The Passionate Friends
"Their affair took on a life of its own."
A woman is torn between the love of her life, who's married to someone else, and her older husband.
Top Cast
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Ann Todd
Mary Justin
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Claude Rains
Howard Justin
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Trevor Howard
Prof. Steven Stratton
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Betty Ann Davies
Joan Layton
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Isabel Dean
Pat Stratton
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Wilfrid Hyde-White
Lawyer
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Arthur Howard
Smith - the Butler
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Guido Lorraine
Hotel Manager
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Marcel Poncin
Hall Porter
Overview
A woman is torn between the love of her life, who's married to someone else, and her older husband.
Rating
6.9
/ 10
62 Reviews 1 Popular
1 Reviews
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CinemaSerf7 Jul 9, 2022Ann Todd puts in quite a strong performance in this quite sensitively presented drama as "Mary", a lady contentedly if not ecstatically married to financier "Howard" (Claude Rains). One afternoon she bumps into "Prof. Stratton" (Trevor Howard) and that rekindles memories of a pre-war romance. When her husband has to go to Switzerland on business, she accompanies him and yes, you've guessed, she encounters "Stratton" again - though this time her husband spots her distress when they part and she is rumbled. This is another solid effort from David Lean that allows the performances to develop at their own pace; the characters each have flaws and strengths and his adaptation of this lesser known HG Wells story is quite a poignant and characterful look at how the choices we make evolve and change over time. The title is a bit misleading - for passion is really the one thing that is truly absent throughout, but Rains and Howard - two distinctively different style of actors work well as the foils to Todd's uncertain and needy "Mary" who is probably far more excited by the idea of love rather than actually experiencing or enjoying it. I could have done without her narration - it distracted me from an otherwise superior drama that is certainly a delight to watch, if not necessarily one with characters to admire.
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