MOVIE REVIEW:

THE RAZOR'S EDGE

The movie's main character, Larry Darrell, is long gone by now, certainly those who took part in this inspring story are gone, from Somerset Maugham, the literary legend who brought Larry's story to life in The Razor's Edge, to the many other characters and personages that inhabit the novel.

The concept of Maugham's novel, which is captured so aptly in the movie, is the transformation of Darrell's life after World War I, sparked initally by an incident in the war. In combat, Larry's best friend, who Maugham calls only by the first name of Patsy in the novel, but is refered to only obliquely in the movie (and not by name), sacrifices his life so that Larry might live. And nothing was ever the same again as Larry embarks on a ten year spiritual odyssey in search of God and the Absolute. High in the mountains of India, after studying under a venerated Maharshi for two years in his Ashram, he experiences Enlightenment.

Which brings us to the importance of the movie's musical score and how it impacts so favorably the story's spiritual direction. Scored by Alfred Newman, and with a newly Remastered Stereo Release, in both sound and presentation, gives the first of Newman's great post war classics the prominence it has warranted since the film's 1946 premiere. Twentieth Century Fox had brought The Razor's Edge to the screen with a stellar cast that included Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Ann Baxter, Clifton Webb, John Payne and Herbert Marshall as Somerset Maugham himself. Over the decades, the studio-bound film has lost some of its impact. But not Newman's great music. Indeed, The Razor's Edge bids to be one of my top five favorites of all Alfred Newman's works. The score demonstrates a glowing sense of drama and narrative, and a true subtly in it's use of source music, which both comments on the dramatic melieu as the film develops, and evolves into a keen-edged commentary about what happens on the screen.

After a brief introduction by Herbert Marshall as Somerset Maugham, the score enters with a tumultuous wave of brass fanfare cresting with a counterpoint of timpani that ebbs into a current of emotional strings. The main title also features the film's main theme which cannily frames Larry Darrell's passionate search for meaning in an otherwise meaningless life.

First used by Newman for the Wyler/Goldwyn film "These Three", the main title here is full blooded, passionate and marvelously defines that personal sense of spirit that is a hallmark of the composer's religious scores.

The entire score throughout is evocative and engaging. The mountaintop revelations that climax Larry's mystical quest are indelible and linger on; an unused waltz that marks Larry's return from a monastery brims with opulance-- and decadence; the death of Sophie is heartbreaking and the end title is spectacular. Which brings me to this point of information. Throughout the film, a version of the main title appears to be a love theme between Larry and his would-be love, Isabel. But instead of uniting these two, the theme virtually stands between them. Only at the very end does Newman reveal his sly intent. This gorgeous music is not for Larry and Isabel-- but for Larry and the elusive God that he has sought for so many years. When it finally reaches its climax, Newman binds God and man, reconciling what was so long missing and now found-- and how it will grow for years to come. It's a moment of raregrandeur and personal release, virtually unparalleled in Newman's other scores. The new CD also offers Newman's alternative end titles, the aim the same, just a variation. Listen to each and then go back to the composition that was finally used, and you see a great composer selecting a particular end to make a powerful-- and lasting statement. The Razor's Edge is a score to treasure for years to come.

Hollywood version of the Ashram. Darrell
(Powers) is seen standing on the left, the
Maharshi on the right with a walking stick

ADDENDUM:

The 1946 black and white version sticks fairly close to Maugham's novel, dialog, and intent. For those who may be interested there is also a 1984 color release that stars Bill Murray in the title role. However, for the Murray version, it is suggested the novel be read first because it has a tendency to vere away from the book. One example, the Murray version has the Larry Darrell character an ambulance driver a la Hemingway rather than a pilot (ironically, Maugham, the author of The Razor's Edge was himself an ambulance driver in the war, one of the so-called Literary Ambulance Drivers).
There are long scenes in Tibet as Darrell/Murray meets his teacher as well. In the novel the Indian sage is in southern India...completely different topography and culture. Maugham based his holy man, called Shri Ganesha in the novel, but not named in the movie, on Sri Ramana Maharshi, a sage from southern India and well accepted as Awakened to the Absolute. His ashram was in the southern temple town of Tiruvannamalai located along the bottom slope of the "holy hill" Arunachala. Maugham actually visited the ashram in 1938 during his Travels in India, and fainted in the presence of the Maharshi the first time he saw him. The biggest problem with the 1946 version is it is a backlot film. Another major problem is the sage is more of a Socrates type and not at all like Ramana. The Murray version has GREAT Tibeten type film footage, though. Also, primarily because of certain restrictions on depictions of content and story lines placed on film makers at the time of the original it could not show but only imply, what the 1984 film reveals -- that Darrell and Isabel were lovers who had sex before marriage, and that Darrell really did see that Death Had A Face close up.

SEE:

For an exploration WHO Larry Darrell was in "real life" and what happened to him post-novel please go to: THE RAZOR'S EDGE: W. Somerset Maugham, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guy Hague, and Zen
.

Larry, in the black beret, seen here in the 1946 movie version of "The Razor's Edge" and played by Tyrone Power, enters the opium den in Paris in search of Sophie. Sophie, played by Ann Baxter, and who received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, is shown passed out on the couch with one of the den's denizens. For the most part the 1946 black and white movie holds fairly close to the novel in dialog, plot, storyline and intent.

How the Ashram really looked in Darrell's
day. CLICK to see how it looks today.

In Maugham's novel, the centeral character Larry Darrell, who was based on an actual person in real life (see), visited the ashram in the 1928-1930 period --- when it looked like the above photo. The movie version however, shows the ashram more-or-less as it looked when Maugham visited it ten years later in 1938, which for the most part is pretty much how it still looks today. For the record, the snow capped mountains in the background of the movie version of the ashram is way off base. The ashram is located in the very hot south of India. The holy mountain of Arunachala, adjacent to the ashrama, although it dominates the local environment, stands way too low at only 2,665 feet high --- and located well out of the snow belt region of the Indian sub-continent. A hundred years ago Arunachala was covered by a thick forest where tigers roamed and streams flowed down its sides. However, photographs of Sri Ramana on the mountain taken well before his death in 1950 show the forests long depleted and most of the trees along the slopes above the plain gone.

SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: THE LAST AMERICAN DARSHAN
RECOUNTING A YOUNG BOY'S NEARLY INSTANT TRANSFORMATION INTO THE ABSOLUTE DURING HIS ONLY DARSHAN WITH THE MAHARSHI

CAST LIST
CLICK LINKS FOR BIOGRAPHY OF PERFORMER OR CHARACTER
Performer               Character

Tyrone Power............Larry Darrell
Gene Tierney............Isabel Bradley
John Payne..............Gray Maturin
Anne Baxter.............Sophie (Nelson) MacDonald
Clifton Webb............Elliott Templeton
Herbert Marshall........W. Somerset Maugham
Fritz Kortner...........Kosti
Lucile Watson...........Mrs. Louise Bradley
Frank Latimore..........Bob MacDonald
Elsa Lanchester.........Miss Keith
John Wengraf............Joseph
Cecil Humphreys.........Holy Man
Released November 19, 1946 by Twentieth Century Fox. Running time 146 minutes. Black and White.
Available in VHS and DVD format.

Academy Award:
Best Supporting Actress - Anne Baxter

Academy Award Nomination:
Best Picture
Best Supporting Actor - Clifton Webb
Best Interior Decoration (B/W) - Richard Day, Nathan Juran, Thomas Little, Paul S. Fox

ALL LARRY DARRELL.COM

20th CENTURY NOVELS: THE RAZOR'S EDGE

Fundamentally, our experience as experienced is not different from the Zen master's. Where
we differ is that we place a fog, a particular kind of conceptual overlay onto that experience
and then make an emotional investment in that overlay, taking it to be "real" in and of itself.