Screen adaptions of the work of British playwright W. Somerset Maugham.
These movies are based on the writings of W. Somerset Maugham.
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- DirectorJoseph KaufmanStarsBillie BurkeThomas MeighanHelen TracyBased on the 1913 play The Land of Promise by W. Somerset Maugham about Nora Marsh and her life which ends in a farm.
- DirectorMaurice ElveyStarsElisabeth RisdonFred GrovesManora ThewA rich man weds his housekeeper and eventually falls in love with her.
- DirectorHerbert BlachéStarsEthel BarrymoreE.J. RatcliffeHolmes HerbertBased on the 1907 play 'Lady Frederick' by W. Somerset Maugham, this tells the story of Betsy O'Hara in her pursuit of romance and love.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsPola NegriEdmund LoweRockliffe FellowesAfter being educated in England, Daisy Forbes returns to China, the country of her birth, and discovers that her father has recently died and that she has become a social outcast, owing to the public revelation that the oriental nurse who raised her was actually her mother. Daisy is in love with George Tevis, the nephew of the British consul, but she is disappointed by George when he is persuaded by his uncle to renounce her in favor of a diplomatic career. Lee Tai, a sinister mandarin, kidnaps Daisy with the aid of drugs and hypnotism; she is rescued by Harry Anderson, a rotter whom she soon marries out of desperation. When Anderson discovers that Daisy is an ostracized half caste, he bitterly regrets their marriage. Not knowing of the marriage, George searches her out, only to find her a married woman. Anderson forbids George to see Daisy again, but George defies the ban and meets her at her house to say good-by. Before he can shoot George, Anderson drinks wine poisoned by Lee Tai--and dies. Tevis takes Daisy back to England, and Lee Tai is executed according to Chinese law.
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsEleanor BoardmanMalcolm McGregorAlec B. FrancisAn unhappy woman considers leaving her dull husband for another man.
- DirectorWilliam BeaudineStarsThomas MeighanMona PalmaWyndham StandingA couple undergo hardship homesteading in Alberta, where they are plagued by bad weather and financial woes.
- DirectorRex IngramStarsAlice TerryPaul WegenerFirmin GémierA magician/alchemist, seeking to create life, finds that he needs the "blood of a virgin" to continue his experiments. He sends out his dwarf assistant to pick out the right girl.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsLionel BarrymoreBlanche FridericiCharles LaneA prostitute seeking a fresh start becomes the obsession of a religious extremist.
- DirectorJean de LimurStarsJeanne EagelsReginald OwenHerbert MarshallJeanne Eagels plays the bored and restless Leslie Crosbie who turns to another man, Geoffrey Hammond (Herbert Marshall) for attention when neglected by her husband Robert (Reginald Owen). Robert decides to go out for the evening to pick up a new rifle. Leslie's calm vanishes as she awaits an answer to a letter she has written Hammond. He has found a new love - a beautiful unscrupulous native woman Li Ti (Lady Tsei Mei) and has discarded Leslie.
- DirectorRobert MiltonDorothy ArznerStarsRuth ChattertonClive BrookMary NolanSet in London, Kathryn Miles's marriage is threatened when she discovers her husband's longstanding affair with her best friend but surprises everyone when she uses it to create a new life for herself.
- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsJoan CrawfordWalter HustonFred HowardA prostitute newly arrived in the South Pacific finds herself at odds with a stern missionary determined to save her soul.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsDouglas Fairbanks Jr.Patricia EllisRalph BellamyAn Englishman sought for murder escapes to South Seas island.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsConstance BennettViolet Kemble CooperPhoebe FosterAlthough the British upper class may be thought our betters in society, but they are certainly not our betters, and perhaps our equals, in morality.
- DirectorJohn CromwellStarsBette DavisLeslie HowardFrances DeeA young man finds himself attracted to a cold, unfeeling waitress who might ultimately destroy them both.
- DirectorRichard BoleslawskiStarsGreta GarboHerbert MarshallGeorge BrentA wife neglected by her husband, a medical researcher in China, falls in love with a dashing diplomatic attaché.
- DirectorWilliam KeighleyStarsJosephine HutchinsonGeorge BrentColin CliveMaurice and Stella Trent are happily married. When Maurice is crippled in an airplane crash, he and his mother send for his brother Colin to come help keep Stella busy. He is to show her a good time during what promises to be a 5 month recovery before an operation will allow Maurice to walk again. Stella and Colin become very close, and things come to a boil when Maurice believes his life may not be worth living any longer after all.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJohn GielgudMadeleine CarrollRobert YoungAfter three British Agents are assigned to assassinate a mysterious German spy during World War I, two of them become ambivalent when their duty to the mission conflicts with their consciences.
- DirectorBrian Desmond HurstStarsJohn LodgeAntoinette CellierAthole StewartGeorge Winters is a self-made man, a wealthy unscrupulous businessman and M.P. for Middlepool who has married into the impoverished nobility for reasons of status. But when his wife threatens to divorce him in public immediately before a general election, a scandal threatens that could endanger his latest bit of shady dealing. Winters is a man used to winning, and he will do absolutely anything to make sure he keeps his seat in Parliament, his ill-gotten gains and his wife...
- DirectorFrank McDonaldStarsHumphrey BogartMargaret LindsayDonald WoodsIn the South Seas, Val Stevens and Lucille Gordon are getting married when a ship goes down offshore. Val rescues Captain Deever and passenger Eric Blake. Later Eric saves Val from an octopus. Unknown as their friendship develops is the fact that Val is a fugitive and Eric is the detective sent to arrest him.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsKay FrancisErrol FlynnIan HunterColonel John Wister, on duty with the British army in the desert region of Dubik, returns to England on leave. There he falls in love with Julia Ashton, who cares deeply for him but believes herself incapable of love following the death of her fiancé; some time before. Wister convinces her that he loves her enough to live without her romantic love and that she should marry him. She does so and returns to Dubik with him. There she meets his adjutant, Captain Denny Roark. Roark is a dashing young man who reminds Julia thoroughly of her lost love. Soon she finds she is indeed capable of love, but it is Roark with whom she falls in love, not her husband. As warfare with the local tribes heats up and as Wister gains awareness of the unconsummated romance growing between his wife and best friend, tragedy lurks.
- DirectorErich PommerStarsCharles LaughtonElsa LanchesterRobert NewtonIn the Dutch islands, the sister of a pious missionary attempts to reform a womanizing, drunken beach bum.
- DirectorMuriel BoxStarsGlynis JohnsRobert NewtonDonald SindenIn the Indian Ocean, the new British Resident of the Welcome Islands tangles with loneliness, angry natives, a drunken troublemaker and a sudden outbreak of cholera.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsBette DavisHerbert MarshallJames StephensonThe wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter written in her own hand may prove her undoing.
- DirectorWesley RugglesStarsJean ArthurFred MacMurrayMelvyn DouglasLong-missing Bill Cardew returns to find his wife Vicky remarried...and in no hurry to settle for just one husband.
- DirectorAlbert LewinStarsGeorge SandersHerbert MarshallDoris DudleyLoosely inspired by Gauguin's life, the story of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged stockbrocker who abandons his middle-class life, his family, and his duties to start painting, as he has always wanted to do. He is from then on a awful human being, wholly devoted to his ideal: beauty.
- DirectorRobert SiodmakStarsDeanna DurbinGene KellyRichard WhorfA young femme fatale-type woman realizes that the man she married is an incorrigible wastrel.
- DirectorFrank TuttleStarsVeronica LakeFranchot ToneJohn SuttonA beautiful Austrian refugee in England--who is also a Nazi agent--marries a scholarly English pacifist. He lives near a secret military base she needs to get information about so she can help in Hitler's planned invasion of England.
- DirectorSpencer WilliamsStarsFrancine EverettDon WilsonKatherine MooreA sexy, enticing dancer from Harlem makes things happen in a sleepy Caribbean island resort.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsTyrone PowerGene TierneyJohn PayneAn adventuresome young man goes off to find himself and loses his socialite fiancée in the process. But when he returns 10 years later, she will stop at nothing to get him back, even though she is already married.
- DirectorEdmund GouldingStarsPaul HenreidEleanor ParkerAlexis SmithA medical student with a club foot falls for a beautiful but ambitious waitress. Based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham.
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsAnn SheridanLew AyresZachary ScottA Los Angeles socialite kills a man while home alone one night and claims he was an intruder she did not know. It seems like a clear case of self defense until the story hits the papers and people connected to the dead man come forward.
- DirectorKen AnnakinArthur CrabtreeHarold FrenchStarsBasil RadfordNaunton WayneIan FlemingFour 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 finds he lacks the talents to reach the heights he so desperately craves. In "The Kite", a young man who lives at home and loves kite flying goes against his overbearing mother's wishes and marries the girl he's been dating. He's soon back home, much to his mother's delight, but re-considers when his wife takes up a new hobby. In the final chapter "The Colonel's Lady", a middle-aged man is shocked to learn that his somewhat-dowdy wife has written a collection of racy poems and is now a best-selling author.
- DirectorKen AnnakinHarold FrenchStarsJames HayterKathleen HarrisonFelix AylmerThree short stories by W. Somerset Maugham, "The Verger", "Mr. Know-All", and "The Sanatorium" are introduced by the author.
- CreatorSam ElkinStarsW. Somerset MaughamRobert H. HarrisRoss MartinA short-lived attempt to adapt the works of the veteran British writer William Somerset Maugham for a television audience. Introductions and epilogues often depicted the writer himself, and were filmed in his residence in the French Riviera.
- DirectorHarold FrenchPat JacksonAnthony PelissierStarsNigel PatrickRoland CulverAlison LeggattAdaptations of three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham comprise this anthology film in which the celebrated author introduces each segment of the film in front of the camera.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsRita HayworthJosé FerrerAldo RayA self-righteous missionary man seeks to save the soul of a former prostitute.
- DirectorRonald NeameVincente MinnelliStarsEleanor ParkerBill TraversGeorge SandersIn post-WWII Hong Kong, unhappily married Carol has an affair with a married man. Her husband discovers it and presents her with a choice: travel with him to a remote mainland village or face the scandal of a very public divorce.
- DirectorMuriel BoxStarsGlynis JohnsRobert NewtonDonald SindenIn the Indian Ocean, the new British Resident of the Welcome Islands tangles with loneliness, angry natives, a drunken troublemaker and a sudden outbreak of cholera.
- DirectorAlfred WeidenmannStarsLilli PalmerCharles BoyerJean SorelA successful and married, although not quite young, actress at a London theatre, falls for a young man, only a little older than her son, involved with a young actress who uses him to advance her career and upstage the leading lady.
- DirectorKen HughesHenry HathawayBryan ForbesStarsKim NovakLaurence HarveyRobert MorleyA medical student becomes obsessed with his faithless lover.
- StarsKim Kee LimKen NazarinAhmad JamalAn anthology series based on the varied stories by W. Somerset Maugham divided into three categories: "Rule Britannia" about colonial life, "Women of the World" which focus on female characters, and "Victims of Fate".
- StarsMarianne Faithfull
- DirectorJanis StreicsStarsVija ArtmaneGunars CilinskisElza RadzinaHuman attempts to understand why when acting they are all going through the heart, but in real life are playing a role.
- DirectorJohn ErmanStarsLee RemickRonald PickupJack ThompsonThe wife of a Malaysian planter kills an employee of her husband one night, but her motive begins to appear not entirely truthful.
- DirectorJohn ByrumStarsBill MurrayTheresa RussellDenholm ElliottHe had everything and wanted nothing. He learned that he had nothing and wanted everything. He saved the world and then it shattered. The path to enlightenment is as sharp and narrow as a razor's edge.
- DirectorPhilip HaasStarsKristin Scott ThomasSean PennAnne BancroftA widow finds choosing a new husband might not be her choice at all, as the actions of her various prospects confine her freedom.
- DirectorIstván SzabóStarsAnnette BeningMichael GambonMaury ChaykinSet in 1930s London, this movie involves stage actors and actresses and their experiences with love and revenge.
- DirectorJohn CurranStarsNaomi WattsEdward NortonLiev SchreiberDr Walter gets married to the beautiful Kitty but soon finds out that she is cheating on him. Battling his way through problems, he heads to China to fight a dreaded disease spread in a small village.