The Passionate Friends (1949)

The Passionate Friends is a British romantic film drama first released in 1949, directed by David Lean.  The film is based on a novel by H.G. Wells and stars Ann Todd, Claude Rains, Trevor Howard, Isabel Dean and Betty Ann Davies.  It has also been released under the title: One Woman’s Story.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Through her marriage to a wealthy financier, Mary Justin has the freedom and comfort she has always yearned for, but her life is one that lacks emotional fulfilment.  On a visit to Switzerland she runs into an old friend, Steven Stratton, with whom she once had a passionate love affair, many years before her marriage.  Her meeting with Steven rekindles old memories of a friendship of the most beautiful kind.  If only they could begin again...

With this, his second romantic melodrama, David Lean presumably hoped to repeat the success of his earlier Brief Encounter (1945).  Although it has a narrative structure, plot and visual style that closely resemble that earlier film, The Passionate Friends fails to reproduce its brilliance and, whilst the film has some merit, it is far from being Lean’s most inspired work.  

The film is adapted from a 1913 novel of the same name by H.G. Wells, although with a number of very significant changes.  Screenwriter Eric Ambler completely overlooks the social and political content of the novel and merely takes the ill-fated romance, re-written to follow the narrative arc of Brief Encounter.   As several important elements of Wells’s story are lost, the film ends up feeling somewhat superficial and contrived.  In particular, the rationale for Mary’s reluctance to marry Steven is not satisfactorily explained in the film, and so the character lacks the immense tragic dimension that she has in the novel.

Regrettably, the failure of the screenplay isn’t quite made up in other areas.  Guy Green’s cinematography is attractive but doesn’t have the genius of his earlier Lean films.  The lead performances are likewise acceptable without being great.  In her first appearance in a David Lean film, Ann Todd (who would shortly marry Lean) has difficulty making her character convincing and sympathetic – although, again, the screenplay is largely to blame for this.  The same goes for Trevor Howard, whose presence here is far more subdued than in Brief Encounter.  The only member of the cast to shine is Claude Rains, whose perfectly judged performance is just about the only thing in the film which conveys any real sense of conflict and emotional truth.  Without Rains, the film would have very little to commend it.

© James Travers 2008

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