Despite having seen Of Human Bondage and The Letter, I've had a hard time remembering any of what W. Somerset Maugham wrote. My memory of this film may break that pattern, because he himself is a supporting character in it (played by Herbert Marshall). The character's role is roughly that of Nick in The Great Gatsby, for perspective and exposition rather than influence on the plot.
The story begins in 1919 and ends an indefinite amount of time after the crash of '29. Larry (Tyrone Power), a shell-shocked WWI vet, abandons a lucrative job offer to travel in search of meaning. To Isabel (Gene Tierney), his fiancee and the niece of proud aristocrat Elliott (Clifton Webb), this is absurd, so she turns over the ring. When they meet again, Larry has found what he craved and Isabel has married his friend (John Payne) for money, which didn't turn out so well. Now she wants Larry again, but marital status aside, there's the obstacle of his feelings for long-time friend Sophie (Anne Baxter), who needs emotional healing of her own....
There's a fair amount of French spoken on screen, as Elliott used to live in Paris and Larry visits there on his quest. We do not hear any foreign languages when he goes to the Himalayas. Interestingly, while his spiritual advisor speaks of God and does not identify the belief system, I'm pretty sure it's Hinduism in keeping with the novel. I didn't expect it to get such a complimentary, if vague, image from old Hollywood. Larry comes home not just at peace but with new levels of virtue and ability to help. At the same time, those levels do not beggar belief; any mystical instruction he gets does not translate to apparent magic.
What's harder to believe is Isabel. Wealth may be her first love, but when Larry becomes her top priority, she actually shows more blatant wickedness. And childish rudeness, until she pulls herself half together. If I hadn't already read that this story was a melodrama, I'd probably figure it out from the stark contrast grown between the two most prominent characters.
OK, I might have thought of the word "melodrama" a bit earlier, when we learn how Sophie turns into a mess. I won't give it away, much as I fear I've said too much already, but it's dark. I'm not surprised Baxter won an Oscar for this role. She credits her own past trauma for enabling authenticity. (Spending little time with the other actors also contributed to a fitting lack of chemistry at that point.) Isabel's lack of sympathy for Sophie most firmly establishes what kind of woman the former is.
If you're looking for comic relief, I'm afraid the closest you'll get is Elliott. His snobbishness borders on cartoony, albeit without the villainy of his niece. Mr. Maugham brings a little charm of his own when not overshadowed.
This is not the way I'd usually be glad to spend 165 minutes. Still, I can admire the work that went into TRE. You might want to see it when you're up for a strong dose of sorrow, a dash of anger, and a pinch of hope.
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