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As already noted in the label's designated thread, VCI will be releasing a new edition of Moon and the Sixpence. However, I thought this release might deserve a thread of its own, since this will be a special edition for VCI including two versions of the film and extras.

Admittedly, I have never seen the film, but for several reasons I am looking forward with great anticipation to this release:

First, it is a film by Albert Lewin, whose Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is a strange and compelling work that I really enjoyed, when I saw it a few weeks ago. It approached some of Powell and Pressburger's works both in story, as well as general tone and ambiance, and it was clearly beautifully photographed in technicolor, albeit the prints that have been transferred to DVD are in poor condition.

Secondly, the film is based on a novel by William Somerset Maugham, whom I knew of but had never read, until seeing The Razor's Edge last year. Goulding's film has become a personal favorite, and when I subsequently read the book, I fell for Maugham as a writer as well. He wrote many novels and short stories... "Cakes and Ale" is generally of the same high quality as "Razor's Edge," and I have high hopes for several of his other books -- "Of Human Bondage" and "The Painted Veil," as well as the many volumes of short stories that were important in establishing Maugham's reputation as an author.

As if all that was not enough to pique my interest in Moon and the Sixpence, Herbert Marshall once more plays Maugham's alter ego in this film. Maugham wrote himself into the novel of "The Razor's Edge," and in the film, this part is played by Marshall. It is a wonderful performance that actually had me wondering, if Marshall really was a nom-de-plume for Maugham, or the other way around (I am half joking, of course). But, the idea of seeing Marshall "repeating" this role ten years later is really an exciting prospect.

I would be very curious to read any comments or thougths on this film by anyone, who has seen it in the past. How does it measure up to the novel, and to other Maugham adaptations?

Albert Lewin's films seem to generate sharply opposed responses. Some viewers can't stand them; others think they're wonderful. Lewin's first four films (I've never seen the last two) are unmistakably the products of the same mind, and are closely related in style & stance, so I think if you admire Pandora, you'd also be likely enjoy The Moon and Sixpence -- and, for that matter, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Private Affairs of Bel Ami.

The Moon and Sixpence follows the broad outlines of Maugham's novel more closely than many Hollywood adaptations do, but of course it isn't a faithful transcript -- which would have been impossible under the Hays Code anyway. Lewin has taken the plot and recreated it in terms of his individual, even idiosyncratic, private mythology (much as he did with the Greek and Germanic legends in Pandora -- and with Wilde's and Maupassant's novels in Dorian Gray and Bel Ami). Overall I'd say that the film is less sharp-eyed and less satirical than the novel; more romantic, more freighted with myth or parable (sorry if this sounds pretentious; one always runs that risk when discussing Lewin!). But I shouldn't overemphasize the differences between film & novel. As William Demarest would insist, "It's still the same dame."

Marshall is once again amazingly vivid, and the film is also adorned with George Sanders' performance in the Gauguin role -- it gives him more opportunities for fine shading & depth of characterization than most of his Hollywood villain roles.

In his obituary of the producer Ronnie Shedlo, Christopher Hampton reveals that he is working on a new adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence. One of Shedlo's last achievements was obtaining the rights to the book which were apparently quite tangled. There was also a 1959 TV version directed by Robert Mulligan with quite a cast, led by Laurence Olivier in the Strickland role. Anyone know if this version was saved for posterity?

VCIs previous DVD of the film was nothing special in terms of quality, the source material being less than ideal and lacking the original Technicolor parts which the new DVD appears to have.

But, the idea of seeing Marshall "repeating" this role ten years later is really an exciting prospect.

Actually, it was four years earlier.

PhilipS wrote:There was also a 1959 TV version directed by Robert Mulligan with quite a cast, led by Laurence Olivier in the Strickland role. Anyone know if this version was saved for posterity?

This version survives, and in 2000 was among the items announced for future release by the Broadway Theatre Archive. It still has a page to itself on the Archive's website, but no indication of any projected release. Good to know it exists, though.

By the way, Herbert Marshall wasn't the only person to impersonate Maugham in the cinema. Maugham himself did the same in the 1950ish UK short story compilation films Quartet, Trio, and Encore... not yet on DVD as far as I know. Fascinating and effective appearances; but as usual in such cases, Marshall's fictional Maugham seems more "real" than Maugham's factual one. If we had historical footage of Henry VIII, how many of us would find him as plausible in the role of Henry VIII as Charles Laughton?