Quartet (film)
Encyclopedia
Quartet is a 1948 British anthology film
Anthology film
An anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...

 with four segments, each based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...

. Each segment is introduced by the author. It was successful enough to produce two sequels Trio
Trio (1950 film)
Trio is a 1950 British anthology film based on three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham: "The Verger", "Mr. Know-All" and "Sanatorium". Ken Annakin directed "The Verger" and "Mr...

(1950) and Encore
Encore (1951 film)
Encore is a 1951 anthology film composed of adaptations of three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham:*"The Ant and the Grasshopper", directed by Pat Jackson and adapted by T. E. B...

(1951), and popularised the compendium film format, leading to films such as O. Henry's Full House
O. Henry's Full House
O. Henry's Full House is an anthology film made by 20th Century Fox, consisting of five separate stories by O. Henry. The film was produced by André Hakim and directed by five separate directors from five separate screenplays. The music score was composed by Alfred Newman...

in 1952.

The screenplays for the stories were all written by R. C. Sherriff
R. C. Sherriff
-External links:**...

.

Cast

  • Jack Watling
    Jack Watling
    Jack Watling was a British actor.-Early life:Watling trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as a child and made his stage debut in Where the Rainbow Ends at the Holborn Empire in 1936...

     as Nicky
  • Mai Zetterling
    Mai Zetterling
    -Early life:Zetterling was born in Västerås, Västmanland, Sweden to a working class family. She started her career as an actress by the age of seventeen at Dramaten, the Swedish national theater, and appeared in war-era film starting in her teens.-Career:...

     as Jeanne
  • Basil Radford
    Basil Radford
    Basil Radford was an English character actor who featured in many British films of the 1930s and 1940s. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his first stage appearance in July 1924...

     as Henry Garnet
  • Angela Baddeley
    Angela Baddeley
    Angela Baddeley, CBE , born Madeline Angela Clinton-Baddeley, was an English actress best remembered for her role as Mrs Bridges in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs...

     as Mrs. Garnet
  • Naunton Wayne
    Naunton Wayne
    Naunton Wayne , was a British character actor, born in Llanwonno, South Wales. He was educated at Clifton College....

     as Leslie
  • Ian Fleming
    Ian Fleming (actor)
    Ian Fleming was an Australian born character actor with credits in over 100 British movies.He is perhaps best known for playing Dr. Watson in a series of Sherlock Holmes movies of the 1930s opposite Arthur Wontner's Holmes...

     as Ralph
  • Jack Raine
    Jack Raine
    Jack Raine was a British television and film actor. He was married to actress and musician Binnie Hale.-Selected filmography:* Night Birds * The Middle Watch * Fires of Fate * The House of Trent...

     as Thomas
  • James Robertson Justice
    James Robertson Justice
    James Robertson Justice was a popular British character actor in British films of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.-Biography:...

     as Branksome

Plot

Despite their reservations, Mr. and Mrs. Garnet allow their promising tennis player son, nineteen-year-old Nicky Garnet, to travel by himself to Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....

 to compete in a tournament. Mr. Garnet gives him some advice: never gamble, never lend money, and don't have anything to do with women. On the last night of his stay, he disregards all three: he wins a large amount of money at roulette
Roulette
Roulette is a casino game named after a French diminutive for little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even....

 and meets a beautiful woman named Jeanne, who borrows from him before he can react. Later, she repays him, then takes him dancing at a nightclub.

It is so late, his hotel has closed for the night. She offers to let him sleep on her sofa. Later that night, he awakens to find her stealing his winnings. He pretends to be asleep and sees her hide the money in a vase. After she leaves, he retrieves the money. The next morning, on the plane returning home, he counts his money and finds there is more than there should be. A friend suggests that Jeanne had stored her own funds in the same hiding place.

Upon his return home, his father laments to his friends that his son ignored everything he had told him and profited from it!

Cast

  • Dirk Bogarde
    Dirk Bogarde
    Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...

     as George Bland
  • Raymond Lovell
    Raymond Lovell
    Raymond Lovell was a Canadian-born film actor who performed in British produced films. He mainly played supporting roles, and was often seen as slightly pompous characters...

     as Sir Frederick Bland
  • Irene Browne
    Irene Browne
    Irene Browne was an English stage and film actress and singer who appeared in plays and musicals such as No, No, Nanette. Later in her career, she became particularly associated with the works of Noel Coward and acted in films....

     as Lady Bland
  • Honor Blackman
    Honor Blackman
    Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...

     as Paula
  • Françoise Rosay
    Françoise Rosay
    Françoise Rosay was a French opera singer, diseuse, and actress who enjoyed a film career of over sixty years and who became a legendary figure in French cinema...

     as Lea Markart

Plot

On his twenty-first birthday, George Bland's landed gentry father asks him what he intends to do with his life. George's answer is incomprehensible to his entire family: he wants to become a professional pianist. They try to talk him out of it, in vain. Finally, his cousin Paula (who is in love with him), comes up with a compromise. He can study in Paris for two years; at the end of that time, an impartial third party will determine whether he has it in him to reach his goal.

Paula gets Lea Markart, a world-famous pianist, to be the judge. After listening to his recital, she tells him that, while his technique is excellent, he lacks the inspiration of a true artist and would never be more than a good amateur.

George dies when a gun he is supposedly cleaning goes off. At the inquest, the jury unanimously declares the death an accident, since the jurors cannot conceive how music can be so important to a person.

Cast

  • George Cole as Herbert Sunbury
  • Hermione Baddeley
    Hermione Baddeley
    Hermione Baddeley was an English character actress of theatre, film and television. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Room at the Top and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here...

     as Beatrice Sunbury
  • Susan Shaw
    Susan Shaw
    Susan Shaw was an English actress.Shaw began her film career in 1946 when she was signed to a contract by the J. Arthur Rank Organisation...

     as Betty
  • Mervyn Johns
    Mervyn Johns
    Mervyn Johns was a Welsh film and television character actor. He was a mainstay of Ealing Studios.Among his dozens of film roles were Walter Craig in Dead of Night , the Church Warden in Went the Day Well? and Bob Cratchit in Scrooge...

     as Samuel Sunbury
  • Bernard Lee
    Bernard Lee
    John Bernard Lee was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven James Bond films.-Life and career:...

     as Prison Visitor

Plot

Herbert Sunbury marries Betty, despite his overly involved mother's dislike for the woman. The newlyweds are happy, except for Herbert's life-long enthusiasm for flying kites. Herbert and his father had designed and flown their creations every Saturday on the commons
Common land
Common land is land owned collectively or by one person, but over which other people have certain traditional rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect firewood, or to cut turf for fuel...

 since Herbert was a young lad. Betty considers it childish, so to appease her, Herbert reluctantly promises to give it up. However, the lure of his latest, giant, unflown kite proves too great for him. When Betty finds out, they have a fight and Herbert moves back in with his parents, much to his mother's delight.

Betty has second thoughts and tries to make up with her husband, but he refuses to go home with her. Out of anger, she destroys his new kite. Aghast, Herbert angrily refuses to give her any further financial support and is put in prison as a result.

A visitor to the jail is told his curious story. He arranges for Herbert to be released and advises Betty on how to save her marriage. When Herbert goes to the commons, he discovers Betty there flying a kite.

Cast

  • Cecil Parker
    Cecil Parker
    Cecil Parker was an English character and comedy actor with a distinctive husky voice, who usually played supporting roles in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969....

  • Linden Travers
    Linden Travers
    -Life and career:Travers was born Florence Lindon-Travers in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, the daughter of Florence and William Halton Lindon-Travers. She was the elder sister of Bill Travers, and attended La Sagesse. She made her first stage appearance at the Newcastle Playhouse in 1933...

  • Nora Swinburne
    Nora Swinburne
    Nora Swinburne was a British actress, born Leonora Mary Johnson in Bath, Somerset, daughter of Henry Swinburne Johnson and his wife Leonora Tamar ....

  • Ernest Thesiger
    Ernest Thesiger
    Ernest Frederic Graham Thesiger CBE was an English stage and film actor. He is best known for his performance as Dr...

  • Felix Aylmer
    Felix Aylmer
    Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television.-Early life and career:...

  • Henry Edwards
    Henry Edwards (actor)
    Henry Edwards was an English actor and film director. He appeared in 81 films between 1915 and 1952. He also directed 67 films between 1915 and 1937...

  • Wilfrid Hyde-White
    Wilfrid Hyde-White
    Wilfrid Hyde-White was an English character actor.-Early life and career:Wilfrid Hyde White was born at the rectory in Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire, the son of William Edward White, canon of Gloucester Cathedral, and his wife, Ethel Adelaide Drought...


Plot

A colonel's mousy wife writes a book of poetry under a pseudonym but is immediately unmasked by the papers. The colonel does not read the poetry (although he says he has) and is surprised when a friend says it is "not suitable for children." Another friend says it has "naked, earthy passion" and compares it to Sappho
Sappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...

. The book is a success and sells "like hot-cakes," becoming the talk of the town. Even the colonel's mistress has an interest in it.

After listening to much talk about how “sexy” the book is, the colonel finally asks his mistress to borrow her copy, then insists she tell him about it. The book is about a middle-aged woman falling in love with, and having an affair with, a younger man, told in the first person. After a torrid affair, the younger man dies. The mistress says it is so vivid that it must be based on a real experience, but the colonel insists his wife is “too much of a lady,” and that it must be fiction. Still, he is tortured by the insinuation that is could be true but is too afraid to ask his wife about it.

Eventually, of course, sensing his unease, she tells him the passion was based on his love for her, as it was when they were young. She blames herself for the “death” of that love. They end in an embrace.
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