Encore

This is another trio of Somerset Maugham's short stories. The first one has been wiped from my memory, it was exceedingly dull! The second one started off well, and ended splendidly, but started to drag in the middle. It's the 3rd and final tale that is the gem, centering on a daredevil girl who "dives from a height of 80 feet in 5 foot of flames" - her pool to land in is actually set alight! - and her boyfriend, who are trying to get some money together for a safe future, by her doing a most unsafe act. It will have you on the edge of your seat, guaranteed! Respectively, I give the three tales 3, 6, and 10 out of 10.

Sumerset Maughm has always been one of my favorite novelists. He has the ability to present human struggles among all classes, especially significant because of the rigid, British class system in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when he lived and wrote. All three of the stories told in "Encore," present completely different types of people facing compelling personal problems. I disagree with some of the other respondents who claim "Encore" is a flawed film. All three of the stories in this movie are equally compelling in that they manage to capture the humanity in even the most unlikely, odd characters. The dialog is witty, the acting superb. The audience grows fond of the characters, as they develop. Maughm weaves humor, tension, romance and irony together in a masterful way to create unique worlds alive with life lessons for us all. If you have the opportunity to watch "Encore," you won't be sorry you did.

The last of three films taking several Somerset Maugham short stories and getting them up on the screen (the other two were "Quartet" and "Trio"), this one again is a mixed bag, and there seems to be no agreement among commentators about which stories are superior. For me, I'll agree with most of the critics who say that the opener, "The Ant and the Grasshopper," is pretty slim pickins, especially as its ending is too absurd to be credible. But the next story, "Winter Cruise" is a remarkably beautiful effort. In some ways it shares a lot of the plot of "Mr. Know-All" in the second movie, "Trio." A passenger (this time female) makes everyone on board the ship uncomfortable and a little annoyed by her constant talking. And again, as in "Mr. Know-All," it's surprising how nicely the unlucky people who have to put up with her behave toward her -- very civilized, very polite. And finally, like "Mr. Know-All," there is a wonderful turn of events that puts the best light on everything and everyone. Only this time, the whole business is ratcheted up considerably. For me it was the gem of all three movies. The final story, "Gigolo and Gigolette," was less interesting to me, as the plot was so specific it was hard to generalize any moral from it. But it did allow the movie to go out with a bang. I also felt the actress playing the gigolette was sleepwalking through her part (and I've enjoyed her in other movies). With this movie the Maugham franchise was spent. The three movies, taken as a whole, were okay, but I wouldn't be upset if I had to leave this mortal coil without having seen them.

Encore (1951)

A set of three half hour movies, each based on a short story by W. Somerset Maugham, who also comes on screen to introduce them to us (like Hitchcock did in his 1950s television work). You have to accept the idea that these are short films, without connection, and enjoy them one by one. They don't have time to develop like a full movie, but they make a smaller statement quickly. And each is directed, acted, filmed, etc. etc. by a separate crew and cast. Follow along:

The Ant and the Grasshopper

This has the potential for the most complex and rich of the three shorts, involving two brothers, one who works steadily and honorably at his job (the ant, I suppose) and the other who is a cad and a scoundrel of some innocent sort, but who gets ahead by the end through some leap of daring (the grasshopper, surely). It's a mischievous and clever story, a bit too clever by half, but really well acted. The plot reminds me of the O'Henry kind of storytelling where there is a small kernel of observation and cleverness, but in a lighthearted way (nothing too Chekov or Raymond Carver going on here). But well done, well done.

Winter Cruise

This was for me the best of the three. At first it's a silly tale about a woman who talks so much on a cruise she drives everyone batty, but then, when the ship stops at port and the cast gets reduced to just a half dozen people, we get a tight ensemble playing out of issues of loneliness, love, kindness, and the power of implication. By that I mean, what this segment doesn't say is what it's all about. The writer, Maugham, and the screenwriter, Arthur Macrae, both are in top form.

The tone is great--utterly chipper in its clever humor--and it's filmed in a smilier way, with some playful expressionist filming. And it's nicely contained, a film on a small ship on a voyage. And of course, the men who seem to prefer silence can get none of it on this little vessel, from which there's no escape.

"We'll just ignore her," says one man.

"Well, you can't ignore Niagara," says another.

You have to pay attention, because the quips and one-liners are fast and fluid. For example, when the poor young Frenchman, the steward, is commanded to have a romance with the woman, another officer whispers in his ear that he'll get "danger money" for the duty, a reference to high risk jobs in the war getting higher pay. And there are digs about the English and the French, and so on. Great stuff, increasingly complex, and a touching ambiguous (perfectly ambiguous) ending.

Gigolo and Gigolette

There are two themes to this one. The first echoes Maugham's comments at the start, that some people are drawn to do senselessly dangerous work because the money is there, even if they eventually get hurt or die because of it. This time it is a high dive act (eighty feet up, into a pool of water five feet deep). Which brings us to the second theme: love or money. The diver is a woman, and her boyfriend is deeply in love with her. But he loves money, too, and he begins to push her to dive twice a night even if she isn't quite up to it, because the money is there.

It's well done, if a bit simpler. What really works in this tale is the actual fear you have for the diver. Well filmed, tightly edited.

This movie was constructed from three short stories by Somerset Maugham and he also appears to introduce each of them. The third story "Gigolo and Gigolette" is by far the best as you are never quite sure what direction it is going in. Terrific tension. The middle story also has a neat twist at the end but it takes far too long to get there and its main protagonist (played by Kay Walsh) starts to irritate. The first story features a bunch of quite unlikable, selfish characters and I found it did not engage me at all. 4 out of 10 for the first, 6 out of 10 for the second and 8 out of 10 for the third for an average of 6 out of 10 for the whole effort.