The End of the Affair – 1954 | 105 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Remade in 1999 by Neil Jordan with Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore, Edward Dmytryk’s original adaptation of Graham Greene’s 1951 semi-autobiographical novel about faith and the unfaithful is conservative in its depiction of lust but more explicit in its spiritual subtext. Set in a wartime London of rationing and threadbare rooming houses, The End of the Affair is an intelligent and atmospheric melodrama, but Lenore Coffee’s screenplay fails to capture the spirit of the novel and passions involved. The tale of doomed love features dreary mismatched performances from leading lady Deborah Kerr and the terribly miscast Van Johnson, contrasting the two leads are an outstanding Peter Cushing and scene-stealing John Mills.

Maurice Bendrix (Van Johnson), an American novelist whose clandestine love affair with a civil servant’s dutiful wife, Sarah Miles (Deborah Kerr), is complicated by her devout Catholicism. Sarah’s husband, Henry (Peter Cushing), suspects she is having an affair and of all people, asks to hire a private detective, genial Albert Parkis (John Mills), to check up on Sarah’s whereabouts. After Bendrix is seemingly killed during an air raid, she feels responsible and finds herself battling with her conscience. She prays for her lover’s life, vowing to return to her husband if Bendrix is spared. The film’s title rather gives the game away; Sarah keeps her vow as pneumonia strikes her down.