Evening star., 1955-05-25

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In cinema form at the Playhouse
and it rather fully confirms
Greene's dominance in the area
of sin between the sexes. It Is
a passionate extra martial ro-
nance he has to relate here and
not the smallest furtive shadow
of it is allowed to escape intense
scrutiny.
Fortunately the study Of this
affair is not so exhausting as 1t
is exhaustive, for which movie
goers may count themselves in
debt to Miss Deborah Kerr.
Thanks to her portrait Of the
entangled heroine, "The End Of
the Affair" is never so muddled
nor broodingly paced that the
moviegoer cannot follow it with
some sense of clarity and a suf-
flciency of patience.
Under the sympathetic direc-
ton Of Edward Dmytryk, Miss
Kerr makes arresting point of
Greene's argument that there
can be vastly more of anguish
than of ecstasy in infidelity. Her
major collaboration in this en-
terprise is Van johnson but he.
apparently is considerably less
attuned to Greene's agonized
sense Of sin.
\ 4 Il \
Lenore Coffee's screenscript
for the Playhouse's new picture
Is fiatteringly faithful to Greene's
original.
1t is a story of wartime Lon
don, particularly Of the vivid,
vibrant wife of a dull govern
ment official who finds herself
attractive to, and attracted by,
an unattached writer.
Greene wastes no time launch
ing these two upon the affair of
the story's title: devotes even
less in making clear which of
the participants is to be the
giver, which the taker in the ar
rangement. The time he saves
here, however. is more than
balanced by that used to dwell
upon the long, painful lesson the
radiant girl is to leafn.
The essentials of this are that
while she has exchanged stuffy
husband for an ardent lover, she
is also involved with one who is
demanding, jealous and quite
capable of a coldly clinical at
titude toward their relationship.
1t is her capability of loving with
her whole being and without
question that brings the affair
to its climax.
This occurs during an afraid
In which the panicky woman,
fearful that her lover has been
killed. pledges that she will break
off the affair if he is spared. BY
the time he has recovered from
his injuries, Miss Kerr is in
volved in struggle between
physical passion and faith in
God that she is destined to fight
single handed.
In this long, tortured conflict
between the flesh and the spirit.
her lover proves not merely a
deserter but an enemy. Driven
by the suspicion which is always
the reservation to his ardor. he
puts detective on her trail to
discover her new infatuation.
x
Miss Kerr who was kept
swathed in sweetness for years
in Hollywood, is a life-saver in
Greene's narrative of sin. 1t is
o beautifully sensitive and
searching performance she gives
as woman torn between
adulterous love and a violently
awakened conscience. This is
All endlessly desperate battle
subjecting her to clamorous
emotions with which she must
contend no matter how hopeless
comprehension of them seems.
Greene is not the most helpful
of allies in this struggle. He has
q great many ideas of how a
woman might behave in Miss
Kerr's situation, but no certainty
as to how she should act. Miss
Kerr is extremely useful to the
author in his confusion by giving
q kind of plausibility to what
might be highly mystifying con-
duct.
Johnson's performance. by
contrast. is a superficial display
of a lover type which might