The Astonished Heart (1950)

A woman falls in love with her best friend's husband.

Directors: Antony Darnborough, Terence Fisher
Cast: Celia Johnson, Noel Coward, Margaret Leighton, Joyce Carey, Graham Payn, Amy Veness, Ralph Michael, Michael Hordern, Patricia Glyn, Alan Webb, Everley Gregg, John Salew, Gerald Anderson, John Warren, Jacqueline Byrne, Frank Duncan, Mary Ellis, Violet Farebrother, Hilda Fenemore, Frederick Leister, Elspeth March, Oscar Nation, Bill Owen, Anne Valery, Margaret Withers

With his previous collaborator David Lean busy on other own projects, Noel Coward had to rely on director Terence Fisher to bring his The Astonished Heart to the screen. Fisher and his stars–Celia Johnson, Margaret Leighton, and Coward himself–vividly convey the playwright's brittle, sophisticated view of the world. Coward stars as Christian Faber, a psychiatrist who falls in love with the much-younger Leonora Vail (Leighton). This means that Faber must convince himself that his blissful 10-year marriage to wife Barbara (Johnson) is truly at an end. Once he's made this compromise with his conscience, Faber further deteriorates into petulant jealousy when Leonora begins roaming. The surprise ending is all the more surprising because the audience is pulling for Faber (despite his emotional immaturity) and is hoping that he'll pull himself out of his self-imposed mess. In addition to writing and starring in The Astonished Heart, Noel Coward also composed the musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

IMDb

The film begins with a scene in which Barbara rings Leonora to tell her that something has happened to Chris. At this point, we don't know who Chris is or what has happened, only that he has lost conciousness. The film then flashes back a year, to when the old friends Barbara and Leonora meet again after having lost contact for many years. Time has not strained their relationship it seems, and Barbara invites Leonora to her house a few days later to meet her husband. Her husband Chris, a pompous, austere psychologist, gets off to a bad start with Leonora. The two despise each other until one night when Barbara has to leave town to look after her mother. Because of this, she is unable to go to the play she had arranged to go with Leonora to. Chris reluctantly decides to go in place of Barbara, and the two hit it off and begin a relationship.
~ Andy Prowse

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