Elizabeth Bowen was one of the UK's greatest writers and arguably ' The Heat of the Day ' is her greatest novel. To a certain extent it resists filming, because it is filled with atmosphere and ambiguity, especially concerning the Second World War in which it is set. Harold Pinter tries in his way ( and I have read his film script ) to capture the book and in my opinion does not quite succeed. He uses words sparingly, while Bowen has a very rich and highly textured style. The ' story ' comes across well, and in my opinion the richness of the book's content is partly lost. Michael Gambon acts well as Harrison, the slightly perverse investigator, but he lacks the attractive aura of sexuality that Stella, beautifully played by Patricia Hodge ( a beautiful woman and a great actor ) should be half attracted to. Michael York is good, but not quite anguished enough as Robert her ( perhaps ) German spy of a lover. Hodge raises the film to another level, way above them. The final scenes do not quite tighten the screws enough and the appalling aloneness of the trio of the main characters does not come over enough. The script is not up to the task, or how it is delivered by Gambon and York, despite the readiness of Hodge to do her best to do so. Her eyes deliver the words that are not there, and I have seen this Granada Production from 1990 many, many times to study it. As a television film it is much, much better than most and just having seen the BBC version of ' Daniel Deronda ' it is way ahead. The direction is tauter and despite its arguable flaws in casting and Pinter mannerisms almost succeeds in being a television masterpiece.
Review of The Heat of the Day
