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The Moon and Sixpence

  • 1942
  • Approved
  • 1h 29m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
919
YOUR RATING
George Sanders and Elena Verdugo in The Moon and Sixpence (1942)
DramaRomance

Loosely 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 al... Read allLoosely 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: be... Read allLoosely 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.

  • Director
    • Albert Lewin
  • Writers
    • W. Somerset Maugham
    • Albert Lewin
  • Stars
    • George Sanders
    • Herbert Marshall
    • Doris Dudley
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.6/10
    919
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Albert Lewin
    • Writers
      • W. Somerset Maugham
      • Albert Lewin
    • Stars
      • George Sanders
      • Herbert Marshall
      • Doris Dudley
    • 25User reviews
    • 10Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 4 wins & 2 nominations total

    Photos17

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    Top cast21

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    George Sanders
    George Sanders
    • Charles Strickland
    Herbert Marshall
    Herbert Marshall
    • Geoffrey Wolfe
    Doris Dudley
    Doris Dudley
    • Blanche Stroeve
    Eric Blore
    Eric Blore
    • Capt. Sandy Nichols
    Albert Bassermann
    Albert Bassermann
    • Dr. Coutras
    Florence Bates
    Florence Bates
    • Tiare Johnson
    Steven Geray
    Steven Geray
    • Dirk Stroeve
    • (as Steve Geray)
    Elena Verdugo
    Elena Verdugo
    • Ata
    Fernando Alvarado
    • Native Boy at Wedding
    • (uncredited)
    Gino Corrado
    Gino Corrado
    • Man Seated in Paris Dive
    • (uncredited)
    Willie Fung
    Willie Fung
    • Tiare's Cook
    • (uncredited)
    Gibson Gowland
    Gibson Gowland
    • Party Guest
    • (uncredited)
    Robert Greig
    Robert Greig
    • Maitland - Wolfe's Valet
    • (uncredited)
    Rondo Hatton
    Rondo Hatton
    • The Leper
    • (uncredited)
    Kenneth Hunter
    • Col. Fred MacAndrew
    • (uncredited)
    Molly Lamont
    Molly Lamont
    • Amy Strickland
    • (uncredited)
    Mike Mazurki
    Mike Mazurki
    • Tough Bill
    • (uncredited)
    Gerta Rozan
    • French Floozie
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Albert Lewin
    • Writers
      • W. Somerset Maugham
      • Albert Lewin
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews25

    6.6919
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    Featured reviews

    5moonspinner55

    "Neither the skill of his brush nor the beauty of his canvas could hide the ugliness of his life."

    Fair adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel, loosely based on the story of artist Paul Gauguin, concerns a 40-year-old stockbroker in London, anti-social and misogynistic, who leaves his wife and children for life as a painter in Paris; soon, he's ruined more lives, and just as swiftly moved on to Tahiti, brushes and canvas intact. For an episodic tale of an inscrutable artist who destroys everyone he touches, this literate, well-cast and well-made film starts out in a surprisingly light key. Herbert Marshall is the curious writer (and the film's narrator) who befriends the maddeningly aloof George Sanders, and the first half of the picture is quite strong. However, once the action turns to the islands (with handsomely tinted black-and-white photography), interest in the central character wanes. The finale isn't as gripping as it should have been, though this is no reflection on Sanders or Marshall, both excellent. ** from ****
    9krosny-244-673957

    An emotionally draining original that cannot be remade.

    I will not attempt to write a "complete" review of this movie. Just note a couple of highlights.

    I recently saw this movie for the first time on TCM. It is one of the most "startling" and highly original movies I have seen from that era of filmmaking.

    Almost never does a movie affect me emotionally--not only as I saw it but even a couple of weeks later I am still affected by it.

    Among the many things that are so powerful is the relentless negativity of the George Sanders' character throughout. And yet he makes us feel he is on a mission to be true to himself and to fulfill his destiny without apology.

    To combine these elements in one character is something I have never seen in any movie. It left me confused emotionally and yet felt admiringly of someone who can eschew all human concern for others(with one exception which I will not spoil) to relentlessly pursue what he perceives as his truth and destiny.

    It is a brilliant achievement in George Sanders' acting and for the directors' unapologetic vision of the movie.

    I have to be careful not to spoil, but among many amazing surprises is how another artists' wife(Blanche Stroeve played by Doris Dudley whom I knew in real life) reacts to Sanders after she, at her husband's insistence, nurses him back to health. It is an amazing scene. Yet somehow we understand that Sander's purpose is so well-defined and his masculinity is so caveman-like that she cannot help but respond to him.

    Definitely not politically correct. I cannot imagine a scene like this even being allowed to be shot in this way in any modern movie.

    Speaking of political correctness, other surprises abound in this area particularly during the time the Sanders character moves to Tahiti.

    Not to spoil but listen closely as a certain older woman who interacts with Sanders describe her long ago love affairs and the character of the men she was involved with.

    If any woman was to pine for love affairs like she describes in today's world, she would be denounced by every women's group on the planet. And yet she pines for those days with infectious gusto and enthusiasm.

    A movie shot like this today would set women back a couple of hundred years. It could not be remade today and still retain all the wild political incorrectness. Protests and boycotts would stop the movie from being made if word got out of it's script's contents.

    A great, emotionally draining, disturbing and thoroughly unique movie that will always stand alone and cannot be remade without huge rewrites.

    One brief note of interest. One of the female leads, Doris Dudley, lived about a quarter mile from me in the early 1980's. The location was a little community called Jacobia, Tx. Her obituary says Greenville, Tx. which is also correct.

    She invited me and my parents to some kind of little get together at her modest country home. She was outgoing, friendly and yet had a powerful energy to her that somehow made me understand why she was an actress.

    She told me she was in the movies many years ago and her movie/stage name was Doris Dudley. She originally introduced herself as Doris Jenkins.

    She mentioned that she knew Cary Grant. She may have said she worked with him but I'm not sure. She was in her mid 60's and long since retired from being an actress by the time I met her. She loved her dogs. And shortly after I met her she learned she had terminal cancer and died shortly thereafter. When I asked her about it, I was struck by how unafraid she was of dying. I brought her a little newspaper article about someone beating cancer I thought might cheer her up. But she did not need any help. Her courage in facing death infused me with courage. I shall never forget her.

    There is only one biography of her I can find on the internet. She was a lovely, dynamic woman. She was terrific in this movie. I miss visiting with her.
    7bkoganbing

    His misanthropic best

    Herbert Marshall plays W. Somerset Maugham in fact if not name in The Moon And Sixpence as he narrates the story of how his life intersected with that of George Sanders a man who left middle class respectability to do his thing with painting, first in Paris and then the South Seas. Marshall is his erudite best and Sanders once again is a cad.

    When Marshall first knows Sanders he's the soul of Victorian rectitude, no one suspecting what is beneath the surface. So when one fine day he up and leaves his wife Molly Lamont to go live the Bohemian life as a painter in Paris it shocks everybody. In fact Lamont prevails on Marshall to go to Paris to see what brought this about.

    Somerget Maugham's view on human relations and the creative soul are once again given an airing in The Moon And Sixpence. Maugham was a gay man, but there are certain gay men who truly do not like women on most levels. They make too many demands on the creative man, fascinated though they might be by him. That view is in full force when dealing with Lamont and with Doris Dudley who plays a married woman who leaves her husband Steven Geray to take up with Sanders in Paris. His ideal woman is Tahitian Elena Verdugo, pretty and sexy without too much education who takes care of man's physical needs with no demands.

    Women were not Maugham's favorites. You can see that in work like Of Human Bondage with Mildred Rogers or in Rain with Sadie Thompson. And I can't forget The Razor's Edge and the part that Gene Tierney plays.

    Sanders is a caddish as he ever has gotten on the big screen for the first two thirds of the film. But in Tahiti with no demands on him he becomes a mensch. For myself staying a mensch when life does make demands on you is the true test. But what do I know?

    The Moon And Sixpence is Maugham at his misanthropic best. Sanders and Marshall top a fine cast in a film that could have been a real classic with a bigger budget from an A list studio. Herbert Marshall would be the narrator author W. Somerset Maugham again in The Razor's Edge which is a better film. This one in fact did get an Oscar nomination for Dimitri Tiomkin's musical scoring. The Moon And Sixpence can definitely hold its own.
    6blanche-2

    Based on Somerset Maugham's novel

    George Sanders stars in "The Moon and Sixpence," a 1942 film also starring Herbert Marshall, Doris Dudley, Eric Blore, Steven Geray, and Albert Basserman. Loosely based on the life of Gauguin, the screenplay by Albert Lewin is based on the book by Somerset Maugham.

    As in the later "The Razor's Edge," Maugham, here also played by Herbert Marshall, serves as narrator for most of the film. Sanders is the unpleasant, self-involved Charles Strickland, a stock broker who deserts his family and leaves London to go to Paris and become a painter. There he meets Dirk Stroeve (Geray), who becomes a friend. When Strickland becomes ill, Stroeve over the strong objections of his wife Blanche (Dudley) moves Strickland to their home to nurse him back to health. Stroeve then gets the impression that his wife is in love with Srrickland, and that Strickland has no intention of leaving. So he throws him out. His wife says that she's leaving with him. Stroeve leaves instead.

    Strickland eventually tires of Blanche and then leaves for Tahiti. There he continues to paint and even falls in love with a native girl, Ata (Elena Verdugo). There Dr. Coutras (Bassermann) picks up the narration.

    As the unapologetic user obsessed with his work, George Sanders is excellent. Like many in the studio system, he was typecast into playing one type of role, but he was capable of so much more. Another revelation in this film is Eric Blore, who was always typecast as a butler. Here he is a different kind of character and is absolutely wonderful. Herbert Marshall does not register much in what is basically a thankless role - he had more to do in The Razor's Edge.

    Good movie. If this and Lust for Life are any indication, Gauguin, even if this character just hints at him, was a most unpleasant character.
    6atlasmb

    A Disappointing Fiction

    The print of this film (shown on TCM) suffers from the ravages of time. I wish I could say that the genius of the film shines through, but I cannot.

    It is an interesting film. Certainly a curiosity. The unusual use of different film stocks and the selective use of color make it a unique experience.

    The subject of the film, a misanthropic painter who offers little in the way of redeeming value, makes the film an interesting story with a hollow center. Charles Strickland (George Sanders) is a man who sacrifices everything in life to retire to Tahiti to paint. Based loosely on the life of Gaugin, the film has an interesting cast of characters that surround Strickland, notably Herbert Marshall as Geoffrey Wolfe and Steven Geray as Dirk Stroeve.

    One might feel compelled to watch the story of so unusual a protagonist, but he is not merely indifferent to others; he often goes out of his way to denigrate or insult them. When we finally see the artwork that has driven this man's obsession--if that's what it is--it is anticlimactic.

    This work of fiction could have made Strickland a hero, fighting for his artistic vision. Instead, he comes across as little more than a craftsman who does even value his own work. This is disappointing.

    Related interests

    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance

    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Herbert Marshall plays the writer Geoffrey Wolfe, a fictional alter ego of author W. Somerset Maugham. Marshall played Somerset Maugham in Le fil du rasoir (1946), and appeared in several adaptations of Maugham's works, including Le Voile des illusions (1934) and both the 1929 and 1940 versions of La Lettre (1940).
    • Goofs
      Strickland mispronounces Papeete (the capital of Tahiti) as "Pah-peet-ee". The correct pronunciation, as any resident of Tahiti would know, is "Pah-pay-ay-tay".
    • Quotes

      Geoffrey Wolfe: Why will you never let me meet your husband?

      Amy Strickland: He's not at all literary - he'd probably bore you to death.

      Geoffrey Wolfe: Does he bore you?

      Amy Strickland: I happen to be his wife: I'm very fond of him. He doesn't pretend to be a genius. In fact, he doesn't even make very much money on the stock exchange. But he's awfully good and kind.

      Geoffrey Wolfe: I think I should like him very much.

    • Alternate versions
      There is a tinted and a color sequence toward the end of the film, both of which have recently been restored, but for many years this film was seen only in black-and-white.
    • Connections
      Referenced in Spring in Park Lane (1948)
    • Soundtracks
      We, Three Kings of Orient Are
      (uncredited)

      Traditional

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    FAQ16

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • October 27, 1942 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • L'envoûté
    • Production company
      • David L. Loew-Albert Lewin
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $401,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      • 1h 29m(89 min)
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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