One More River

A glowing example of how to turn English drawing-rooms and stiff upper lips into the stuff of tragedy, adapted by RC Sherriff from the last volume in Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga (which made a forceful plea for a change in the divorce laws). Wynyard and Lawton are perfect as the unhappily married lady and the nice young man kept apart by the barriers of convention, and finding their love for each other cruelly put through the wringer when (though blameless) they are dragged through the mire by her odious husband (Clive). It's not unlike Brief Encounter, raised a couple of rungs in the social ladder to the milieu of noblesse oblige and the proper thing, pride, privilege and Tory victories at the polls; but what astonishes is the skill and sensitivity with which Whale manages to suggest the still waters of passion slowly coming to the boil under the surface. A polished, elegant gem of a movie.