After several years' service with the Marines in World War II, Tyrone Power made his much anticipated return to the screen in The Razor's Edge. Power is appropriately cast as disillusioned World War I vet Larry Darrell, who returns from hostilities questioning his old values. To find himself, Larry joins several other members of the Lost Generation in Paris. He is disillusioned once more when the society deb whom he loves, Isabel Bradley (Gene Tierney), marries another for wealth and position.
She returns to Larry's life to break up his romance with unstable, alcoholic Sophie MacDonald (Anne Baxter in a powerhouse Oscar-winning performance). After Sophie's death, Larry determines that the life offered him by Isabel is not to his liking, and continues seeking his true place in the scheme of things. Acting as a respite between the plot's various intrigues is Clifton Webb as a waspish social arbiter, who ends up a lonely, dying man, imperiously dictating arrangements for his own funeral. The Razor's Edge was based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham, who appears onscreen in the form of Herbert Marshall. The film would be remade in 1984, with Bill Murray in the Tyrone Power role. This film re-teamed Tierney and Webb two years after their appearance together in Laura. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Edmund Goulding's version deserves crdit for trying to adapt Maugham's difficult existential movel, but Tyrone Power is miscast and the film is too melodramatic and verbose, failing to illustrate the novel's essence.
What could easily by just a one-note character sketch evolves into a real ensemble piece thanks to strong casting and... the on-trial idealistic charm of the source material.
Goulding indulges in voluptuously lit scenes dominated by well-dressed extras, lots of carousing and booze, catty dialogue, and water fountains that upstage everybody.
Lovely Oldie,before there was Eat Pray Love, there was Razors Edge about going to India & finding himself, & about Kindness & Priorities, over the Superficial.Gene Tierney & Tyrone Power had to be the prettiest pairing ever, too bad her role was such a Brat who did away with Anne Baxter in such a Callous way.
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