Clipper Mills

The End of the Affair

Description

An adulterous love affair turns into a relationship filled with hate and jealousy.

For its first minutes, The End of the Affair looks like it's going to be a standard "two tortured souls who know they shouldn't be having an affair but are going to keep on doing it anyway" movie. Fortunately, it gets more interesting than that. Van Johnson plays Maurice Bendrix, an American author in wartime England. While attending a cocktail party of noble civil servant Henry Miles (Peter Cushing), he accidentally catches a glimpse of Henry's wife, Sarah (Deborah Kerr), kissing another man. Fascinated, he arranges to meet her, and the two start an affair. Maurice, unable to get Sarah's previous infidelity out of his mind, gets clingy and suspicious; Sarah tells him they can't meet anymore and goes back to Henry, and that's that. Or is it? Maurice is unable to let go of Sarah, and as he investigates he finds out there was far more to the end of their affair than he thought. Kerr has by far the most difficult job of the film, playing several layers of deception as the coolly efficient civil servant's wife with more than one unexpected passion hiding just below the surface. Peter Cushing also does quietly good work, touchingly playing what could have been a thankless Wronged Husband role. Indeed, most of the usual standards are fleshed out in surprising ways in this strange and earnest little movie. Like its heroine, The End of the Affair takes a grim surface story and gradually reveals the unexpected passions underneath. (Based on the novel by Graham Greene and remade in 1999 with Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes.) --Ali Davis

Reviews

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2009-08-30
Summary: "What a surprise!"

Given the puritan production codes of the era, this is a surprisingly adult film for its time. The ending is not the usual retribution for sin, but fits in with the plot development and Graham Greene's religious bent.
While not graphic of course, it is clear these two are having a sexual love affair--there is a shot of a rumpled bed, a line about taking a taxi to a hotel, a scene of a passionate kiss followed by a fade to black, and then Deborah adjusting her earrings and clothes. Given the prudery of most 'adult' dramas of the time, I'm amazed at what they got away with. Deborah was excellent, not a goody-two-shoes, but a complicated conflicted woman, who is an adult,and an adulteress,though a sympathetic one. Van Johnson, though to me he had no physical charisma, played his role with layers and complexity. This makes a great companion piece to the 1999 film with Fiennes and Moore. A few lines are exactly the same, though the latter film has more heat and frankness, of course.
There is one trailer from the original, and some extra material related to the 1999 remake, just for filler and promotion I guess.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2009-07-30
Summary: "The End of the Affair"

the shipment on the 23rd was faulty. It was replaced by the shipment of the 29th, which was in satisfactory condition.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2009-03-19
Summary: "the American writer and the British housewife"

There is a strange brooding introspection that makes this high drama,
and not just a chick flick. The performance by Deborah Kerr is some of the best acting I've seen. The script and theme of religious faith are both
sort of out of time and place?
Are people who love and are also married to others really sinners?
The old testament and the new testament seem pretty clear in Christian terms, but increasingly those terms seem not to
be the ones ordinary people think important?
Some times a renewal of the ten commandments seems important for the continuation of a western culture?

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2008-09-26
Summary: ""I prayed once too often.""

When ex-soldier Maurice Bendrix (Van Johnson) decides to write a story on the war effort at home, he visits Henry Miles (Peter Cushing) in his home for an interview. Maurice meets Henry's wife Sarah (Deborah Kerr) there and there is an instant attraction between them. They begin an affair, but it is abruptly stopped. Maurice cannot figure out why and Sarah won't tell him, but her reason is wrought out of her love for him and a promise she made.

The biggest problem with this movie is the direction. Edward Dmytryk was better suited to film noir, and he attempts to make this film resemble that genre. In truth, it should have been an out and out romance, and although his choices do make the movie more mysterious, it compromises the validity of the love story. Kerr and Johnson have adequate chemistry together, but Kerr is the obvious standout. Johnson plays his role as a hardened lover confused by Sarah's actions; in some ways he seems wooden, but that is appropriate for the role. Kerr is an emotional powerhouse and shines in every scene she is in, especially toward the end.

Overall, The End of the Affair is a good movie with several interesting scenes. It was remade in the 90s, and it was an odd choice to include the featurette from the remake on this DVD.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2008-07-29
Summary: "the end of the affair"

Movies has very well acted and produces, the movies put me into the time period of the ploit of the movies