

Acting
Jean Simmons luminous in her sanatorium romance
Writing
Maugham's sardonic introductions steal every scene
Production
Three distinct visual moods, one cohesive bite

Director
Ken Annakin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was the second Maugham anthology after 1948's Quartet; the author personally selected which stories made the cut and filmed his introductions in his Riviera villa.
The sanatorium setting reflects real postwar British tuberculosis anxiety—romanticizing illness was briefly fashionable before antibiotics made it mundane.