when i saw that this film be only 80 minute long and i thought we be in trouble . condense the gigantic w. somerset maugham novel down to a movie that clock in at under an hour and a half seem like a disaster wait to happen . but you know and the movie not half bad and and it even manage to retain much of what make the book resonate so much with it reader . i have hear many film buff complain that leslie howard be a wet noodle of an actor and and he be and but i can not think of anyone more suit to play the role of philip carey than a wet noodle and for that certainly what carey be . howard play him well and which mean you want to shake him and slap him upside the head repeatedly and then finally take him out and buy him a spine . ah and and then there bette and a the girl with whom carey be obsess and who bring his world crash down around him . i do not know what on earth the appeal of mildred be in the book and and the movie stay true to that detail . but a play by davis and she do become the most fascinating character in the story and and if she nasty and unlikable and she at least the most dynamic person on screen at any give time . davis performance here be credit with change the course of screen act and much a brando would do nearly 20 year later when he scream out stella . in that little known tennesee williams play and and it not hard to see why . davis be intense to the point of scary . she make no effort to wring any sympathy from the audience and and she allow herself to look ugly and most unglamorous . her appearance when carey walk in on her late in the film to find her dead or nearly dead of an unnamed disease ( though not much care be take to hide the fact that it an std ) be shock . of course and it help that this movie squeak out just before the production code go into effect while if it have be make a year later and you can bet thing would have be a bit different . yes and much of the novel and and many of it most interesting part and be leave on the cutting room floor and and the story really do become about carey and mildred and not much else . i find that to be the least interesting and most tedious part of maugham novel and but it be the part that give the novel it title and seem to be the part that reader be still draw to now and so it strike me a a wise decision on the part of the film maker that they choose to adapt the novel the way they do . grade represent b plus .