Ann Todd

Claude Rains

Trevor Howard

Betty Ann Davies

Isabel Dean

Wilfrid Hyde-White

Arthur Howard

Guido Lorraine

Marcel Poncin

Natasha Sokolova

Hélène Burls

John Serret

Frances Waring

Wenda Rogerson

Helen Piers

Ina Pelly

David Lean

H.G. Wells

Richard Addinsell

Ronald Neame

Eric Ambler

Guy Green

Geoffrey Foot

Clive Donner

Jack Harris

Margaret Furse

Biddy Chrystal

George Pollock

Stanley Haynes

Oswald Morris

T. Hopewell Ash

Stanley Lambourne

Gordon K. McCallum

Winston Ryder

Maggie Unsworth

Muir Mathieson

Norman Spencer

John Bryan

Drama

Romance

The Passionate Friends

Cineguild

J. Arthur Rank Organisation

United Kingdom

CinemaSerf

Ann Todd puts in quite a strong performance in this quite sensitively presented drama as "Mary", a lady contentedly if not ecstatically married to financier "Howard" (Claude Rains). One afternoon she bumps into "Prof. Stratton" (Trevor Howard) and that rekindles memories of a pre-war romance. When her husband has to go to Switzerland on business, she accompanies him and yes, you've guessed, she encounters "Stratton" again - though this time her husband spots her distress when they part and she is rumbled. This is another solid effort from David Lean that allows the performances to develop at their own pace; the characters each have flaws and strengths and his adaptation of this lesser known HG Wells story is quite a poignant and characterful look at how the choices we make evolve and change over time. The title is a bit misleading - for passion is really the one thing that is truly absent throughout, but Rains and Howard - two distinctively different style of actors work well as the foils to Todd's uncertain and needy "Mary" who is probably far more excited by the idea of love rather than actually experiencing or enjoying it. I could have done without her narration - it distracted me from an otherwise superior drama that is certainly a delight to watch, if not necessarily one with characters to admire.

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