Four of W. Somerset Maugham's short stories are brought to the screen with each introduced by the author. In "The Facts of Life", a young man with great potential on the tennis courts goes t... Read allFour of W. Somerset Maugham's short stories are brought to the screen with each introduced by the author. In "The Facts of Life", a young man with great potential on the tennis courts goes to Monte Carlo and ends up doing the exact opposite of what his father recommended. In "The... Read allFour of W. Somerset Maugham's short stories are brought to the screen with each introduced by the author. In "The Facts of Life", a young man with great potential on the tennis courts goes to Monte Carlo and ends up doing the exact opposite of what his father recommended. In "The Alien Corn", an aspiring pianist devotes himself to perfecting his artistic skills, but f... Read all
- Awards
- 1 win
- Directors
- Ken Annakin(segment The Colonel's Lady)
- Arthur Crabtree(segment The Kite)
- Harold French(segment The Alien Corn)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe symbol on the title page of each story is a W. Somerset Maugham superstition. Copied by his father on a trip to Africa, it is a Moorish symbol to bring good luck and ward off the evil eye. Maugham had it printed in his fourth novel, but unfortunately upside-down and the book flopped. Printed correctly on subsequent books, he became a best-selling author and had the motif reproduced everywhere, including his Riviera house, Villa La Mauresque.
- Quotes
W. Somerset Maugham - Host: In my twenties, the critics said I was brutal. In my thirties, they said I was flippant; in my forties, they said I was cynical; in my fifties they said I was competent - and then, in my sixties, they said I was superficial.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Raiders of the Lost Archive: Episode #1.3 (2009)
- SoundtracksAlouette
(uncredited)
French Canadian Traditional
Sung by all in the Cabaret room in "Facts of Life" segment
W. Somerset Maugham was one of Great Britain's last great, subtle story tellers, a master of the ironic and quiet wisdom. Late in a long career he had substantial success with three films tied to successful books of his classic short stories - of which QUARTET was the first. In it, Maugham provided an introduction to the collection and a brief exegesis or afterward. In the subsequent films, TRIO (1950) and ENCORE (1951), the film makers improved the experience by having Maugham provide a brief introduction to each of the three stories - reduced from QUARTET's four.
The four works dramatized in QUARTET are given perfect, polished productions with appropriate stars of the British stage and screen, only a few of which will be familiar to American eyes - most notably Dirk Bogarde as the hopeful pianist in the strangely undercut (by the screenwriter's removing Maugham's ethnic subtext) "Alien Corn," the movie's second act, and Honor Blackman as his girlfriend. The stories themselves are quiet, literate and well worthwhile, but hardly the sort of thing to set the pulse racing. More the sort of thing to set the MIND racing. They well reflect the sort of sensibility, such as which Maugham brought to his best plays like THE CONSTANT WIFE, THE CIRCLE or THE LETTER.
Maugham's three anthologies were successful enough that a decade later his works were again tapped for a successful three year run of an hour long television anthology ("The Somerset Maugham Hour") in which all four of these stories would be recycled along with several of those from the film sequels.
Hard to find at present in the U.S. aside from occasional screenings on cable services like Turner Classic Movies, the films have been reissued on British DVDs and are well worth seeking out for good, literate viewing. Some of these four (the concluding "Colonel's Lady" in which a Col. Blimp-type, startled to find his wife of many years has written a best selling book of poetry recalling a great love affair is consumed with jealousy for the unknown lover) are legitimate classics, some ("Alien Corn" in which 'reasonable' solutions to personal passion are found wanting or "The Kite" in which a young wife nearly destroys her marriage through a conventional concern with her own image and refusal to understand her husband's passion) have been copied so frequently they risk feeling almost trite and some ("The Facts of Life" in which a young man finds his father's advice not infallible) are so quietly humorous that it is easy to miss Maugham's more serious point, but all are quiet gems, polished to a nice soft glow.
The Entire Maugham trilogy (QUARTET, TRIO and ENCORE) is well worth your time if you don't need car chases and explosions to hold your interest.
- eschetic-2
- May 12, 2011
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Quartett
- Filming locations
- Gainsborough Studios, Islington, London, England, UK(studio: made at Gainsborough Studios, London, England.)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime2 hours
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1