The Moon and Sixpence

Plot synopsis:
Geoffrey Wolfe (Herbert Marshall), a writer similar to Maugham, tells the story of Charles Strickland (George Sanders). A mediocre, seemingly unassuming London stockbroker, Strickland suddenly gives up his career, wife of 17 years (an uncredited Molly Lamont), and children and moves to Paris. Mrs. Strickland asks Wolfe to bring him back. To Wolfe's surprise, Strickland has not run away with another woman (as he had been told), but because Strickland feels compelled to become a painter. He exhibits no remorse or shame about abandoning his family and refuses to return to his old life, whereupon his wife divorces him. Despite his strong disapproval of Strickland's callous behavior, Wolfe is intrigued.
Several years later, Wolfe is in Paris to see his friend, kindhearted Dirk Stroeve (Steven Geray). Stroeve is a bad painter, but an astute judge of others' talent. When Wolfe asks if he knows Strickland, he confidently states that the man is a great painter, even though he has not sold any of his work and barely ekes out a living with odd jobs. However, Stroeve's beloved wife Blanche loathes the man.
Finding Strickland seriously ill near Christmas, Stroeve persuades a very reluctant Blanche to take him into their happy home, promising to nurse him back to health by himself. After six weeks, the artist recovers and makes himself at home, even evicting his host from his own studio. When Stroeve asks him to leave, Blanche unexpectedly announces she is going with him. Stroeve first tries to throttle Strickland. Then, after regaining his composure, he gives the couple the apartment and departs himself.
Later, Strickland discards Blanche (he only accepted her because he wanted to study the female form), and she commits suicide. Even after all this, Stroeve offers to put Strickland up at his mother's home in Holland. He declines.
Wolfe travels to Tahiti, where he learns of Strickland's fate from Captain Nichols (Eric Blore) and Tiara Johnson (Florence Bates). Tiara had arranged a match between Strickland and her young, infatuated cousin Ata (Elena Verdugo). They marry, live happily on Ata's property, and have a child. Strickland paints as much as he wants.
Then Dr. Coutras (Albert Bassermann) is sent for. He informs Strickland he has contracted leprosy. Ata refuses to leave him, braving the hostility of their neighbors, though she eventually entrusts their child to others. Two years later, Coutras is summoned again. He is too late; Strickland is dead. Entering the now dilapidated house, Coutras is awestruck by the paintings adorning all of the interior, recognizing despite his lack of knowledge of art that Strickland has created masterpieces. Ata, however, burns the house down, fulfilling a promise extracted by her husband.

Tags: avant garde, flashback

Review:
As the Gauguin-like painter Charles Strickland, Sanders actually does a bit more than play his 'typical cad', but relishes his character's poking fun at a hypocritical society, and shows real passion in describing to the Maugham-like figure exactly WHY he leaves his ordinary London existence.
A creator of such intellect as Albert Lewin, the director/adapter of The Moon & Sixpence, rarely had the opportunity in classic period Hollywood to showcase such a unique talent as he had and we are fortunate to have had him.
There were only a handful like him that beat the odds and actually were allowed to produce true art instead of common trash -- Sternberg, Ulmer, Sturges come to mind -- and in many ways Lewin stood apart because he worked the system without challenging the former tailors and junk dealers that ran Hollywood.
His lead of choice was George Sanders, who was perfectly cast in the first three titles as a symbol of an age.
Each film was an improvement on its predecessor, and I recommend that those out there interested in stylized film follow Lewin's work chronologically to observe the course of aesthetic refinement, beginning with The Moon & Sixpence..
It is one of the most "startling" and highly original movies I have seen from that era of filmmaking.Almost never does a movie affect me emotionally--not only as I saw it but even a couple of weeks later I am still affected by it.Among the many things that are so powerful is the relentless negativity of the George Sanders' character throughout.
It left me confused emotionally and yet felt admiringly of someone who can eschew all human concern for others(with one exception which I will not spoil) to relentlessly pursue what he perceives as his truth and destiny.It is a brilliant achievement in George Sanders' acting and for the directors' unapologetic vision of the movie.I have to be careful not to spoil, but among many amazing surprises is how another artists' wife(Blanche Stroeve played by Doris Dudley whom I knew in real life) reacts to Sanders after she, at her husband's insistence, nurses him back to health.
I cannot imagine a scene like this even being allowed to be shot in this way in any modern movie.Speaking of political correctness, other surprises abound in this area particularly during the time the Sanders character moves to Tahiti.Not to spoil but listen closely as a certain older woman who interacts with Sanders describe her long ago love affairs and the character of the men she was involved with.
And yet she pines for those days with infectious gusto and enthusiasm.A movie shot like this today would set women back a couple of hundred years.
Somerset Maugham's novel, loosely based on the story of artist Paul Gauguin, concerns a 40-year-old stockbroker in London, anti-social and misogynistic, who leaves his wife and children for life as a painter in Paris; soon, he's ruined more lives, and just as swiftly moved on to Tahiti, brushes and canvas intact.
Herbert Marshall is the curious writer (and the film's narrator) who befriends the maddeningly aloof George Sanders, and the first half of the picture is quite strong.
George Sander's performance as well as Herbert Marshall as Somerset Maughm are both fist rate.
If they had another one of those silly top 100 lists, this one for best type casting in a film about cads, then Sanders would win in a trot.
At the age of 65 Sanders committed suicide in a Paris hotel room just as he had promised actor David Niven years earlier, claiming that by that time he would no longer have interest in women or anything else.
(Consult Niven's book "Bring On The Empty Horses") I can understand one user's previous comment about this being Sanders only great role.
But Mr. Sanders won an Oscar for playing another cad, the rascal theater critic in "All About Eve".
George Sanders goes Gaughin in this film based on the Somerset Maugham novel about a well respected man who decides to drop out of society and paint to his hearts delight.
He eventually does but at great final cost.Sanders is perfectly cast as the insensitive and coldly indifferent Strickland who really just wants to be left alone.
In a leading man of the era's hand the role would more than likely have been diluted and suffered but with Sanders you get a bored condescension and disdainful inflection like no other.Unfortunately the rest of Sixpence lags a good distance behind Sander's spot on performance.
The sepia tint of the film washes out in some scenes and was more than likely employed by Lewin to display Strickland's magnum opus at the end but even this disappoints.Herbert Marshall is dry and drab as the narrator and the rest of the cast flat and stiff.
Combined they lack the life and conviction to be found in Sander's performance which might have even soared further had Lewin applied the expressionistic flourishes to be found in his The Picture of Dorian Gray a far more successful picture with a less secure actor..
Somerset Maugham in fact if not name in The Moon And Sixpence as he narrates the story of how his life intersected with that of George Sanders a man who left middle class respectability to do his thing with painting, first in Paris and then the South Seas.
So when one fine day he up and leaves his wife Molly Lamont to go live the Bohemian life as a painter in Paris it shocks everybody.
In fact Lamont prevails on Marshall to go to Paris to see what brought this about.Somerget Maugham's view on human relations and the creative soul are once again given an airing in The Moon And Sixpence.
That view is in full force when dealing with Lamont and with Doris Dudley who plays a married woman who leaves her husband Steven Geray to take up with Sanders in Paris.
And I can't forget The Razor's Edge and the part that Gene Tierney plays.Sanders is a caddish as he ever has gotten on the big screen for the first two thirds of the film.
The Moon And Sixpence is Maugham at his misanthropic best.
Sanders and Marshall top a fine cast in a film that could have been a real classic with a bigger budget from an A list studio.
Somerset Maugham again in The Razor's Edge which is a better film.
George Sanders stars in "The Moon and Sixpence," a 1942 film also starring Herbert Marshall, Doris Dudley, Eric Blore, Steven Geray, and Albert Basserman.
Loosely based on the life of Gauguin, the screenplay by Albert Lewin is based on the book by Somerset Maugham.As in the later "The Razor's Edge," Maugham, here also played by Herbert Marshall, serves as narrator for most of the film.
Sanders is the unpleasant, self-involved Charles Strickland, a stock broker who deserts his family and leaves London to go to Paris and become a painter.
Stroeve then gets the impression that his wife is in love with Srrickland, and that Strickland has no intention of leaving.
There Dr. Coutras (Bassermann) picks up the narration.As the unapologetic user obsessed with his work, George Sanders is excellent.
Herbert Marshall does not register much in what is basically a thankless role - he had more to do in The Razor's Edge.Good movie.
This type of prose is always terribly difficult to bridge to the other side; the limited finite strictures of its kissing cousin film.I remember listening to the audio book, and I always say, there is no way no possible way to convey all of these thoughts for the characters say one thing but how they feel are couched in thoughts that are quite different.
This is nearly impossible to transfer over...I remember they tried to do it with The Painted Veil' and when I got done with the novel I said , if there is an adaptation, no matter what year Hollywood or whomever is delusional enough to try will come out on the others side with a hollow perhaps gorgeous to see, but very empty and deficient film that will end up, Romanticizing this book; and of course that is all that one can do with the source material.But here, I think because the main character's misanthropic egregious thoughts matched the dialogue it was different, it was able to retain a few of the vital organs that were so instrumental to being true to the source material.In substance, this film, the story, the characters, the acting, the only thing I can say is that it was grand and sweeping and stretches far far beyond the paltry sum of a limited paged screenplay - it goes on forever its universal theme comprises everything that we so love and hate about our vexing human condition!Very nice....
Who has ever seen any better, and unobtrusive, acting than that of the likes of Saunders, Marshall and the relatively unknown but great actor Steven Gary (who plays Dirk Strouve) ?
The unusual use of different film stocks and the selective use of color make it a unique experience.The subject of the film, a misanthropic painter who offers little in the way of redeeming value, makes the film an interesting story with a hollow center.
Charles Strickland (George Sanders) is a man who sacrifices everything in life to retire to Tahiti to paint.
Based loosely on the life of Gaugin, the film has an interesting cast of characters that surround Strickland, notably Herbert Marshall as Geoffrey Wolfe and Steven Geray as Dirk Stroeve.
When we finally see the artwork that has driven this man's obsession--if that's what it is--it is anticlimactic.This work of fiction could have made Strickland a hero, fighting for his artistic vision.
As far as I know, this is George Sanders first starring movie and it hits a home run.
As far as I know, "The Moon and Sixpence" is George Sanders first starring movie and it hits a home run.
Too bad Mr. Sanders wasn't given the chance to star in better movies.
Too bad Mr. Sanders wasn't given the chance to star in better movies.
As a George Sanders fan I was disappointed to see him in this poorly written, directed and acted film.
Because the script is good and the direction is at DeMille's best, Sanders' performance is sympathetic, and you like both the protagonist and the antagonist.
Somerset Maugham of the same title as the film.The novel is different.
To begin with, Maugham is clever enough to add little touches to the story that suggest it is a biography, not a novel.
But the basics of the story are the same: Charles Strickland is a middle class stock broker, living in apparent Victorian respectability with his wife and children.
Throughout the rest of the movie we see Strickland use and drop people like old laundry.
He is a detestable cad (and is played by moviedom's most detestable/fascinating cad, George Sanders).
And we watch as he moves from London to the continent to the South Seas for the stunning conclusion of the film.Yes it is based in part on the career of Paul Gaughin (whom we last saw as Anthony Quinn in LUST FOR LIFE, shrugging off that nut he was living with in Arles who mutilated his ear lobe).
I remember when I saw this film back in the 1970s the conclusion was one of the versions that showed Strickland's final work in color, and it is basically Gaughin's work or style.
And given the circumstances of the artist when it was achieved, and the ironic conclusion to the story, the effect does knock the viewer for a loop.Sanders gave his best to the role, never apologizing for his using people.
Herbert Marshall is okay as Somerset Maugham, but his role is relatively simple and drab, as a type of narrator.
If what you are looking for is a standard film story about a painter, look elsewhere.
Here "he's" Charles Strickland, a middle-aged businessman who abandons his wife and children so he can paint in Paris.
Could there be a worse human being than George Sanders as Charles Strickland.
Of course, life always pays one back, and Strickland declines into leprosy.The cast here is intriguing.
This is one of the best -- though not likable -- performances given by George Sanders.
Herbert Marshall is perfect as the eyes of the story (watch for scenes where he is walking...you can notice a limp due his real artificial leg).
Albert Bassermann, as the South Seas doctor, is interesting, though I'm not sure he was any great actor.
But his career story is something worth looking up on Wikipedia.I guess we should thank the George Eastman House for restoring this film, although I'm not sure if the nitrate copies were so badly decomposed to explain the relatively poor quality of the print (as shown on TCM), or whether they just did a poor job of restoration.
The images are not crisp, and the color scenes in Tahiti are terribly deteriorated.Nevertheless, this is a film to watch.
There have been few other actors, before or since, who could play the part of a cad better than George Sanders, and he was at his best in this film.
Nothing will ever alter the fact that he gave a very fine performance in a film which any movie-goer is likely to find rewarding, and I recommend it to any IMDb users who happen to have so far not seen it.
It is based on a great fictional work by Somerset Maugham that is clearly and openly acknowledged to be a non-biographic fictional reconstruction of the life of the artist Paul Gauguin who walked out on his wife, family and friends in Paris to spend the last days of his life in a wild painting spree in Tahiti - so poor that many of his final works were painted on the walls of his hut because he could not afford to buy more canvasses.
Similarly Maugham's artist, named Charles Strickland, was a well to do Englishman, and the book starts by picturing the build up of frustrations he found in his very conventional life there.
It is a book I first read as a boy and have always loved, but it is a long time since I last read it so I should now download or purchase another copy.This said, my expectations exceeded what this film provided.
For many years I did not want to spoil my fading memories of Maugham's great book by watching another version presented on celluloid - many others may have felt the same.
But I vividly remembered reading a review of it which described the tremendous visual impact it achieved when the black and white images associated with Strickland's drab life in Europe finally gave way to the riotous colours he found in Tahiti.
Unfortunatelty the report on which I based this expectation proved a little misleading - only the almost final sequence was in colour, and this showed only the paintings Strickland had completed on the walls of his hut before his death, not the third or so of the story which took place on the island.
Whilst I still have no hesitation in recommending this DVD to IMDb users who are interested in art, this has been one of the extremely few occasions where I felt that I would like to see a film remade.
True today's directors would probably film the European sequences in muted colour with a heavy sepia over-wash rather than in black & white, but with enhanced colouring used for Tahiti the overall effect would be the same.
Sadly such a future film could not star George Sanders, but maybe Michael Douglas would step in here..
We saw this in Mildred, as the cocktail waitress, in "Of Human Bondage," and her male counterpart could be George Sanders in this film.Narrated by Herbert Marshall, who also co-stars, it details the life of a stockbroker who gives everything up to paint.
After a while, his wife becomes indifferent after he leaves her and their children.Another theme of Maughan is played out here when again we see kindness paid by cruelty and ultimate tragedy.As a Tahitian matchmaker, Florence Bates looked absolutely ridiculous here.This is the ultimate story of an indifferent man finding ultimate happiness after causing misery to so many, then only to find tragedy ending that happiness..
The story of a fictitious 'Charles Strickland', a middle-aged stockbroker who abandons his middle-classed life, his family, his duties to start painting in Tahiti.
He learns to be devoted to his ideal: beauty while battling leprosy everyday.*Special Stars- George Sanders, Herbert Marshal, Doris Dudley, Albert Basserman, Florence Bates, Elena Verdugo.*Theme- Art can come from the knowledge of ugliness and pain.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W.
ending.*Emotion- A rich film of drama and painting.
Interesting bit of historic storytelling with an interesting use of color inside a black and white film to highlight the Polynesian painting of Gauguin.*Based On- Loosely based on the life of Gauguin, the screenplay by Albert Lewin is based on the book by Somerset Maugham..
Okay, but not Sanders' best film about a man who is a heel!.
This story is very loosely based on the life of the painter, Gauguin.
Sanders' character (Charles Strickland) is British instead and in the end he is stricken with leprosy--not syphilis (which they weren't even allowed to mention in films in the US in 1942).
Otherwise, the tone of the character's life is similar to Gauguin--though Gauguin also had a penchant for violence that you also don't see in this film.
The film is told from the viewpoint of an acquaintance of Strickland--played by Herbert Marshall.
Through much of the film, this friend disdains the life Strickland is leading but, oddly, continues to associate with a man he didn't like.
But for me the biggest problem is that Sanders later played the same sort of guy in "Death of a Scoundrel"--and this latter film was much, much more interesting and florid!