The Passionate Friends

Ann Todd - Mary Justin
Trevor Howard - Steven Stratton
Claude Rains - Howard Justin
Isabel Dean - Pat
Betty Ann Davies - Miss Layton
Arthur Howard - Servant

Passionate Friends was a transitional work for David Lean on several levels. Made immediately after Oliver Twist, the last picture with second wife Kay Walsh, Passionate Friends is the first picture with third wife Ann Todd. It is also David Lean's first taste of foreign locations, the Swiss Alps in which a portion of the film is set. Finally, it is a return to a contemporary setting, although the H.G. Wells novel is set before World War One.

In her youth Mary Justin (Ann Todd) had a romance with Steven Stratton (Trevor Howard), years later while living miserably in Switzerland with her now husband Howard Justin (Claude Rains) she again meets Stratton and embarks upon a love affair. Mary Justin becomes torn between what the two men can offer; passion or a union for purely material satisfaction. She is driven to consider suicide but eventually returns to her marriage of convenience, and her husband’s accusations.