Brief Ecstasy

1937 film by Edmond T. Gréville

August 1937 (1937-08)

Running time

72 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

Brief Ecstasy is a 1937 British drama film directed by Edmond T. Gréville and starring Paul Lukas, Hugh Williams, Linden Travers and Marie Ney.^[1] It was made at Ealing Studios.

Plot

Cast

Paul Lukas a Professor Paul Bernardy
Hugh Williams as Jim Wyndham
Linden Travers as Helen Norwood Bernardy
Marie Ney as Martha Russell
Renee Gadd as Marjorie
Fred Withers as Gardener
Howard Douglas as Coleman
Fewlass Llewellyn as Director of Steel Company
Peter Gawthorne as Chairman of Steel Company
Norman Pierce as Landlord

Reception

Writing for Night and Day in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a good review, expressing admiration for producer Perceval's ability to "wring twenty shillings' worth out of every pound" and director Gréville's recognition that for a film whose subject is sexual passion "the story doesn't matter; it's the atmosphere which counts". Greene praised Gréville's "wanton and vivid" depictions of "undifferentiated desire" as well as his French education in "photograph[ing] a woman's body - uncompromisingly", and noted that "the film at its finest [...] generalizes", and "there isn't, thank God, any love in it".^[2]

References

^ BFI.org
^ Greene, Graham (16 September 1937). "Action for Slander/Brief Ecstacy". Night and Day. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. Oxford University Press. p. 167. ISBN 0192812866.)