Expected more

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

... and they did get ambitious here - an attempt to fit a very sprawling saga about one man's spiritual quest in an age of materialism into an almost three hour movie without boring the viewer. It works wonderfully.Larry Darryl (Tyrone Power) comes back from WWI to Chicago and to his fiancée, Isabel (Gene Tierney), who is madly in love with him, but not with his new focus on life. At the last minute on the last day of the war another man died saving his life, and it has gotten Larry thinking about the meaning of life. He just doesn't want to use his social connections, get a good position, and make money. He needs time to reflect to make the life that he has been given at another man's expense mean something. However, for all the time the movie takes and the opportunities that Larry surrenders, in the end, after mulling it over, you go "Wait a minute ! What exactly was that about, anyway? Maybe it wasn't as profound as I thought it was while I was watching it !"It's the only reason I give it 9 instead of 10 stars.What makes it work is that Larry's story is not the entire story. There are a host of interesting characters. Isabel is shamelessly material and in spite of how clever she thinks she is, she is very transparent. John Payne plays Gray, the guy Isabel eventually marries, and if he isn't clueless to her true nature, he does a great job hiding it. Clifton Webb plays Isabel's uncle and does what he always did so well at Fox - play someone who says exactly what he thinks regardless of the consequences.Then there is Ann Baxter as the tragic Sophie, a woman who is very much in love with her life and her husband and baby daughter until a crash with a drunk driver destroys all of that. Then comes the crash of 1929 and destroys some of the other characters in different ways. Herbert Marshall plays Maugham himself, and is likable as always, basically an observer in this story.Best scenes - Gene Tierney descends a staircase with the grace of an angel and delivers herself to the equally beautiful Tyrone Power; Power talks to a defrocked priest who is a wanted man and says he does not fear punishment he fears mercy; Power and Tierney have a final face off. Tierney finally says what has been written all over her face for the entire film, Power proves that he sees right through her; Power talks a good hearted personal secretary (Elsa Lancester) out of an invitation to a ball for a dying man who cannot attend but who wants the right to refuse more than anything in the little life he has left.Well acted by Fox's brightest stars, well directed, and beautifully photographed and scored, I'd highly recommend it. The time will fly by.

SPOILER ALERT.....SPOILER ALERTMake no mistake, this was one of 20th Century Fox's big productions. The $1.2 million budget led to gross rentals of $5 million. The scenes here are lush, although it's a shame they didn't spend just a little more money to film it is color. Fox purchased the film rights from Somerset Maugham for $50,000 plus a percent of the net profit. It appears to have been a fairly lavish production. The musical score in part by Alfred Newman, is quite impressive, and was the original source of the song "Mam'selle". The film runs long (145 minutes), but it needed to, and I give credit to 20th Century Fox for allowing it to.I am updating this review to reflect my recent Blu Ray replacement of the original DVD. The first question that comes up is whether or not the Blu Ray is a significant improvement over the DVD. An improvement in this case, yes, quite good, although at points the film's score seemed just a tad harsh. At any rate, it is a good transfer and looks good on widescreen high-def television. Somerset Maugham (played here by Herbert Marshall) narrates the film, and drifts in and out of the story at opportune moments, much as he had in 1942's "The Moon and Sixpence". As the film begins, we see Tyrone Power romancing Gene Tierney. But, Powers also wants to explore the meaning of life and travel the world...but Tierney simply wants a proper and wealthy marriage. The fiancés separate and Tierney marries John Payne, a millionaire. Mutual friend Sophie Nelson (Anne Baxter) marries happily, but her husband and child are killed in a car accident. Power eventually travels to India where he seeks a deeper understanding of life from a mystic and time in the Himalayas, where he becomes enlightened. Power returns to France and becomes friends again with Maugham and Baxter and her husband. An alcoholic Baxter shows up, Power decides to marry her, but Tierney's scheming results in the death of Baxter. All this comes out at the end of the movie, when Power leaves for America, never to again see his circle of friends.It's an especially strong performance by Tyrone Power here. He's at his young (32) handsome best here, but what's most impressive is that this is one of his most impressive acting performances. His character wants to know what life is all about because of an incident that occurred during WWI; it seems cliché now, but it makes sense here...and frankly, always will. It's interesting here how through some vignettes they pack a good sense of Power's character traveling in Europe...and it's hardly the life that Tierney's uncle (Clifton Webb) intended in his scheming. Gene Tierney comes off as being a very unsympathetic character...but that was the role. Early in the film she stresses her desire that her intended (Power) be ambitious, and while she feels strongly about it, rather than seem unreasonable, she seems logical. At this point, it's simply a question of 2 people whose attitude toward life are simply too different to enter into a marriage. And so she marries another -- John Payne. Later she learns that Anne Baxter will marry Tyrone Power, and she leads the recovering alcoholic woman into a drunk resulting in suicide. That's when you realize that Tierney's character is evil. But of course, she has her comeuppance at the end of the film. John Payne and Anne Baxter played their roles very well, and Baxter even won the supporting Oscar for it...although I didn't feel she was that special here. Payne was always a rather pleasant B actor. Baxter here plays a pathetic woman who is handed some tragic events in life and can't handle it. She becomes a slut in a Paris bar...which I found rather far fetched. And then the bombshell -- Power is going to marry Baxter, and, though married herself, Tierney is livid. Sophie totally falls off the wagon and ends up murdered. Herbert Marshall is excellent as Maugham, although his role is sparse in the first half of the film.Clifton Webb, nominated for best supporting actor Oscar here, is superb, and perhaps never did he play his foppish character quite so well as in this film. Webb's character's demise in the film is a classic. Also worth watching -- mostly early in the film -- is Lucile Watson as Tierney's mother...a wonderful character actress. Fritz Kortner, a Viennese actor, has a nice smaller role as a European miner/unfrocked priest with a fair amount of wisdom whose talk leads Tyrone Power's character to India. Cecil Humphreys has an interesting role as the holy man in India; again, a rather small part. Elsa Lanchester has a small, but delightful part near the end of the film.Perhaps the biggest fault of the film is the small amount of time spent on Power's character's time in the Indian mountains where he became enlightened. What did he learn there? How did he learn it. It's given short shrift, and as such, I felt as though an important piece of the character's enlightenment was missing.This is on my DVD shelf! And should be on yours. I have given the film an "8", albeit a weak one, because I was disappointed in the segment in India. This film is good enough that it inspired me to seek Maugham's novel, but I was dissatisfied for the same reason with the novel.

In 1919 Chicago, British writer W. Somerset Maugham (nicely personified by Herbert Marshall and directed by Edmund Goulding) recalls meeting handsome World War I veteran Tyrone Power (as Laurence "Larry" Darrell) at a party. He is engaged to attractive socialite Gene Tierney (as Isabel Bradley) and has a little money, but Mr. Power feels restless and uncertain about his place in the world. During the war, Power's life was saved by a buddy; the act killed his friend and left Power with questions about life. He and Ms. Tierney pledge their love, but decide to put their plans for marriage on hold while Power travels...The cast winds up in Paris, where Tierney's flamboyant uncle Clifton Webb (as Elliott Templeton) holds court. Powell is also admired by alcoholic floozy Anne Baxter (as Sophie MacDonald) while more sober John Payne (as Gray Maturin) remains available for Tierney. Power's inward searching becomes highly spiritual and he winds up spending some time in India where a bearded Maharishi-type tells him to imagine, "nothing above you but the sky." Imagine that. After the 1929 stock market crash, Powell returns to Paris. He attempts to bring God-given peace and tranquility to friends and acquaintances living on "The Razor's Edge"...******** The Razor's Edge (11/19/46) Edmund Goulding ~ Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Anne Baxter, Clifton Webb

Oh dear.I have wanted to see this ever since reading the book and seeing Bill Murray's competent version. This movie was like Sunday School in comparison. The direction is as bad as high school dramatics, the acting formulaic, the art direction lamentable and the dialogue is much, much worse.There are a few less bad things. Clifton Webb, who seems to adore being cast as a curmudgeon, is characteristically annoying as Eliot Templeton, Anne Baxter the best of a bad bunch as Sophie and John Payne is competent as Gray Maturin.This film was actually nominated for best picture of 1946. I think you would have had to have lived then to know why.