John Schlesinger was hot after Midnight Cowboy (1969) and this 1971 love triangle drew hyperbolic praise.
Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson were put on the emotional rack by Schlesinger: They are both in love with the same young man, but as the object of their affections is the lumpish Murray Head, it was hard to see what all the fuss is about’. . .
There was, however, an excellent script by Penelope Gilliatt and a fine performance from Finch as the smitten homosexual Jewish doctor – a part he took over at short notice from Ian Bannen.
Schlesinger’s camera lingers balefully over the middle-class milieu in which the protagonists move, and will no doubt provide sociologists of the future with an anatomy of the British bourgeoisie in the 1970s.
Alex Greville
Glenda Jackson
Dr Daniel Hirsh
Peter Finch
Bob Elkin
Murray Head
Mrs Greville
Peggy Ashcroft
Mr Greville
Maurice Denham
Alva Hodson
Vivian Pickles
Bill Hodson
Frank Windsor
Professor Johns
Thomas Baptiste
Mr Harding
Tony Britton
Daniel’s father
Harold Goldblatt
Director
John Schlesinger
