University of Virginia Library

Opening Up

The screenplay by Clive Exton
apparently has added little new
dialog, having done the traditional
job of opening the play up —
making new scenes for the dialog so
the audience doesn't feel that they
are watching a filmed play.
Fortunately these added scenes are
brief and do not disrupt the flow of
an already tightly written script.
The dialog isn't brilliant, but it has
none of the stilted stagey
atmosphere of other adaptations.
Where the film succeeds is in
Orton's basic story and treatment.

Orton's work might well recall
Pinter's "The Homecoming" in the
moral aspect of the film. The
ending however turns the realism of
the first half into a fantasy, more
easily labeled black comedy. Now
here's the problem with adapting a
play into a film. Broad
characterizations and background
dialog are not needed in films. The
camera eye can tell you more with
a quick shot of an object than a
monologue by a character.
Remember the Chinese and their
theory about one picture?