Prologue - The '1946 version'

In 1945, the writer W Somerset Maugham ventured to Hollywood to begin writing a screen adaptation of his novel The Razor's Edge.

Twentieth Century Fox had bought the rights to the book in October 1944 for $150,000.

Development

In the mid-late 70s, Director, John Byrum was keen to make a film about ex-patriates in Europe.

At the same time, he was keen to work on a project with Saturday Night Live star and old friend, Bill Murray.

Writing

Bill and John travelled around America developing the script.

They worked in bars (where the jukebox would be on) , bus stations, restaurants, "we were constantly being interrupted by people saying 'Hey aren't you on Saturday Night Live?"

Shooting

Location shooting began in South West England for the World War 1 scenes in the summer of 1983.

The crew then moved on to locations in France including the Bastille and Paris red-light district to shoot the Paris scenes.

Aftermath

The film premiered on October 19th 1984 at the 'Zeigfeld Theatre' in New York. After a six week run the total box office gross for the film was around $6.6 million.

The film received mixed but overall, underwhelming reviews from critics.