The Moon and Sixpence

Starring:George Sanders, Herbert Marshall, Doris Dudley, Eric Blore, Albert Bassermann, Florence Bates, Steven Geray, Elena Verdugo, Robert Greig, Molly Lamont, Mike Mazurki, Gerta Rozan, Irene Tedrow, Kenneth Hunter, Rondo Hatton, Heather Thatcher
Director: Albert Lewin
Studio: Vci Video
Product Type: DVD

Description

Loosely inspired from the life of French painter Paul Gauguin, Charles Strickland (Sanders), a middle-aged London stockbroker who abandons all responsibility to become an artist. Strickland pursues his dream to the extent of leaving his family, betraying his friends and associates, and living a life of unending hedonism in Tahiti. Undeniably brilliant as a painter, Strickland is also a good-for-nothing, until he is forced to confront himself on the threshold of death. Herbert Marshall plays Geoffrey Wolfe, who narrates the story as he attempts to make some sense of Strickland's creative ways.

Customer Reviews:

"The Moon and Sixpence (1942) ... George Sanders ... VCI Home Video (2007)".......2007-05-15

VCI Entertainment and United Artists present "THE MOON AND SIXPENCE" (1942) (89 mins/B&W/Color) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Starring George Sanders, Herbert Marshall, Doris Dudley and Steven Geray --- Directed by Albert Lewin and released in October 27, 1942, our story line and film, While the beginning of this film is a bit slow, soon we are treated to a simple but effective treatment of this extraordinary story ... as the Gauguin-like painter Charles Strickland, played by George 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 --- We absolutely believe him when he insists "I HAVE TO PAINT". Wisely, the director doesn't let us see any of Strickland's canvases, and we are only limited by our own imaginations as to how powerful they must be --- The story alone is worth viewing, a person abandoning their family in order to follow one's dream, is compelling enough ... Sander's performance as well as Herbert Marshall as Somerset Maughm are both first rate --- No one could have done a finer job at playing the tortured cad then Sanders --- Herbert Marshall once again plays Maugham, as he did in "The Razor's Edge" (1946) --- Sanders has a field day playing an absolute cad, who cares for no one but himself as he deserts wife, family and career to paint ... a slightly fictionalized biography of Paul Gauguin --- Great score by Dimitri Tiomkin as usual ... Remember when Mr. Sanders won an Oscar for playing another cad, the rascal theater critic in "All About Eve" (1950) --- One of my favorite lines in that movie is when he replies to a very beautiful young starlet(Marilyn Monroe) who he has accompanied to a dinner party saying "You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point none the less" --- That was the true character of Mr. George Sanders.

Under Albert Lewin (Director / Screenwriter), David L. Loew (Producer), W. Somerset Maugham (Short Story Author), John F. Seitz (Cinematographer), Dimitri Tiomkin (Composer (Music Score), Richard Van Enger (Editor), Gordon Wiles (Production Designer), F. Paul Sylos (Art Director), Paul F. Sylos (Art Director), Stanley Kramer (Associate Producer), Farrell Redd (Sound/Sound Designer), Ern Westmore (Makeup) - - - - the cast includes George Sanders (Charles Strickland), Herbert Marshall (Geoffrey Wolfe), Doris Dudley (Blanche Stroeve), Steven Geray (Dirk Stroeve), Eric Blore (Capt. Nichols), Florence Bates (Tiara Johnson), Irene Tedrow (Mrs. MacAndrew), Heather Thatcher (Rose Waterford), Elena Verdugo (Ata), Albert Basserman (Doctor Coutras), Molly Lamont (Mrs. Strickland),Robert Greig (Maitland, Butler), Kenneth Hunter (Col. MacAndrew) ... featuring top performances from the '40s and '50s with outstanding drama and screenplays, along with a wonderful cast and supporting actors to bring it all together ... another winner from the vaults of almost forgotten gems

SPECIAL FEATURES BIOS:
1. George Sanders
Date of Birth: 3 July 1906 - St. Petersburg, Russia
Date of Death: 25 April 1972 - Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain

Special footnote, actor George Sanders made his British film debut in 1934 and after a series of British films made his American debut in 1936 with a role in Lloyd's of London --- His British accent and sensibilities, combined with his suave, snobbish and somewhat menacing air were utilised in American films during the next decade --- He played memorable supporting roles in prestige productions such as "Rebecca" (1940), in which he goaded the sinister Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers, in her persecution of Joan Fontaine and he played leading roles in lesser pictures such as "Rage in Heaven" (1941) --- During this time he was also the lead in both "The Falcon" and "The Saint" film series. He played Lord Henry Wotton in a film version of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945) --- Sanders co-starred with Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison in the classic "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1947) --- He gave his most widely recognised performance and achieved his greatest success as the acid-tongued, manipulative, cold-blooded theatre critic Addison DeWitt in "All About Eve" (1950), winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role ... (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

2. Herbert Marshall
Date of Birth: 23 May 1890 - London, England, UK
Date of Death: 22 January 1966 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

3. Albert Lewin (Director)
Date of Birth: 29 July 1916 - Unknown
Date of Death: 23 April 1996 - Los Angeles, California

BONUS:
1. Photo Gallery

TRAILERS:
2. And Then There Were None
3. The Southerner
4. Cyrano de Bergerac
5. Hannibal
6. Robinson Crusoe

FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS:
7. Contains two versions: The original theatrical verison with tinted and full color scenes as well as the black & white version.

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on DVD, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 178 min on DVD ~ VCI Home Video #8482 ~ (5/29/2007)

Average customer rating:

"Everyone has some sort of conscience."
Great Movie,pity about the last reel!
It's Hot & The Colors Are Clear
A TIMELESS TALE
THE PAGAN LIFE OF GAUGUIN

The Moon and Sixpence
Starring: George Sanders , Herbert Marshall , Doris Dudley , Eric Blore , and Albert Bassermann
Director: Albert Lewin
Manufacturer: Vci Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Adventure | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Whirlpool (Fox Film Noir)
The House on 92nd Street (Fox Film Noir)
House of Strangers (Fox Film Noir)
Lust for Life
House on Telegraph Hill (Fox Film Noir)

ASIN: B0009PLLTK
Release Date: 2005-07-12

Description

Customer Reviews:

"Everyone has some sort of conscience.".......2006-11-07

As a fan of W. Somerset Maugham, it's always a delight to see a film based on one of his criminally underrated novels. "The Moon and Sixpence" is loosely based on the life of Paul Gauguin, and the film does an admirable job until about the halfway point before sliding into some sort of moral lesson about the life of its antisocial protagonist.

Writer Geoffrey Wolfe (Herbert Marshall) narrates the story and he explains how he became acquainted with the London-based Strickland family. Wolfe meets Mrs. Strickland at a soiree, and then becomes increasingly curious about her ever-absent husband, Charles Strickland. Strickland (George Sanders) is described as a boring, plodding stockbroker, and when Wolfe finally meets Strickland, he seems solid and mild-mannered. Some time later, Mrs. Strickland summons Wolfe and requests that he pursue her husband in Paris after receiving news that "he's bolted." Imagining that Strickland has absconded with some floozy, Wolfe catches up to Strickland in Paris. There, Wolfe is astonished to learn that Strickland has abandoned his family and his career in order to paint.

Circumstances bring Wolfe and Strickland together over the course of several decades, and it seems to be Wolfe's position in life to view the wreckage left by Strickland's clashes with the rest of the human race. Strickland, who is an amazing amoral and self-absorbed character, leaves devastation in his wake as he moves forward in his quest to paint. Eventually, Strickland ends up in Tahiti.

George Sanders makes an admirable Strickland, but he's unfortunately hemmed in by the script's insistence in hacking a morality tale into Maugham's novel. Given the times the film was made in, and the twists of the original plot, this was probably inevitable. The first half of the film is extremely strong, but then it unfortunately submerges into sentimentality. Still for Maugham fans, the film (directed and adapted by Albert Lewin) is well-worth catching--3½ stars--displacedhuman

Great Movie,pity about the last reel!.......2006-05-30

As a previous reviewer,A.Andersen,said:where is the missing last reel in color?..when orginally shown this looked terrific on the screen.The build-up has been lost in printing.

Perhaps one day in the future we will discover a better print on DVD showing the full extent of this fine movie,as originally intended.

It's Hot & The Colors Are Clear.......2006-04-18

George Sanders is my favorite old time movie actor. Not only did he slap Anne Baxter's evil Eve in the face in All About Eve with authority, he knew how to put a woman "in her place" (as none would even dare say today) simply by his presence, and did it with regularity, at least in the movies. George Sanders, if only in the characters he played, seemed plainly not to give a damn - on the screen, he anatomizes this rare abandon - with passion, with clarity, never depravity. Even his suicide (rivaling the most dramatic of them, Alaistor Crowley, et al. - he is rumored to have blown his brains out with a Magnum 44 at point blank range one afternoon in Barcelona in 1974) is characteristic. He left a note which tersely stated: "Life got boring". One can hear him say it as he leveled the barrel. Above all, he had a great, studied voice, and an unforgettable way with brief, consummate lines.
The portrayal of the Somerset Maugham character Strickland, loosely based on the life of the classic impressionist painter, Paul Gauguin, in the screen adaptation of the Moon & Sixpence is his finest hour, his masterpiece, a performance for the ages. Strickland is an entirely self-absorbed, eminently destructive, yet essentially creative, important genius. One has to pay to play. As I don't want to wreck the viewing of this antediluvian treasure for you, I won't say much about the plot, except that its twists and turns move from Paris to Tahiti, with that grave, measured cadence and melodramatic intensity that all the best of those old black & whites seem to mystically share. And people do truly bad stuff to each other and themselves, often with the best intentions, often not!
Anyway, the whole shebang is summed up in one definitive avowal, of course, which Sanders delivers with his usual, indefinable elan: "I'm going where it's hot . . . and the colors are clear". We all should try this intent out - if only once - shoot for what the philosopher Wittgenstein (who likely saw this one on its first run) liked to call ubersicht - an uninterrupted, panoramic, overview - of life, which we might declare as the object of our seeing - and, like Gauguin (or rather, in emulation of the good side) leave all behind to achieve that one, honest, transcendent vision.

A TIMELESS TALE.......2004-04-17

Somerset Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence" was definitively brought to screen life by George Sanders and Herbert Marshall.

Sanders' portrayal of the brilliant but obsessed artist Paul Gauguin is nothing short of mesmerizing, and Herbert Marshall holds his own in the understated urbane manner for which he became known.

This is a timeless tale that moves compellingly to the inevitable denouement.

I've found Ivy Classics Video of Charlotte, North Carolina, makes some of the finest VHS releases - classics all and well worth keeping in a collection.

THE PAGAN LIFE OF GAUGUIN.......2001-11-12

As a movie, THE MOON AND SIXPENCE is an interesting job. To soothe the Hays office, it legalised by marriage one of Gauguin's affairs, but in general, it sticks to the Maugham novel, using the great Herbert Marshall as a narrator to speak Maugham's words. George Sanders is remarkably convincing as the painter who scorns all human relations in his demonic desire to paint. He actually seems to justify Maugham's description: "The emotions common to most of us simply did not exist in him, and it was as absurd to blame him for not feeling them as for blaming the tiger because he is fierce...he was at once too great and too small for love. Outstanding among famous artists whose lives and loves have fascinated the world is the Frenchman Paul Gauguin. In 1919, a rising young author named W. Somerset Maugham wrote a novel suggested by the curious career of Gauguin; it has since become a minor classic work of fiction. In his book, Maugham never admitted that he wrote generally about Gauguin. But everyone knew he did. In 1941, when United Artists began filming the novel, they received a stern letter from the painter's eldest son, Emile Gauguin, who then lived in Philadelphia. Emile threatened to sue if any Gauguin art was used in the movie, as this would conclusively identify Maugham's disreputable hero with his father. To avoid suit, the movies created fakes.

DVD:

DVD

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs - Collector's Edition (2 Dis

DVD: Elizabeth Taylor:Classic Movie

Do or Die