Directed by Ken Annakin, Arthur Crabtree, Harold French, and Ralph Smart • 1948 • United Kingdom
Starring Mai Zetterling, Hermione Baddeley, Dirk Bogarde
Four directors take on four stories by W. Somerset Maugham—introduced by the author himself—for this superbly crafted and acted anthology film. A promising young tennis player drawn down a profligate path in Monte Carlo; a sensitive pianist (played by Dirk Bogarde) grappling with frustrated ambition; a young man more enchanted by kites than romance; and a colonel shocked to discover his wife’s secret career as an erotic poet are among the dreamers, eccentrics, and tragicomic figures populating these bittersweet tales of human folly.
Up Next in W. Somerset Maugham Anthology Films
-
Trio
Directed by Ken Annakin and Harold French • 1950 • United Kingdom
Starring Jean Simmons, Michael Rennie, Anne CrawfordProduced in the wake of the success of QUARTET, this follow-up brings three more stories by W. Somerset Maugham to the screen with the enduringly popular author’s gentle irony a...
-
Encore
Directed by Pat Jackson, Anthony Pelissier, and Harold French • 1951 • United Kingdom
Starring Glynis Johns, Nigel Patrick, Kay WalshFollowing QUARTET and TRIO, this equally captivating anthology film offers three more drolly amusing, morally perceptive stories drawn from the pages of W. Somers...