The End of the Affair (1955)

Near the end of World War II, writer Maurice (Van Johnson) meets the wife of a civil servant, Sarah (Deborah Kerr), at a party in their London neighborhood. He is almost instantly smitten and soon they're spending lots of time together. When the building they're in is hit by a bomb, Sarah quickly ends the relationship, much to Maurice's confusion.

This is a complicated story involving faith and morality, but it fell quite flat in this telling. I think the biggest problem was that I didn't believe that Maurice and Sarah were in love. There was no chemistry in their actions. We were, apparently, supposed to simply take the script's word for their passion.

The 1999 remake with Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore puts this one to shame. I graded the newer film an A+. This one just gets a:

C+