Quartet (1948)
CONTAINS SEMI-SPOILERS
Presented by the author, Quartet (1948) is an anthology of four popular W. Somerset Maugham short stories, quite faithfully adapted, very entertaining, and loosely falling into the categories: comedy, tragedy, absurdity and a love story. (Also, refreshingly, none of the four is an adaptation of "Rain" -- that rather too familiar drama of Miss Sadie Thompson and the minister Alfred Davidson, played by Joan Crawford and Walter Huston in 1932, among other filmic treatments.)
There are a few (mostly) minor changes from the written texts: in the original short story "The Facts of Life," for instance, the young tennis player spends the night in his new friend's bed and certainly not on her sofa. This change was obviously just lip-service to convention and detracts not at all -- the filmmakers knew the audience would get the point.
The only story substantially modified is "The Alien Corn," which omits several layers of occasionally discursive social commentary, but leaves the skeleton intact. In the original tale, the family are Jewish and the aristocratic equivalent of nouveau riche. The screenplay eliminates this distinction and treats the characters as landed English gentry of long standing; a sensible decision as the inclusion of the former elements in the script would probably have been very ponderous, although it leaves the title a bit disconnected.
The IMDb reviewer rhoda-1 has a different opinion, and feels the change in the story was made because "even after World War II, the filmmakers clearly thought that the problem of Jewish assimilation could not be part of a "civilised," classy, English entertainment." There may be more than a little truth in this contention, but I think the producers were more worried about the audience becoming restless as opposed to violating a taboo. It's not the best analogy, I know, but how, for example, could Gone with the Wind (1939) have worked in a sympathetic portrait of John Brown's Rebellion and not ended up being a completely different movie?
However, I agree with rhoda-1 that the excisions remove most of the original story's "power and pain." I think the filmmakers must have been well aware of this and made a calculated choice, mostly for commercial reasons. Quartet is not a shallow film, but it has a light touch, and too much weight unevenly distributed might have sunk the whole thing. I may be wrong. I wish it were possible to know what Maugham's thoughts on the subject were.
Just for context, it might also be worth noting that less than three years before this film was released, V-2 guided missiles, each carrying a ton or more of high explosive, were still regularly falling on London -- this movie is a good example that imperfect, but high-quality, English filmmaking wasn't restricted to just the works of the Archers in a very difficult period.
But in a lighter vein: the film has solid performances from some familiar faces, including early roles for Dirk Bogarde, Mai Zetterling and Honor Blackman. Sisters Angela and Hermione Baddeley also appear, (the former for about 18 seconds), but in different segments. Angela Baddeley became very famous 22 years later as the talented, temperamental cook Mrs. Bridges in the BBC series Upstairs, Downstairs. Hermione Baddeley and Mervyn Johns play a married couple in the segment "The Kite," and later played Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cratchet -- in much the same key -- in Scrooge (1951), the Alistair Sim version of A Christmas Carol, (my favorite screen adaptation of Dickens' wonderful ghost story).
Historical considerations aside, like Mr. Maugham himself, Quartet naturally shows its age, but if it be to one's taste, is very highly recommended. The old gentleman's wry introduction alone is worth the price of admission.
For more specific details of the film's four plots, directors, cast and textures, please see some of the other IMDb reviews -- as with any movie, some bless it and some curse it -- but there are a manageable number, (18 total - with this one - as of October 3, 2017), and most are worth reading.
XYZ
CONTAINS SEMI-SPOILERS
Presented by the author, Quartet (1948) is an anthology of four popular W. Somerset Maugham short stories, quite faithfully adapted, very entertaining, and loosely falling into the categories: comedy, tragedy, absurdity and a love story. (Also, refreshingly, none of the four is an adaptation of "Rain" -- that rather too familiar drama of Miss Sadie Thompson and the minister Alfred Davidson, played by Joan Crawford and Walter Huston in 1932, among other filmic treatments.)
There are a few (mostly) minor changes from the written texts: in the original short story "The Facts of Life," for instance, the young tennis player spends the night in his new friend's bed and certainly not on her sofa. This change was obviously just lip-service to convention and detracts not at all -- the filmmakers knew the audience would get the point.
The only story substantially modified is "The Alien Corn," which omits several layers of occasionally discursive social commentary, but leaves the skeleton intact. In the original tale, the family are Jewish and the aristocratic equivalent of nouveau riche. The screenplay eliminates this distinction and treats the characters as landed English gentry of long standing; a sensible decision as the inclusion of the former elements in the script would probably have been very ponderous, although it leaves the title a bit disconnected.
The IMDb reviewer rhoda-1 has a different opinion, and feels the change in the story was made because "even after World War II, the filmmakers clearly thought that the problem of Jewish assimilation could not be part of a "civilised," classy, English entertainment." There may be more than a little truth in this contention, but I think the producers were more worried about the audience becoming restless as opposed to violating a taboo. It's not the best analogy, I know, but how, for example, could Gone with the Wind (1939) have worked in a sympathetic portrait of John Brown's Rebellion and not ended up being a completely different movie?
However, I agree with rhoda-1 that the excisions remove most of the original story's "power and pain." I think the filmmakers must have been well aware of this and made a calculated choice, mostly for commercial reasons. Quartet is not a shallow film, but it has a light touch, and too much weight unevenly distributed might have sunk the whole thing. I may be wrong. I wish it were possible to know what Maugham's thoughts on the subject were.
Just for context, it might also be worth noting that less than three years before this film was released, V-2 guided missiles, each carrying a ton or more of high explosive, were still regularly falling on London -- this movie is a good example that imperfect, but high-quality, English filmmaking wasn't restricted to just the works of the Archers in a very difficult period.
But in a lighter vein: the film has solid performances from some familiar faces, including early roles for Dirk Bogarde, Mai Zetterling and Honor Blackman. Sisters Angela and Hermione Baddeley also appear, (the former for about 18 seconds), but in different segments. Angela Baddeley became very famous 22 years later as the talented, temperamental cook Mrs. Bridges in the BBC series Upstairs, Downstairs. Hermione Baddeley and Mervyn Johns play a married couple in the segment "The Kite," and later played Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cratchet -- in much the same key -- in Scrooge (1951), the Alistair Sim version of A Christmas Carol, (my favorite screen adaptation of Dickens' wonderful ghost story).
Historical considerations aside, like Mr. Maugham himself, Quartet naturally shows its age, but if it be to one's taste, is very highly recommended. The old gentleman's wry introduction alone is worth the price of admission.
For more specific details of the film's four plots, directors, cast and textures, please see some of the other IMDb reviews -- as with any movie, some bless it and some curse it -- but there are a manageable number, (18 total - with this one - as of October 3, 2017), and most are worth reading.
XYZ