Steve Howard (Rod Steiger) is a successful sales executive, trapped in a cold, stagnant, childless marriage to his wife, Frances (Claire Bloom). He frequently cheats on his wife while travelling around England for business.
While travelling on business, Steve picks up a 19-year-old, free-spirited hitchhiker, Ella Patterson (Judy Geeson), and engages in a brief affair.
Unexpectedly, Ella arrives at Steve’s home in Middlesex while he is away and tells Frances that she is pregnant (without implicating Steve).
Frances takes a shine to Ella and invites the young girl to move into their spare bedroom.
This forces Steve into a desperate psychological game as he tries to keep his secret hidden while interacting with Ella daily.
Steve ultimately rejects Frances and announces that he is leaving her to be with Ella and his child.
Ella finally reveals that she was never pregnant at all, and merely used the lie to watch the older couple’s marriage fracture under pressure.
In a highly controversial move, Universal Pictures heavily edited the film for broadcast on American television a couple of years after its cinema release.
Studio executives shot entirely new scenes in Hollywood (with a different director and cast) to transform the plot into a tame story about a probation officer searching for a missing girl.
Director Peter Hall and the original writers were so outraged by the film’s mutilation that they successfully sued Universal to remove their names from the credits of the broadcast version.
As a consequence, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) subsequently required television networks to issue warnings or disclosures when a movie was re-edited for the small screen.
Steve Howard
Rod Steiger Frances Howard
Claire Bloom Ella Patterson
Judy Geeson Belle (Frances’s mother)
Dame Peggy Ashcroft Jack Roberts
Paul Rogers
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Unexpectedly, Ella arrives at Steve’s home in Middlesex while he is away and tells Frances that she is pregnant (without implicating Steve).
In a highly controversial move, Universal Pictures heavily edited the film for broadcast on American television a couple of years after its cinema release.
Steve Howard
