Maurice Bendrix (Van Johnson) is in London in the last year of WWII after a wound causes his discharge from the army. He is researching a book he is writing about British civil servants - the people who keep things running on the homefront in England during the war. He is invited to a party being thrown by one of these civil servants, Henry Miles (Peter Cushing), and as he casually mingles with the other guests Maurice sees Henry's wife Sarah ( Deborah Kerr) kiss another guest as he leaves in a way that people who are not lovers seldom kiss one another. Odd that she'd take such a chance in a house full of people and mirrors - that's how Maurice sees them - in the reflection of a mirror.
Sarah captures Maurice's imagination. Here is this gorgeous elegant creature married to a tedious fellow like Henry. So he invites her for a drink at a local pub and kisses her himself - he tells himself he wants to see her reaction. Instead he sees Reddy Kilowatt - instant electricity. Having to duck inside a doorway during Nazi bombing they embrace passionately. Thus is the beginning of the affair. But Maurice never trusts her. He says little things about little things she says that reveals he believes that she has had many lovers and is leading him on now. Then they finally have a chance to be alone for a few days. Sarah comes to Maurice's flat and another Nazi raid occurs. Maurice thinks that Sarah should go home, and goes downstairs to check things out. While downstairs a Nazi bomb hits close and the blast causes the heavy front door to land on Maurice. When he comes to and pushes the door off of him, he returns upstairs to find Sarah down on her knees, surprised that he is alive, and she quickly vacates the apartment. Maurice never sees her again. He figures he's been taken for a sap, that Sarah wanted out of the affair, that she never loved him and he was just another one of many men that made it easy for her to live with the dull Henry. That perhaps her surprise and shock is actually disappointment that he lived and didn't make it easy for her to dump him.
Maurice goes back to America a bitter man after numerous attempts to contact her confirm his feelings about her, but he returns to London a year later after the war in Europe ends. While there he is confided in by a distraught Henry who says that Sarah has been moping about and out at all hours without explanation. He ironically confides in Maurice that he thinks Sarah is having an affair and that he is considering hiring a private detective to follow her. Henry then decides against that course of action, but Maurice takes note of the name and address of the private detective and does go through on having her followed with completely surprising results. It turns out there IS a fourth person, that there IS a love quadrangle, but who this other person is in Sarah's life is a shocker.
Now up to this point it sounds like I'm describing a Douglas Sirk like romantic melodrama, but trust me this thing not only has a twist in the resolution it has a completely surprising change in genres towards the end. And this genre - which I cannot tell you about without spoiling things - is explored intelligently, not the usually heavy handed way it was explored in American films of the 50s. This was probably because it was British made, and the British did not have an all encompassing production code at the time like there was in America.
I'd highly recommend this one. Deborah Kerr is mysterious and beautiful, Peter Cushing acts like the last guy on earth you'd expect to be chasing Count Dracula around Europe with a stake in his hand just a few years later, and Van Johnson has never sulked about this way this well since "The Last Time I Saw Paris". Also look for John Mills as a most quirky and oddly enthusiastic private detective who lends some needed levity to the proceedings.
Sarah captures Maurice's imagination. Here is this gorgeous elegant creature married to a tedious fellow like Henry. So he invites her for a drink at a local pub and kisses her himself - he tells himself he wants to see her reaction. Instead he sees Reddy Kilowatt - instant electricity. Having to duck inside a doorway during Nazi bombing they embrace passionately. Thus is the beginning of the affair. But Maurice never trusts her. He says little things about little things she says that reveals he believes that she has had many lovers and is leading him on now. Then they finally have a chance to be alone for a few days. Sarah comes to Maurice's flat and another Nazi raid occurs. Maurice thinks that Sarah should go home, and goes downstairs to check things out. While downstairs a Nazi bomb hits close and the blast causes the heavy front door to land on Maurice. When he comes to and pushes the door off of him, he returns upstairs to find Sarah down on her knees, surprised that he is alive, and she quickly vacates the apartment. Maurice never sees her again. He figures he's been taken for a sap, that Sarah wanted out of the affair, that she never loved him and he was just another one of many men that made it easy for her to live with the dull Henry. That perhaps her surprise and shock is actually disappointment that he lived and didn't make it easy for her to dump him.
Maurice goes back to America a bitter man after numerous attempts to contact her confirm his feelings about her, but he returns to London a year later after the war in Europe ends. While there he is confided in by a distraught Henry who says that Sarah has been moping about and out at all hours without explanation. He ironically confides in Maurice that he thinks Sarah is having an affair and that he is considering hiring a private detective to follow her. Henry then decides against that course of action, but Maurice takes note of the name and address of the private detective and does go through on having her followed with completely surprising results. It turns out there IS a fourth person, that there IS a love quadrangle, but who this other person is in Sarah's life is a shocker.
Now up to this point it sounds like I'm describing a Douglas Sirk like romantic melodrama, but trust me this thing not only has a twist in the resolution it has a completely surprising change in genres towards the end. And this genre - which I cannot tell you about without spoiling things - is explored intelligently, not the usually heavy handed way it was explored in American films of the 50s. This was probably because it was British made, and the British did not have an all encompassing production code at the time like there was in America.
I'd highly recommend this one. Deborah Kerr is mysterious and beautiful, Peter Cushing acts like the last guy on earth you'd expect to be chasing Count Dracula around Europe with a stake in his hand just a few years later, and Van Johnson has never sulked about this way this well since "The Last Time I Saw Paris". Also look for John Mills as a most quirky and oddly enthusiastic private detective who lends some needed levity to the proceedings.