"There is in every one of us a spark of the infinite goodness that created us. When we leave this Earth, we are reunited with it as a raindrop falling from heaven is at last reunited with the sea which gave it birth." 

This quote is from Somerest Maugham's "The Razor's Edge" and attributed to Sri Ramana / Ramana Maharshi. He was born Venkataraman Iyer on December 30, 1879  but is mostly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. He is also known as "the liberated being."

This film is the screen version of Somerset Maugham's thinly disguised memoir. It is an unusual book in that it is more about his memories of a close friend than his own life. It is classed as a novel only because he changed the name of that friend as well as his own family members.

The friend, Larry, is played by Tyrone Power. And in seeking enlightenment he seems to inadvertently learn that what Sri Ramana has taught him is not always true. There are people who are inherently indifferent, and still others who are evil.

An outstanding film, marked by the performances of Tyrone Power as Larry, Cecil Humphreys as Sri Ramana, Clifton Webb as Elliot Templeton and both  Anne Baxter and Gene Tierney, as Sophie and Isabelle respectively. W. Somerset Maugham is played by Herbert Marshall.

The film begins just after World War One and spans the following decade. It takes place in Chicago, London, Paris and Tibet. The book is well adapted for the screen.

It is mainly the story of Larry, the most unusual man the author ever encountered, and the contrast between the spiritual life he has chosen, and the material lives of Elliot Templeton and the rest of the cast.

Written in 1944 it was well adapted for the screen only 2 years later by Darryl F. Zanuck.