Screen adaptions of the work of British playwright W. Somerset Maugham.
These movies are based on the writings of W. Somerset Maugham.
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- DirectorJoseph KaufmanStarsBillie BurkeThomas MeighanHelen TracyBased on the 1913 play The Land of Promise by W. Somerset Maugham about Nora Marsh and her life which ends in a farm.
- DirectorMaurice ElveyStarsElisabeth RisdonFred GrovesManora ThewA rich man weds his housekeeper and eventually falls in love with her.
- DirectorHerbert BlachéStarsEthel BarrymoreE.J. RatcliffeHolmes HerbertBased on the 1907 play 'Lady Frederick' by W. Somerset Maugham, this tells the story of Betsy O'Hara in her pursuit of romance and love.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsPola NegriEdmund LoweRockliffe FellowesAfter being educated in England, Daisy Forbes returns to China, the country of her birth, and discovers that her father has recently died and that she has become a social outcast, owing to the public revelation that the oriental nurse who raised her was actually her mother. Daisy is in love with George Tevis, the nephew of the British consul, but she is disappointed by George when he is persuaded by his uncle to renounce her in favor of a diplomatic career. Lee Tai, a sinister mandarin, kidnaps Daisy with the aid of drugs and hypnotism; she is rescued by Harry Anderson, a rotter whom she soon marries out of desperation. When Anderson discovers that Daisy is an ostracized half caste, he bitterly regrets their marriage. Not knowing of the marriage, George searches her out, only to find her a married woman. Anderson forbids George to see Daisy again, but George defies the ban and meets her at her house to say good-by. Before he can shoot George, Anderson drinks wine poisoned by Lee Tai--and dies. Tevis takes Daisy back to England, and Lee Tai is executed according to Chinese law.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsEleanor BoardmanMalcolm McGregorAlec B. FrancisAn unhappy woman considers leaving her dull husband for another man.
- DirectorWilliam BeaudineStarsThomas MeighanMona PalmaWyndham StandingA couple undergo hardship homesteading in Alberta, where they are plagued by bad weather and financial woes.
- DirectorRex IngramStarsAlice TerryPaul WegenerFirmin GémierA magician/alchemist, seeking to create life, finds that he needs the "blood of a virgin" to continue his experiments. He sends out his dwarf assistant to pick out the right girl.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsLionel BarrymoreBlanche FridericiCharles LaneA prostitute seeking a fresh start becomes the obsession of a religious extremist.
- DirectorJean de LimurStarsJeanne EagelsReginald OwenHerbert MarshallJeanne Eagels plays the bored and restless Leslie Crosbie who turns to another man, Geoffrey Hammond (Herbert Marshall) for attention when neglected by her husband Robert (Reginald Owen). Robert decides to go out for the evening to pick up a new rifle. Leslie's calm vanishes as she awaits an answer to a letter she has written Hammond. He has found a new love - a beautiful unscrupulous native woman Li Ti (Lady Tsei Mei) and has discarded Leslie.
- DirectorRobert MiltonDorothy ArznerStarsRuth ChattertonClive BrookMary NolanSet in London, Kathryn Miles's marriage is threatened when she discovers her husband's longstanding affair with her best friend but surprises everyone when she uses it to create a new life for herself.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsJoan CrawfordWalter HustonFred HowardA prostitute newly arrived in the South Pacific finds herself at odds with a stern missionary determined to save her soul.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Patricia EllisRalph BellamyAn Englishman sought for murder escapes to South Seas island.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsConstance BennettViolet Kemble CooperPhoebe FosterAlthough the British upper class may be thought our betters in society, but they are certainly not our betters, and perhaps our equals, in morality.
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsBette DavisLeslie HowardFrances DeeA young man finds himself attracted to a cold, unfeeling waitress who might ultimately destroy them both.
- DirectorRichard BoleslawskiStarsGreta GarboHerbert MarshallGeorge BrentA wife neglected by her husband, a medical researcher in China, falls in love with a dashing diplomatic attaché.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsJosephine HutchinsonGeorge BrentColin CliveMaurice and Stella Trent are happily married. When Maurice is crippled in an airplane crash, he and his mother send for his brother Colin to come help keep Stella busy. He is to show her a good time during what promises to be a 5 month recovery before an operation will allow Maurice to walk again. Stella and Colin become very close, and things come to a boil when Maurice believes his life may not be worth living any longer after all.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJohn GielgudMadeleine CarrollRobert YoungAfter three British Agents are assigned to assassinate a mysterious German spy during World War I, two of them become ambivalent when their duty to the mission conflicts with their consciences.
- DirectorBrian Desmond HurstStarsJohn LodgeAntoinette CellierAthole StewartGeorge Winters is a self-made man, a wealthy unscrupulous businessman and M.P. for Middlepool who has married into the impoverished nobility for reasons of status. But when his wife threatens to divorce him in public immediately before a general election, a scandal threatens that could endanger his latest bit of shady dealing. Winters is a man used to winning, and he will do absolutely anything to make sure he keeps his seat in Parliament, his ill-gotten gains and his wife...
- DirectorFrank McDonaldStarsHumphrey BogartMargaret LindsayDonald WoodsIn the South Seas, Val Stevens and Lucille Gordon are getting married when a ship goes down offshore. Val rescues Captain Deever and passenger Eric Blake. Later Eric saves Val from an octopus. Unknown as their friendship develops is the fact that Val is a fugitive and Eric is the detective sent to arrest him.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsKay FrancisErrol FlynnIan HunterColonel John Wister, on duty with the British army in the desert region of Dubik, returns to England on leave. There he falls in love with Julia Ashton, who cares deeply for him but believes herself incapable of love following the death of her fiancé; some time before. Wister convinces her that he loves her enough to live without her romantic love and that she should marry him. She does so and returns to Dubik with him. There she meets his adjutant, Captain Denny Roark. Roark is a dashing young man who reminds Julia thoroughly of her lost love. Soon she finds she is indeed capable of love, but it is Roark with whom she falls in love, not her husband. As warfare with the local tribes heats up and as Wister gains awareness of the unconsummated romance growing between his wife and best friend, tragedy lurks.
- DirectorErich PommerStarsCharles LaughtonElsa LanchesterRobert NewtonIn the Dutch islands, the sister of a pious missionary attempts to reform a womanizing, drunken beach bum.
- DirectorMuriel BoxStarsGlynis JohnsRobert NewtonDonald SindenIn the Indian Ocean, the new British Resident of the Welcome Islands tangles with loneliness, angry natives, a drunken troublemaker and a sudden outbreak of cholera.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsBette DavisHerbert MarshallJames StephensonThe wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing.
- DirectorWesley RugglesStarsJean ArthurFred MacMurrayMelvyn DouglasLong-missing Bill Cardew returns to find his wife Vicky remarried...and in no hurry to settle for just one husband.
- DirectorAlbert LewinStarsGeorge SandersHerbert MarshallDoris DudleyLoosely inspired by Gauguin's life, the story of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged stockbrocker who abandons his middle-class life, his family, and his duties to start painting, as he has always wanted to do. He is from then on a awful human being, wholly devoted to his ideal: beauty.