When I was in my twenties - (quite a few years ago now!) - I played Richard Rich in a production of the stage play by Robert Bolt. A professional production but on a shoestring (as indeed many small scale theatre productions are) but using the most magnificent and realistic of costumes and setting as the director of the play also happened to be married to a theatrical costumier and was a life-long member of The National Trust. The experience was one of the most remarkable in my life and I cherish the memory of being a part of such a wonderful company and such a worthy and superbly crafted play.
Bolt's play doesn't pull any punches, and tells the story of Sir Thomas More's final days, as he refuses, standing by his own principals, to sign a letter asking the Pope to annul King Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine Of Aragon and to appoint him Supreme Head of The Church Of England. The film, Bolt's own adaptation for the screen, is, as far as I could remember, almost word for word the same as the play, and also is one of the best play-to-film adaptations I have ever seen. There is one notable, and crucial exception to this sentiment. In the play there is a character called The Common Man. This is a theatrical device which allows a character to serve as much for the play as for the audience, narrating and advancing the narrative giving opinion along the way. The Common Man - or perhaps more accurately "every man" and not common as in 'vulgar' - also acts as a kind of theatrical alienation device, which allows the Common Man to interact and react with the cast and also the audience; but the rest of the cast are unaware of an audience and observe the fourth wall. This technique in a film would, I concede, look rather stagey and false, and so Bolt wisely opted to exorcise this character, and instead flesh out the narrative with a couple of extra scenes which are explained by The Common Man in the play, but for the film, we are spectators of them. These included Wolsey's death and Henry VIII's wedding to Anne Boleyn.
Filmed in 1966 and directed by Fred Zinnemann, the cast list reads a little like a 'Who's Who' of classical theatre / film, but unlike some Hollywood movies which try to fill their principal characters with as many A-listers as possible still to be a flop; here, every single actor, right down to the crowd scenes with extras is meticulous, detailed and perfectly studied. It is a masterclass in acting, and Zinnemann knew exactly which shots to use and which to discard, allowing the viewer to focus on exactly the right person, the right expression, the right nonchalant shrug of the shoulder, at exactly the right time. It couldn't be more perfect.
The film stars Paul Schofield (Sir Thomas More), Wendy Hiller (Alice More), Leo McKern (Thomas Cromwell), Orson Welles (Cardinal Wolsey), Robert Shaw (Henry VIII), Susannah York (Margaret More), Nigel Davenport (Duke Of Norfolk), John Hurt (Richard Rich), Corin Redgrave (William Roper), Vanessa Redgrave (Anne Boleyn), but the biggest surprise was an appearance by Yootha Joyce (best known for being the female half of George And Milded in the TV sitcom) playing Averil Machin.
The film is historically accurate, the narrative doesn't take sides, and leaves you coming away from the cinema feeling that politics and the human condition have changed very little in the last 500 years. The colour (filmed in Technicolor) is a little shaky - it was 1966 after all - but the locations (mostly Oxfordshire) are beautiful, the story as gripping as any thriller you are likely to read today, and the acting is just on another level completely. Superb!
Reviewer - Chris Benchley
on - 5/1/20
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