what if somerset maugham have write a novel about a coal miner who decide to search for transcendental enlightenment by try to join a country club . if he have and he could have call it the razor edge and since the katha upanishad tell u and the sharp edge of a razor be difficult to pass over while thus the wise say the path to salvation be hard . but maugham decide to stick with the well breed class and and so we have darryl f. zanuck version of larry darrell and recently return from wwi and carefully groom and well connect in society and determine to find himself by become a coal miner . or and a maugham tell u and this be the young man of whom i write . he be not famous . it may be that when at last his life come to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on this earth than a stone throw into a river leave on the surface of the water . yet it may be that the way of life he have choose for himself may have an ever grow influence over his fellow men and so that and long after his death and perhaps and it will be realize that live in this age a very remarkable creature . the razor edge have all of zanuck cultural taste that money could buy . it so earnest and so sincere . so self important . a larry go about his search for wisdom and working in mine and on merchant ship and climb a himalayan mountain to learn from an ancient wise man and we have his selfish girl friend and isabel and play by gene tierney and his tragic childhood chum play by anne baxter and the girlfriend snobbish and impeccably clad uncle play by clifton webb and and willie maugham himself and play by herbert marshall and take note . the movie be so insufferably smug about goodness that the only thing that perk it up a bit be clifton webb a elliot templeton . if i live to be a hundred i shall never understand how any young man can come to paris without even clothes . webb have some good line and but we wind up appreciate clifton webb and not elliot templeton . zanuck want a prestige hit for twentieth century when he buy the right to maugham novel . he wait a year until tyrone power be release from military service . he make sure there be well dress extra by the dozen and a score that sound a if it be mean for a cathedral and he even write some of the scene himself . the effort be a self conscious a a fat man wear a rented tux . despite hollywood view of thing in the razor edge and i can tell you that for most people hard work doesn not bring enlightenment and just weariness and low pay . after nearly two and a half hour and we last see larry carry his duffle bag on board a tramp steamer in a gale . he go to work his way back to america from europe with a content smile on his face . my dear and somerset maugham say to isabel at the same time in an elaborately decorate parlor and larry have find what we all want and what very few of u ever get . i do not think anyone can fail to be good and and nobler and kinder for know him . you see and my dear and goodness be after all the great force in the world . and he get it . larry and the audience both need a healthy dose of dramamine . maugham and l we forget and be a fine writer of play and novel and essay and short story . to see how the movie could do him justice and watch the way some of his short story be bring to the screen in encore and trio and quartet . and instead of waste time with larry darrell and spend some time with lawrence durrell . the alexandria quartet be a good read .