Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney & Anne Baxter in W. Somerset Maugham's 'The Razor's Edge' (1946)

W. Somerset Maugham (Herbert Marshall), the story's narrator, drifts in and out of the lives of others.

In the summer of 1919, at a Chicago country club party, expatriate Elliott Templeton (Clifton Webb) returns to the United States from France to visit his sister, Louisa Bradley (Lucile Watson), and his niece, Isabel (Gene Tierney). Isabel's fiancé, Larry Darrell (Tyrone Power), recently returned from service as a pilot during the Great War. Among the party guests are Larry's childhood friend, Sophie Nelson (Anne Baxter), and her boyfriend, Bob MacDonald (Frank Latimore).

Larry refuses a job offer from the father of his friend, Gray Maturin (John Payne), a millionaire who is also in love with Isabel. Larry and Isabel agree to postpone their marriage for a year so that he can go to Paris to find out what meaning life has since being traumatized by the death of a comrade who sacrificed himself to save Larry.

In Paris, Larry immerses himself in the life of a student. After a year, Larry asks Isabel to marry him, but she cannot bear to live in poverty. Isabel marries Gray, to provide herself with the elite social life she craves.

Sophie and Bob MacDonald have a baby. Meanwhile, Larry works in a coal mine in France, where a drunk, debauched defrocked priest, Kosti (Fritz Kortner), urges him travel to India to learn from a mystic. Larry studies at a monastery in the Himalayas under the tutelage of a holy man, experiencing a moment of elightenment on a mountaintop. The holy man urges Larry to go back to his people but to not lose his awareness of the infinite beauty of the world and of God. Meanwhile, in the States, Bob and the baby die in a car crash.

Back in Paris, Maugham meets Elliott by chance and learns that Isabel and her family are living with Elliott after being financially ruined by the stock market crash of 1929.

A year later, Sophie is murdered.

Maugham and Larry visit Elliott on his deathbed in Nice, where he tells Gray that he will now have enough money to pay his father's debts and rebuild the business.

Isabel tells Maugham that she loves Larry, but has lost him and still does not understand what he wants. Maugham tells her that Larry has found what most people want and never get. "I don't think anyone can fail to be better and nobler, kinder for knowing him. You see, my dear, goodness is after all the greatest force in the world, and he's got it." Larry, on the deck of a storm-tossed ship, hoists cargo in the rain.

A 1946 American Black & white romantic drama film directed by Edmund Goulding, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, screenplay by Lamar Trotti, based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1944 novel of the same name, cinematography by Arthur C. Miller, starring Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, John Payne, Anne Baxter, Clifton Webb, Herbert Marshall, Lucile Watson, Frank Latimore, Elsa Lanchester, Cecil Humphreys and Fritz Kortner.

At the 19th Academy Awards in1947, Anne Baxter won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Darryl F. Zanuck was nominated for Best Motion Picture. Richard Day, Nathan Juran, Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox were nominated for Best Art Direction – Black-and-White.

At the 4th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best achievements in 1946, Clifton Webb won for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and Anne Baxter won for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.

The wedding dress Oleg Cassini designed for Gene Tierney and worn by her was actually designed for their wedding in 1941. It was never made since they eloped. After filming, Gene Tierney's stand-in Kay Adell Stork wore it at her own wedding.

Fox purchased the screen rights to the novel in March 1945 for $250,000 plus 20% of the net profits. To avoid another $50,000 specified in the contract if the principal photography was not started by 2 February 1946, producer Darryl F. Zanuck provided for location shooting in the mountains around Denver, Colorado (the Himalayas in the film), in August 1945. The cast had not yet been set, so the character of Larry was played by a double and seen only in long-shot. Zanuck hoped to get Tyrone Power to star and delayed casting until Power was released from military service in January 1946, after serving as a pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps during WWII. The film was released wide by Twentieth Century Fox on December 25, 1946, in 300 locations across the United States, and broke all previous studio box office records.

The bittersweet song, "Mam'selle" (1946), music by Edmund Goulding with English lyrics by Mack Gordon, was introduced in this film, and became one of the biggest hits of 1947.

Awesomely produced and directed, Somerset Maugham's epic novel becomes a glossy, ambitious, ultimately flawed semi-spiritual melodrama, packed with serious star wattage with a sharp and biting social commentary beneath its regal facade. Arthur Miller's cinematography is gorgeous with lighting effects and moving camerawork that rank in the pantheon of Hollywood's visual creations. This is a great film.

[Amphy]

Don't miss this. It starts slowly but this is the set up for the epic story. Ann Baxter is terrific, genuinely moving.

[rivermoon]

What a wonderful film. How have I not seen this before? A very powerful performance from all the main characters. Thank you for the upload!

[carinasnyman]

Do not miss this exceptional and wonderful movie!

[aimpat]

One of the best film adaptations of a novel, from one of the greatest novels ever written.⭐🌟⭐🌟⭐

[dannywoody]

You can’t beat a movie like this.. golden

[stephaniehale]

One of the best movies ever made pure perfection especially Ann Baxter

[carlenehall]

This is my second time to watch this movie. I found it just as intriguing and enjoyable as I found it the first viewing. Thank you for showing it.

[ruthienelson]

This was a powerful movie about GOODNESS in the heart of man. Some people compromise their principles, only to feel regret in the end. Other people hold fast to their principles, and find a certain PEACE that cannot be explained. It's a Spritual Peace that surpasses human understanding.

[fifthbusiness]

It may have been one of the longest films to that date in Hollywood but it held my attention throughout. Great direction, brilliant screenplay (how could it not be, based so heavily on the novel?), marvellous cast and wonderfully unique (for the time) cinematography. Clifton Webb was nominated for an Oscar and should have won - his performance was something else.

[jspaul]

Everyone ended with what they desired, but only the one who sought wisdom and peace through enlightenment was able to escape the Kafkaesque deals with the devil we make to get what we think we want only to find how unsatisfying and hollow it really is.

[juliomiranda]

Thank you this is an excellent movie with many life' lessons to learn from, like he said in the end goodness is the greatest gift of all...!

[catherinekeller]

Thank you for this truly wonderful movie 😁🇦🇽

[oliviammarinho]

Anne Baxter, John Payne e Tyrone Power tudo de melhor ❤

[BritInvLvr]

Excellent movie. Tyrone Power was truly underrated.

[Mia-owwh]

I absolutely loved this movie more than Words Could Say!Thank-u with all my ❤ for posting it:)You are Very Kind:)🙏✨️💝

[darrensmith]

A thousand years from now in 3024 this film will still be relevant...human nature is timeless

[cosettecopperfield]

Thank you for posting the best footnotes ever. This has got to be one of the best movies ever made, if not the best. What a story! I am buying the book.

[TheEllsworth]

So powerful and deeply moving! I happen to be watching it during a time when I greatly identify with Larry's (Tyrone Power) character and have some major decisions to be made regarding family, finances, my writing/artistic career, etc. - even moving abroad. I'm questioning everything, but that questioning has shaped me into the man I am today. Thank you for the upload.

[janegreen]

Love this. David Suchet is Poirot. He is an excellent reader with a soothing voice. Thanks for this.

[carmenzamora]

Magnificent, extraordinary movie. Thank you.