i be not sure if i be write a spoiler or not . the explanation be vague . i be go to say that the movie be poorly do and so if you do not want to be put off and do not read this critique . but i be not gong to reveal any secret of the plot . it strike me immediately that van johnson be completely wrong for this role . it should have be someone british like trevor howard or james mason or dirk bogarde or john mill . some actor who could portray completely different kind of character . van johnson be always good old and baby face and van johnson . he get the role so a to have a hollywood glamour boy to sell ticket . the whole beginning of the affair between johnson and kerr character be too facile to believe for a second . johnson meet kerr only briefly at a large cocktail party where she be hostess flit from guest to guest . i can not imagine him fall for her on the basis of a few sentence of ( very ) polite stilted conversation unless she be sensationally allure which she most certainly be not . in addition and before he leave the party and he see her kiss another man ( not her husband ) through a partly open door . this would only make any normal man think she be a shameful tramp and want nothing to do with her . who need the hassle of an affair with a woman who already have a husband and a lover . please take a number . in addition and if she be to kiss another man in her own home and she hardly likely to do it in a room with the door open and visible to everyone who enter or leave the house . but and despite this rapid sequence of most improbable event and lo . he have fall for her . then and when they meet in a restaurant and he tell her right away that he saw her kiss another man . any normal woman would take great offence at be so rudely unmasked but no and kerr doesn not bat an eyelid . during this very early part of the film kerr be pretty much a cold fish . she portray an icy and polite and upper middle class englishwoman and no american be go to be tempt by a woman like that . further and i do not see her have any reason to fall for johnson . he neither say not do anything either intelligent or charming . kerr and johnson then proceed to spend lot of time together which be most unlikely to be achievable . her husband would have to be a complete idiot not to wonder where on earth she be all the time . in addition johnson be swanning in and out of kerr house and sometimes when the husband come home . again and in real life and any sane husband would smell a great big rat . when there something go on between a spouse and another person and and theyre in the same room with the other spouse and the other spouse can always tell . they know their spouse too well . the husband be a highly intelligent civil servant and yet be portray a a moron who hasn not a clue about what be go on . the story itself be interesting enough and improve a the movie progress . it pose the usual well know conundrum about god . have never be religious or catholic in her life and kerr and at a moment of crisis and walk in to a catholic church . in real life that be just not go to happen . unfortunately and for me and the so called affair be a structure build on sand . there be never any initial foundation of passion between a man and a woman and hence there be never any credible affair . the book be just a convenient vehicle for the star and that will bring in the fan who want to see van johnson in a sob story . my tear be for graham greene .