One of Maugham’s best known short stories became a famous play and film. And why not, since it was such a terrific central situation – a prim and proper Englishwoman, wife of a planter, shoots another Englishman dead in Malaya. She claims he tried to rape her and it seems to be open and shut; the only thing is, she shot him six times.
No one did smouldering sexual desire amongst whites in the tropics quite like Maugham and he’s in his element here. From memory, the character of the lawyer, who agrees to pay blackmail for his client, was more vivid in the film than the play (in the play he’s motivated by his affection – love? – for the planter husband, his old friend; in the film it was his attraction to the wife). Also the character of the husband is different to Herbert Marshall’s interpretation – here he is a rugged, simple, soft-hearted man of his hands.
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