At Byrum’s July Fourth picnic, lovers cuddle, kiss, and roll on the grass. Larry Darrell wants more, but Isabel Bradley wants to wait. At the lover’s picnic in Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge, never touch or kiss or even hold hands
As in Maugham’s picnic, Isabel tries to coerce Larry into a conventional marriage and a lucrative job. Larry wants to wait at least until he returns from the war, where he is serving in the Ambulance Corps. Larry’s war experience creates an impossible impasse. Instead of settling down, he sets out on a lifetime of self-discovery.
Byrum’s food of choice is hot dogs. Maugham’s picnic food, prepared by Isabel’s mother: stuffed eggs, chicken sandwiches, apple pie, coffee, and a thermos of martinis, are eaten without gusto.
* Edmund Goulding’s The Razor’s Edge (1946) does not have a picnic episode. Instead, Larry (Tyron Power) and Isabel (Gene Tierney) try to settle matters at Bradley’s count
ry club.
See John Byrum. The Razor’s Edge (1984). The screenplay by John Byrum and Bill Murray is based on 1944 Maugham’s novel; W. Somerset Maugham. The Razor’s Edge. London: Heinemann, 1944; Edmund Goulding. The Razor’s Edge (1946). The screenplay by Lamar Trotti is based on Maugham’s novel