{"id":8721,"date":"2010-03-12T14:44:56","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T22:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8721"},"modified":"2010-03-12T17:11:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-13T01:11:21","slug":"the-razors-edge-edmund-goulding-1946-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8721","title":{"rendered":"The Razor’s Edge (Edmund Goulding, 1946): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over, thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard.\u00a0 <\/em>Wisdom of Eastern mysticism were the inspiration for the title of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge<\/a>; <\/em>a tale of two opposing forces of selfishness and altruism.<\/p>\n

Mr. Maugham (portrayed by Herbert Marshall) begins his tale in America shortly after WWI, where he attends a party with\u00a0the handsome young veteran Larry Darrell (Tyrone Power) and his fiancee Isabel Bradley (Gene Tierney).\u00a0 The two are crazy about each other but have differing agendas.\u00a0 Isabel has high ambitions,\u00a0while Larry is overcome with grief from the tragedies of war, and just wants to escape.<\/p>\n

At the same party is\u00a0Larry’s childhood friend Sophie (Anne Baxter) who’s\u00a0sweet, innocent\u00a0and in love, and has the simplistic desire to please her husband and be a good mother.\u00a0 She refrains from alcohol because it displeases her sweetheart Bob (Frank Latimore),\u00a0until tragedy strikes a crushing blow, and poor Sophie can only find solace in alcohol, drugs and promiscuity.<\/p>\n

Enter Uncle Elliott (Clifton Webb) the\u00a0demanding, snobbish, social climber.\u00a0 He moves in upper-class circles and is quite pleased when his niece Isabel and her dreadful fiance Larry\u00a0part company.\u00a0 Although generous in many ways, his social climbing pursuits are never reciprocated.<\/p>\n

As each character’s\u00a0motivations unravel, Sophie’s life spirals downward as her friend Larry does all in his power to save her, but\u00a0to no avail.<\/p>\n

Anne Baxter is outstanding,\u00a0transitioning herself\u00a0from innocence to experience, and then from\u00a0rehabilitation to absolute misery.\u00a0 She indeed\u00a0won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Sophie.\u00a0 The wonderful Gene Tierney gives an equally strong performance yet received only\u00a0one Oscar nomination in her lifetime, for her role in Leave Her to Heaven (1945).\u00a0 Goulding’s perfectly paced film received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD. \u00a0The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over, thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard.\u00a0 Wisdom of Eastern mysticism were the inspiration for the title of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge; a tale of two opposing forces of selfishness and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}