The Passionate Friends is a 1949 British romantic drama film directed by David Lean and starring Ann Todd, Claude Rains and Trevor Howard.

Her voiceover recalls her excitement and delight at the first holiday with Howard for years, She is half asleep when a man is shown into the adjoining room.

Driving home from the party, Mary remembers her affair with Steven and how much in love they were.

She dreams of how she refused his proposal because she “wants to belong to herself.” Howard goes to Germany and Italy on a business trip.

“That was 9 years ago,” Mary's voiceover returns, wondering what she would have done if she had known he was the man in the adjoining room at the Hotel Splendide.

Mixed expressions tell of regrets, When they return from the mountain, Howard, who has arrived early, sees them disembarking together.

As he goes to their suite, he notices the porter taking Steven's suitcase from the adjoining room and is filled with suspicion.

His pride is further hurt when Mary rushes by him to the terrace, not realising he is there, to wave goodbye enthusiastically to Steven.

Mary decides she must save Steven and tells him that Howard has withdrawn the divorce.

Instead he was given 'the love you'd give a dog, the kindness you'd show a beggar, and the loyalty of a bad servant'.

[4] The film was originally going to be directed by Ronald Neame, who arranged for Eric Ambler to write and produce.

Filming was postponed while Ambler rewrote the script under the supervision of Lean and Haynes.

Filming started under Neame's direction with only forty pages of the script written.

It proceeded for a few days but was an unhappy experience – Neame says Ann Todd "played up" as she was unsure of her character.