I haven't read Austin's novel of this name since high school, over four decades ago, so I really have no way of knowing how faithful an adaptation this is.
Nor, frankly, do I particularly care.
If you can divorce the two works and not expect the movie to reproduce the novel, you are left with one really remarkable film.
First and foremost, the script, by Aldous Huxley, no mean novelist himself, is brilliant. I don't know how much of it is borrowed or adapted from Austin and how much is Huxley's clever creation, but it's just plain wonderful. Witty without being nasty or supercilious, it's a joy from beginning to end.
Second, the script's wonderful dialogue is delivered with zest and nuance by great actors, chief among them Greer Garson and Lawrence Olivier. They seem to the manner born - which evidently they were.
Then there is Edna May Oliver. She did so many different things so well, such as Pross in *A Tale of Two Cities.* She steals every scene in which she appears here, sending even Olivier into the shade. She's just a joy to watch.
As, frankly, is this whole movie.
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I just watched this movie again, and once again I marveled at the brilliance of the script and the acting. Garson and Olivier deliver their biting lines with perfect timing and understatement. But they also know how to suggest, with just the slightest movements, very deep feelings. They are both so afraid of losing the other, yet too proud to show it. Edmund Gwenn and Mary Boland make a wonderful study in contrasts, one all understatement and the other all uncontrolled exaggeration.
Nor, frankly, do I particularly care.
If you can divorce the two works and not expect the movie to reproduce the novel, you are left with one really remarkable film.
First and foremost, the script, by Aldous Huxley, no mean novelist himself, is brilliant. I don't know how much of it is borrowed or adapted from Austin and how much is Huxley's clever creation, but it's just plain wonderful. Witty without being nasty or supercilious, it's a joy from beginning to end.
Second, the script's wonderful dialogue is delivered with zest and nuance by great actors, chief among them Greer Garson and Lawrence Olivier. They seem to the manner born - which evidently they were.
Then there is Edna May Oliver. She did so many different things so well, such as Pross in *A Tale of Two Cities.* She steals every scene in which she appears here, sending even Olivier into the shade. She's just a joy to watch.
As, frankly, is this whole movie.
----------------------------------------------------
I just watched this movie again, and once again I marveled at the brilliance of the script and the acting. Garson and Olivier deliver their biting lines with perfect timing and understatement. But they also know how to suggest, with just the slightest movements, very deep feelings. They are both so afraid of losing the other, yet too proud to show it. Edmund Gwenn and Mary Boland make a wonderful study in contrasts, one all understatement and the other all uncontrolled exaggeration.