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. 

 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041134/


Directors:
Antony Darnborough
Terence Fisher


Celia Johnson	 ... 	Barbara Faber
	Noel Coward	... 	Dr. Christian Faber
	Margaret Leighton	... 	Leonora Vail
	Joyce Carey	... 	Susan Birch
	Graham Payn	... 	Tim Verney


[Movie]
Valid : Yes [AVI]
Duration : 01:24:59
Movie complete : Yes

[Video]
Resolution : 544x400  Ratio  1.36:1
Codec : DivX (4 / 5 / 6)
FPS : 25,00
BitRate : 1027 Kbps
Quality Factor : 0,19 b/px

[Audio]
Codec : MPEG 1 or 2 Audio Layer 3 (MP3)
Number of channels : 2
Sample Rate : 48000 Hz
BitRate : 128 Kbps