The Passionate Friends is the first of three films that director David Lean made with Ann Todd in and she gives a fine performance in this mannered British melodrama that evokes in ways two other popular British films of the era, Lean's Brief Encounter and the Todd starring The Seventh Veil. Former lovers Mary Justin (Todd) and Steven Stratton (Trevor Howard) meet accidentally at a New year's party and rekindle lost feelings. Trouble is she is married to a wealthy banker Howard Justin (Claude Rains) and Stratton's in a committed relationship. Justin discovers the affair however and puts an end to it. Nine years pass and they meet again while vacationing. Stratton is now married with kids but Howard thinks otherwise and files for divorce. Mary becomes desperate and suicidal.With quality performances (especially Rains) from all of the leads The Passionate Friends is credible melodrama that overachieves with Lean displaying his superb grasp of film language, employing jump cuts, montage and juxtaposition for maximum effect. With a few Hitchcock like flourishes along the way he does an excellent job of keeping the audience guessing right up until the final minutes. It is this subtle triumph of form that makes The Passionate Friends a superior example of its genre.

As countless people on this board have pointed out, comparisons of David Lean's "The Passionate Friends" and David Lean's "Brief Encounter" are inevitable, though probably not correct. This is a very different story.Told through the narration of the main character, Mary Justin (Ann Todd), it's the story of a man, Steven Stratton (Trevor Howard) and woman (Todd) in love who don't marry because he can't give her the good life. Instead, Mary marries financier Howard Justin (Claude Rains), whom she likes but doesn't love. Howard knows this, and, not being in love with her, so he thinks, doesn't mind.Five years later, she meets Steven again, and they become re-involved. Steven is unattached and, when Howard finds out, he expects Mary to run off with him. She doesn't. She asks him to leave and not see her again.Ten years later, while Howard is on a trip, both Mary and Steven run into one another in Switzerland. This time, Steven is happily married. Nothing goes on between them, but Howard doesn't believe Mary when she tells him that."Passionate Friends" is an interesting psychological drama, really focusing on Howard and Mary. Claude Rains dominates throughout the film - restrained through most of it, when he lets loose, it's really something. Howard is very likable as Steven, who is jerked around by Mary over the years.My feeling is that the film was supposed to focus on Mary, but this was derailed by Claude Rains' performance and Todd's (Mrs. Lean) detached quality. She's very good, but the character remains an enigma. Mary can't make a commitment. At the end, when she realizes the devastation the situation will bring, she's ready to sacrifice everything so that it doesn't.Parts of "Passionate Friends" are very strong, but some of it, due to the flashback within a flashback, gets a little confusing. Nevertheless, the performances are strong, and, if it's not entirely successful, it's at least a fascinating "not entirely successful" instead of just being bad.

I think that most people will admit that Claude Rains was one of those character actors who transcended their lack of handsome features (or likable features) to be a real movie star - even though most of their roles were types involved in the plot for better or ill. He is in that select group with Basil Rathbone, Charles Laughton, Sidney Greenstreet, Laird Cregar, Vincent Price, George Sanders, Boris Karloff who dominate films they pop up in even though they are not the hero. When they are the hero, when Rathbone is Holmes or Sanders Uncle Harry or Laughton is Sir Wilfred in WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION we are especially happy. Rains too occasionally played nice guys, although with an edge. In the late 1940s he twice appeared as a wronged husband, first in Mitchell Leisin's SONG OF SURRENDER (1946) and once in David Lean's THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS. SONG OF SURRENDER (with Wanda Hendrix and MacDonald Carey) is the weaker of the two films, but has some good touches by Leisin's direction and due to Rains' acting. THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS has a better, more brittle screenplay, and David Lean's direction complements Rains' performance. Rains is the husband of Todd, who on a vacation meets Howard. In a sense this film is a kind of inverse version of BRIEF ENCOUNTER (which also was directed by Lean, and starred Howard), but that film concentrated on the sad, inevitably doomed love of the two middle aged people who cannot marry each other. Here we are seeing the triangle from the point of view of the husband - in the earlier film, Celia Johnson's husband was a cypher who only seemed to come alive at the tail end of the film. Rains is not immediately seen, but he is in the center of events from the start.For Rains quickly learns of the affair. British people are supposed to be quiet about their private lives, and they don't like the snooping of others in hearing about their problems. So when he first appears to confront Howard and Todd it is in the flat he and Todd live in. He is polite but quietly outlines what he knows, and Howard at the tail end suggests that possibly he (Howard should leave). Very effectively we hear Rains marvelous speaking voice spitting out (one can imagine him shaking with anger) "GET OUT OF HERE!" The film follows the relations of the trio. Try as she does to avoid Howard, Todd keeps returning to him. Rains ignores the facts as much as possible, but finally when he is to meet Todd at a vacation hotel, he realizes that the behavior of everyone on the staff is proof that she has been seen there with Howard. There is again an explosion, and the marriage seems doomed.I saw THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS only once in the early 1980s, and it amazed me for telling about a sexual triangle simply and with dignity - and for giving the husband (finally) equal time to present his case - for the highpoint is a speech near the end when the depth of the real emotions of Rains pours out - when his care for Todd is fully expressed. Rains had many great moments on screen, but in all honesty this was his most human moment. For that alone the film is worth remembering.

I was surprised to learn that the original story for The Passionate Friends was written by H.G. Wells. Someone nowadays we identify with the science fiction genre. Certainly it seems to be what has survived best in English literature.The original story was written in 1913 so some considerable updating was done to make it 1949 contemporary. Lovers Ann Todd and Trevor Howard had an affair back in the day which was ended when Todd's husband Claude Rains found out. Eleven years go by and Todd and Howard meet at a mountain ski resort in Switzerland. Howard's now married and moved on, but they spend an innocent afternoon reminiscing. Rains catches them and misinterprets with near tragic results.Ann Todd may be one of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen. She's probably best known in America for being Gregory Peck's loyal wife in The Paradine Case. No wonder Rains is so jealous.Trevor Howard is essentially doing the same part for David Lean that first got him stardom in Brief Encounter. In fact the story could almost be what happens to the protagonists in Brief Encounter if they met up again in the future. Claude Rains is always right on the money with his portrayals. There's a lot of what John Barrymore did in Maytime in what Rains does here.If it were done here in the USA, this would have been labeled a woman's picture. It is in fact a nicely done romantic story.