Razor's Edge, The (1946)
Director: Edmund Goulding
Honors:
It is a tantalizing tale about a returning American soldier seeking a new
perspective on life, perhaps a subject which may have appealed to many young
men returning from World War II. Included within its plot are essences of love,
jealousy, and deceit, bridging a gap to audiences of intrigue with a
complicated and deadly love story. All together with a strong leading cast it is
motion picture that would become the top grossing picture for 20th
Century-Fox for 1947, a prestige picture that paid handsomely in the form of a
complicated drama that questions the balance of philosophy and emotions.
The Razor’s Edge is a drama
of a young man who sets on a journey of self-discovery following post-traumatic
stress of World War I, and the effects it has on the woman he once loved. Larry
Darnell (Tyrone Power) is a handsome young man from wealth, with a beautiful
fiancée in socialite Isabel (Gene Tierney), but finds emptiness in life
following the traumas witnessed during his service in World War I. Despite
opportunities and romantic plans, Isabel lets Larry go on a journey of
self-discovery where he lives and works with people far different from his
class, eventually discovering enlightenment at a monastery deep in the
mountains of India, coming to value love over all things material.
Encouraged to share his new views, Larry returns to witness the
misfortunes in which his wealthy, materialistic people of his past had fallen
into. In the ten years he was gone the stock market had crashed and Isabel had
married, beginning a family, but cannot help but still have strong feelings for
Larry. He shares his new ways to help his friends, and decides to wed an old
friend fallen on troubled times, Sophie (Anne Baxter), in order to help provide
for her, but Isabel’s jealousy arises. Isabel manipulates Sophie through her
vice of alcoholism, a struggle Larry was helping her shake, leading to Sophie’s
death with hope Larry would reunited with her. Revealing Isabel’s ugly side and
finding quality in life with his goodness, far beyond the financial means of
what she had valued, Larry rejects Isabel, to her devastation, leaving his former
lover for good.
The picture is a rather interesting to discover out of American cinema
during the later years of the 1940s. For an age that was historically viewed as
conservative, this film takes a look what people should value, rebuking
material wants for the ideal of sharing love and all things good with the
world, with hope making the world a better place. Now this is not necessarily
anything new of an idea shared in movies, but here it is portrayed in a manner
of eastern enlightenment, albeit dressed up in a more 1940s American palatable
manner perception of a “monastery” in India. The film and its stories question
society’s views on human worth and in a way demonizes capitalistic values,
encouraging audiences to think beyond the ideas many have been fed all their
lives. With that in mind, the most surprising of all looking back on the film
was that it became a huge hit.
The film finds its roots from the pen of W. Somerset Maugham, the famed
English author, who sold his story rights to 20th Century-Fox
shortly after the release of the novel for the same name. Like the novel
Maugham plays a small role in his own story as a side character, here played by
English character actor Herbert Marshall. While his fictional character helps
to serve as a guide by playing a role by which the audiences perceives the
events of the picture. Being one of the most successful English writers of the
1930s, in contract negotiations Maugham would work in profitable stipulations
of 20% of the film’s profits as well as a bonus if production had not begun by
early 1946. The author would make plenty in term of profit sharing, but Fox got
around the handsome bonus stipulation by shooting random establishing shots in
the summer of 1945, before there was a cast or director for the feature.
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| Larry discovers a new outlook from his time in India. |
Creative disputes would see the film’s initial choice for director,
George Cukor, replacing him with Edmund Goulding, a move that proved beneficial
for the picture. The British born filmmaker, Goulding masterful uses sets,
blocking, and camerawork to create a beautifully assembled production. It
should not go unnoticed how Goulding moves his camera, taking longer tracking
shots to utilize the fullest his sets and characters without a single wasted motion.
You can tell each frame of each shot was carefully crafted to deliver
importance to the picture. There are many cases of the camera moving from
character to character, portraying complex emotions or motives that make many
other films feel simple when compared to this. How on earth he was nominated
for Best Director for this work is beyond me.
When I saw Tyrone Power’s name attached to the picture, my mind made a
silent groan. For an actor who I have perceived as the studio’s 1940s incarnation
of Rudolf Valentino and a lesser athletic Douglas Fairbanks with his many
period action/adventure/romance pictures, my expectations were low. However,
Power delivers a remarkably passible performance for a character that is
supposed to share a sense of eastern philosophy to a western world. This ideal
is dial back a bit, of course, to reach its key audiences, but on top of that
Power begins as a character that is not to likable and reveals to be a man of great redeeming character in the story, and
I buy it.
His primary female co-star is Gene Tierney coming off her Academy Award
nominated performance in Leave Her to
Heaven. Here she replaces Maureen O’Hara who was fired studio head for
leaking her initial attachment to the picture. Like in Leave Her to Heaven, Tierney plays a jealous woman who goes as far
to death of a rival to be the center of his attention. Here her character is
not as haunting as she is delusional. Caring herself in a more likable Katherine
Hepburn type, she is a tragic character that loses her love, but fails to learn
to let go, allowing inner ugliness to destroy what is good about her.
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| Tierney, Power, Marshall, Webb, Baxter, and Lucile Watson |
Among the cast are many notable actors of the Fox stable, including
John Payne who was known to play tough guys, but here portrays Tierney’s
financially stressed husband. The before mentioned Herbert Marshall as Maugham
provides the English dignity and steady voice of the picture. His polar
opposite is played by Clifton Webb, who portrays Isabel’s Uncle, who strong
disapproves of Larry, his ways, and his initial relationship with Isabel,
representing the wealthy social class that looks down on all society that is
not his. Webb’s acting is a bit over the top, but he aids in making Larry
appealing to audiences, especially when Larry goes out of his way to give one
last moment of satisfaction on the death bed of Webb’s character.
The performance of the picture goes to Anne Baxter in the role of
Sophie. A friend of Isabel and Larry, she is struck with the greatest tragedy
of the picture. Like the story of Job, she loses everything, her husband, her
child, and all means of finances in one blow. Her performance at her lowest,
being a drunk barmaid/prostitute breaks the hearts of anyone who sees her
earlier joyous self. Her arch takes the greatest turn as she is helped by Larry,
with plans to marry him in hope of permanently getting on her feet is
demolished as Isabel sabotages he will power, sending her on an alcohol induced
downfall that ends in her death. This performance is deeply emotional, with
Baxter considering it her finest work of her career. This is further supported
by her well-deserved wins for Best Supporting Actress from both the Academy
Awards and the Golden Globes.
On a budget of $1.2 million, The
Razor’s Edge would bring in over $5 million domestically, making it Fox’s
greatest box office grosser of 1947, with the film released on Christmas 1946.
The picture was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and
Best Supporting Actor for Webb. Despite the financial success Maugham refused
to write Fox a sequel picture due to the rejecting his insistence to pen the
screenplay. He would never work for Fox or even Hollywood again, but The Razor’s Edge continues to be a very
well done gem of this age in Hollywood movies, buried beneath the flashier pictures
of its day.
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