Passionate Friends has Trevor Howard and Ann Todd as former lovers meeting quite by accident 9 years later. This represents another "Brief Encounter" for Howard but this time there is plenty of trouble for him.
The usually reliable Claude Rains plays Todd's husband. We view an absolutely loveless marriage which is more of marriage for convenience, comfort and prestige for both of them.
You would think that something really exciting would happen when the banker Rains goes off to Berlin in 1939. Remember what happened to him when Fanny (Bette Davis) drove him away to Germany in the memorable "Mr. Skeffington?" This picture doesn't have the passion at all. The film never really explained why Howard and Todd never married before her marriage to Rains.
The ending is like a production out of Hallmark. As in "Brief Encounter," Todd like 'Encounter's' Celia Johnson, almost throws herself on to the tracks. Was this a usual means for David Lean?
The usually reliable Claude Rains plays Todd's husband. We view an absolutely loveless marriage which is more of marriage for convenience, comfort and prestige for both of them.
You would think that something really exciting would happen when the banker Rains goes off to Berlin in 1939. Remember what happened to him when Fanny (Bette Davis) drove him away to Germany in the memorable "Mr. Skeffington?" This picture doesn't have the passion at all. The film never really explained why Howard and Todd never married before her marriage to Rains.
The ending is like a production out of Hallmark. As in "Brief Encounter," Todd like 'Encounter's' Celia Johnson, almost throws herself on to the tracks. Was this a usual means for David Lean?