howard has grown and deepened.  Nevertheless, the two clearly still care for each other.  Howard spots them returning from their picnic in the mountains and jumps to the natural conclusion.  He can take no more and sues for divorce naming Steven as the correspondent.  The ending of this film is abrupt and, I thought, unsatisfying.

The suave Rains seems to have been born to play the cuckold (Notorious, Deception).  He is superb at it here.  The hurt on his face needs no words.  Howard more or less reprises his role in Brief Encounter.  Ann Todd struck me as a bit too much of an “ingenue” type for the part.  Lean makes some beautiful, beautiful pictures once again.

I generally have a problem with stories about people who can’t make up their minds.  This was no exception to the rule.  These characters actually seem to relish tormenting each other.  I did think it was interesting that Mary was a woman who wanted to retain her independence even within a relationship.  We don’t get too many characters like that in the classic era.  Unfortunately, she is not shown to have the strength to go with her principles.

BFI Trailer