Skip to main content

Film Friday: "The Razor's Edge" (1946)

To celebrate lovely Gene Tierney's 95th birthday, which was yesterday, this week on "Film Friday" I thought I would bring you what I believe was the first film of hers I have seen. Incidentally, this picture was released on the exact same date of her 26th birthday.

Original poster by Norman Rockwell
Directed by Edmund Goulding, The Razor's Edge (1946) opens at a dinner party held by elitist snob Elliott Templeton (Clifton Webb) and his sister Louisa Bradley (Lucile Watson) at a Chicago country club in 1919. Much to the family's dismay, Louisa's daughter Isabel (Gene Tierney) is engaged to Larry Darrell (Tyrone Power), a war veteran who discovers upon his return home that he can no longer fit into the world of upper-class society that his fiancé lives in. Also at the party is Sophie Nelson (Anne Baxter), Isabel's simple childhood friend; Gray Maturin (John Payne), Larry's wealthy friend who is also in love with Isabel; and author W. Somerset Maugham (Herbert Marshall), who runs into these characters throughout the course of their lives.

To find himself, Larry joins several other members of the Lost Generation in Paris, where Isabel visits him after a year. Larry asks her to marry him right away, but she refuses, appalled by his modest living conditions. Returning to America, Isabel marries Gray so she can continue enjoying the elite social and family life she craves. In the meantime, Larry travels to India to seek enlightment, studying at a monastery in the Himalayas under the guidance of the Holy Man (Cecil Humphreys). Back in Paris ten years later, Larry learns from Maugham that Gary has lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929. Unsettled by the news, Larry decides to visit Sophie, who has been living with Gary in Elliott's Parisian apartment. After they all have dinner with Maugham, Isabel insists on visiting a cheap nightclub, where they encounter Sophie, now a drunkard due to the loss of her husband and daughter in a car crash. Larry helps Sophie overcome her problem and soon announces his plans to marry her. Jealous, Isabel tempts Sophie back into drinking and she disappears, only to be found murdered a few days later. Meanwhile, Elliott dies and leaves his fortune to Isabel, who then tries to reconcile with Larry. However, he pushes her away, accusing her of deliberately enticing Sophie to drink. Instead, he decides to work his way back to America aboard a tramp steamer. Maugham attempts to console Isabel with the knowledge that Larry is happy because he has finally found what he sought goodness, the greatest force in the world.

Larry Darrell: I don't think I'll ever find peace until I make up my mind about things. It's so difficult to put into words. The minute you try, you feel embarrassed. You say to yourself, who am I to bother my head about this, that or the other? Wouldn't it be better just to follow the beaten path and let what's coming to you, come?

Born in the British Embassy in Paris in 1874, William Somerset Maugham began writing steadily at the tender age of 15 and eagerly wished to become author. After the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), he abandoned his career as a medical doctor to dedicate himself exclusively to writing, producing such notable works as Of Human Bondage (1915) and The Painted Veil (1925). In early 1938, having developed an interest in Hindu spirituality, Maugham travelled to India to visit the guru Ramana Maharshi. While he had reservations about the guru's acquiscient and fatalist philosophy, Maugham was inspired by his experiences in India to write The Razor's Edge (1944), a novel that was a departure for him in many ways. The story of a disillusioned veteran of World War I who follows an unconventional path to salvation through Hindu mysticism, the book asked questions that spoke to a period in history unlike any other, while also embracing Eastern philosophies that would not gain widespread acceptance for decades. Despite the less than promising premise for heady sales, The Razor's Edge eventually became wildly popular on both sides of the Atlantic, striking a cord with millions of war-weary readers.

Although several of Maugham's works had been successfully adapted to the screen before, notably Of Human Bondage in 1934 and The Letter in 1940, Hollywood studios did not seem to show any great enthusiasm for The Razor's Edge as a motion picture, shrugging it off as "unfilmable." Darryl F. Zanuck, however, felt differently and decided to purchase the rights to the novel for 20th Century Fox in March 1945. "There must be a reason why the American public at this moment is reading the book more than it is reading any other," Zanuck wrote. "The answer, I think, is simple: Millions of people today are searching for contentment and peace in the same manner that Larry searches in the book. [...] In this particular case he finds the key is within himself, and at the end of the story he most dedicate himself in some simple fashion to an effort to give this secret to others."

Tyrope Power and Gene Tierney in
a publicity still
To write the script for The Razor's Edge, Zanuck hired Lamar Trotti, who had recently won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Henry King's Technicolor biopic Wilson (1944). When he got the director he wanted, George Cukor, on a loan-out from MGM, Zanuck asked him to look over Trotti's script for approval. Unimpressed by what he read, Cukor told Zanuck they should get Maugham himself to write the screenplay, something the producer had already thought of and resisted, thinking the monetary expenses would be too high. Luckily, Cukor was a friend of Maugham's and the author consented to do it for free. 

Zanuck told both Maugham and Cukor that he liked the new script, but privately he felt it relied too much on detailed explanation rather than action. His main problem was with the character of Larry; he did not want to change him, he merely wanted him "throughout the picture not to talk about himself, not to explain himself; to let the audience write its own answers." Zanuck also strongly opposed Cukor's suggestions for highlighting Larry's spirituality, as he felt the character "should not set out on a crusade to save humanity or to find out whether or not there is a God. He sets out to find the answer to his own personal problems." In addition, Zanuck rejected Cukor's idea to end the film by indicating that Larry would become a university teacher instead of a taxi driver, considering that "this would a tragic error that would kill the picture." Unable to reach an agreement, and due to scheduling conflicts with MGM's Desire Me (1947), Zanuck dropped Cukor from the project, abandoning Maugham's screenplay in the process.

Edmund Goulding, Tyrone Power and
Gene Tierney on the set
With Cukor off the film, Zanuck rescued Trotti's script and offered director Edmund Goulding a generous deal to helm The Razor's Edge. A "mysterious, dapper and captivatingly witty Englishman," Goulding was one of the most versatile and multitalented personalities of his time. Known for cultured dramas like Love (1927), Grand Hotel (1932) and Dark Victory (1939), he had a sensitive and respectful approach to acting and rarely upstaged his actors with directorial flourishes.

When Fox bought the rights to The Razor's Edge, Maugham stipulated in his contract that if principal photography was not underway by February 2, 1946, the studio would have to pay him an additional $50,000. The problem was that Zanuck wanted Tyrone Power to play the lead role in the film, but the actor was still enlisted for military service and would not be discharged until early 1946, possibly after the deadline imposed by Maugham. To honor the author's terms, Zanuck had location shooting begin in August 1945 in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, used to simulate the mountain top in India, and hired a double to stand in for Larry in the long shots. Power was finally discharged as a first lieutenant in mid-January 1946, allowing production to commence in late March of that year.

A matinee idol known for his swashbuckling and romantic roles, Power welcomed the chance to tackle more serious material and prove that he could act. Power got along splendily with Goulding, whom he later called his persona favorite director, and even more so with his co-star, Gene Tierney. Recently divorced from his wife, French actress Annabella, Power was a now "a free agent." He was openly apparent that he wanted something more than just a friendship with Tierney. Power did his best to seduce her and she genuinely liked him, just not romantically. The fact that John Kennedy, years away from becoming the Presidency, was still in her life may have closed down any thoughts of a romance with Power. Many Hollywood columnists at the time tried to push for Tierney and Power to become and item, but in the end "the only sparks between the two of them were scripted and on film."

The Razor's Edge premiered at the Roxy Theatre in New York City on November 19, 1946, coinciding with Tierney and Clifton Webb's birthdays. There was a party at the Plaza Hotel after the screening to celebrate both birthdays and the enthusiastic reception that the film got after the premiere. Variety, for instance, asserted that "The Razor's Edge has everything for virtually every type of film fan. Fundamentally it's all good cinematurgy. It's a moving picture that moves." At the 19th Academy Awards, The Razor's Edge received several major nominations, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Webb) and Best Art Direction (Black and White), with Anne Baxter winning for Best Supporting Actress.


___________________________
SOURCES:
Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory: Hollywood's Genius Bad Boy by Matthew Kennedy (2004) | Gene Tierney: A Biography by Michelle Vogel (2005) | Memo From Darryl F. Zanuck: The Golden Years at Twentieth Century-Fox by Darryl Francis Zanuck; selected, edited and annotated by Rudy Behlmer (1993) | Sitting Pretty: The Life and Times of Clifton Webb by Clifton Webb (2011) | The Star Machine by Jeanine Basinger (2009) | TCMDb (Articles) | Variety review |

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Golden Couples: Gary Cooper & Patricia Neal

It was April 1948 when director King Vidor spotted 22-year-old Patricia Neal on the Warner Bros. studio lot. A drama graduate from Northwestern University, she had just arrived in Hollywood following a Tony Award-winning performance in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest . Impressed by Patricia's looks, Vidor approached the young actress and asked if she would be interested in doing a screen test for the female lead in his newest film, The Fountainhead (1949). Gary Cooper had already signed as the male protagonist, and the studio was then considering Lauren Bacall and Barbara Stanwyck to play his love interest.          Neal liked the script and about two months later, she met with the director for sound and photographic tests. Vidor was enthusiastic about Patricia, but her first audition was a complete disaster. Cooper was apparently watching her from off the set and he was so unimpressed by her performance that he commented, « What's that!? » He tried to con

Golden Couples: Henry Fonda & Barbara Stanwyck

In the mid- and late 1930s, screwball comedy was in vogue and practically every actress in Hollywood tried her hand at it. Barbara Stanwyck never considered herself a naturally funny person or a comedienne per se , but after delivering a heart-wrenching performance in King Vidor's Stella Dallas (1937), she decided she needed a « vacation » from emotional dramas. In her search for a role, she stumbled upon a « champagne comedy » called The Mad Miss Manton (1938), originally intended as a Katharine Hepburn vehicle. Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda as Melsa and Peter in The Mad Miss Manton .   Directed by Leigh Jason from a script by Philip G. Epstein, The Mad Miss Manton begins when vivacious Park Avenue socialite Melsa Manton finds a corpse while walking her dogs in the early hours of the morning. She calls the police, but they dismiss the incident — not only because Melsa is a notorious prankster, but also because the body disappears in the meantime. Sarcastic newspaper editor

Golden Couples: Clark Gable & Jean Harlow

  At the 3rd Academy Awards ceremony, MGM's hugely successful prison drama The Big House (1930) earned writer Frances Marion an Oscar for Best Writing. Hoping that she would be inspired to repeat that accomplishment, Irving Thalberg, head of production at Metro, sent Marion to Chicago, Illinois to research story ideas. While flicking through the pages of The Saturday Evening Post , she found an article revealing that, in a city where people distrusted the police, a small group of leading citizens met in secret to arrange their own justice for criminals. Marion took inspiration from that story and wrote The Secret Six (1931), in which Wallace Beery and Lewis Stone, stars of The Big House , play two mobsters prosecuted by a half a dozen vigilantes. Thalberg was pleased with the leading roles Marion wrote for Beery and Stone, but asked if she could also fill out one of the minor leads for Clark Gable , a tall, dark and handsome 30-year-old actor whom Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had recen

Film Friday: «Who Was That Lady?» (1960)

Theatrical release poster Directed by George Sidney , Who Was That Lady? (19 60 ) begins when che mistry p rofessor David Wilson (Tony Curtis) is caught by his wife Ann (Janet Leigh) kissing one of his female st u de nts. To stop her from divo rcing him , he a sk s for hel p from his good friend, television writer Michael Haney (Dean Mart in), who invents a crazy story that Davi d is working undercover with the FBI and kissed the student — a foreign agent — in the line of du ty. To convince Ann, Mi ke tricks Schult z (William Newel l), a prop man at the T V studio, into fabricating an FBI identification card for David and s up plying him with a g un. Ann is so t hrilled by the idea of being married to a secret agent t hat she forgives David. Meanwhile, Mike sets up a date wi th the Coogle sisters, Gloria (Barbara N ichols) and Florence ( Joi Lan sing), and takes David along , telling Ann that the girls are foreign agents. Just as Ann realizes that her h usband ha s

Christmas in Old Hollywood

The beautiful Elizabeth Taylor with an extremely cute little friend. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall with their son Stephen (early 1950s). Here they are again. What an adorable picture! Paulette Goddard looking rather uncomfortable next to her Christmas tree. Boris Karloff and Ginger Rogers at a Hollywood Christmas party in 1932. The adorable Shirley Temple chatting with Santa. Here she is again with a dolly friend. Look how cute she looks here, modeling a new Christmas dress (1935). The fur-tastic Joan Crawford. Doris Day asking us to "do not disturb until Christmas." Don't worry, Doris, we shall not. Though it's past Christmas now, so I'm sure Doris won't mind if we disturb just a little bit. Priscilla Lane looking sparkling drapped in her garlands. A VERY young Carole Lombard sitting next to her tree (1920s). Jean Harlow looking stunning as always. Janet Leigh looking extra cute unde

Films I Saw in 2020

For the past four years, I have shared with you a list of all the films I saw throughout 2016 , 2017 , 2018 and 2019 , so I thought I would continue the «tradition» and do it again in 2020. This list includes both classic and «modern» films, which make up a total of 161 titles. About three or four of these were re-watches, but I decided to include them anyway. Let me know how many from these you have seen. As always, films marked with a heart ( ❤ ) are my favorites. Sherlock Jr. (1924) | Starring Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire and Joe Keaton The Crowd (1928) | Starring James Murray, Eleanor Boardman and Bert Roach Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) | Starring Henry Fonda, Alice Brady and Marjorie Weaver Brief Encounter (1945) | Starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard and Stanley Holloway The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) | Starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman The Girl He Left Behind (1956) | Starring Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood Gidget (1959) | Starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson an

Wings of Change: The Story of the First Ever Best Picture Winner

Wings was the first ever film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since then, it has become one of the most influential war dramas, noted for its technical realism and spectacular air-combat sequences. This is the story of how it came to be made.   A man and his story The concept for Wings originated from a writer trying to sell one of his stories. In September 1924, Byron Morgan approached Jesse L. Lasky, vice-president of Famous Players-Lasky, a component of Paramount Pictures, proposing that the studio do an aviation film. Morgan suggested an «incident and plot» focused on the failure of the American aerial effort in World War I and the effect that the country's «aviation unpreparedness» would have in upcoming conflicts. Lasky liked the idea, and approved the project under the working title «The Menace.»   LEFT: Byron Morgan (1889-1963). RIGHT: Jesse L. Lasky (1880-1958).   During his development of the scenario with William Shepherd, a former war correspondent, Morga

80 Reasons Why I Love Classic Films (Part II)

I started this blog six years ago as a way to share my passion for classic films and Old Hollywood. I used to watch dozens of classic films every month, and every time I discovered a new star I liked I would go and watch their entire filmography. But somewhere along the way, that passion dimmed down. For instance, I watched 73 classic films in 2016, and only 10 in 2020. The other day, I found this film with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. that I had never heard of — the film is Mimi (1935), by the way — and for some reason it made me really excited about Old Hollywood again. It made me really miss the magic of that era and all the wonderful actors and actresses. And it also made me think of all the reasons why I fell in love with classic films in the first place. I came up with 80 reasons, which I thought would be fun to share with you. Most of them are just random little scenes or quirky little quotes, but put them together and they spell Old Hollywood to me. Yesterday I posted part one ; her

Top 10 Favourite Christmas Films

Christmas has always been a source of inspiration to many artists and writers. Over the years, filmmakers have adapted various Christmas stories into both movies and TV specials, which have become staples during the holiday season all around the world. Even though Christmas is my favourite holiday, I haven't watched a lot of Christmas films. Still, I thought it would be fun to rank my top 10 favourites, based on the ones that I have indeed seen. Here they are.  10. Holiday Affair (1949) Directed by Don Hartman, Holiday Affair tells the story of a young widow (Janet Leigh) torn between a boring attorney (Wendell Corey) and a romantic drifter (Robert Mitchum). She's engaged to marry the boring attorney, but her son (Gordon Gebert) likes the romantic drifter better. Who will she choose? Well, we all know who she will choose.   Holiday Affair is not by any means the greatest Christmas film of all time, but it's still a very enjoyable Yule-tide comedy to watch over the holi

The Sinatra Centennial Blogathon: Frank Sinatra & Gene Kelly

  In January 1944, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer happened to see a young crooner by the name of Frank Sinatra perform at a benefit concert for The Jewish Home for the Aged in Los Angeles. According to Nancy Sinatra, Frank's eldest daughter, Mayer was so moved by her father's soulful rendition of « Ol' Man River » that he made the decision right then and there to sign Frank to his studio. Sinatra had been on the MGM payroll once before, singing with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in the Eleanor Powell vehicle Ship Ahoy (1942), although it is very likely that Mayer never bothered to see that film. Now that Frank was «hot,» however, Metro made arrangements to buy half of his contract from RKO, with the final deal being signed in February of that year. Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in  Anchors Aweigh Being a contract player at the studio that boasted «more stars than there are in the heavens» gave Frank a sudden perspective regarding his own talents as a film performer. The «g