Murder in the Cathedral
- T. S. Eliot
- George Hoellering
Murder in the Cathedral
by T. S. Eliot
George Hoellering
Father John Groser
David Kosky
Anne Allnatt
Film Traders Ltd
- 1951 (Venice)
- March 1952 (United Kingdom)
United Kingdom
English
Plot[edit]
Archbishop Thomas Becket (Father John Groser) deals with his temptations before his murder in the Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.
Differences from the play[edit]
A number of changes were made for the film. Three of them are particularly notable.
The fourth tempter is not seen; only a voice is heard, which was Eliot himself speaking the lines.
George Hoellering, the film's director, recognized that general audiences might not know the events that preceded the action of the play. He informed Eliot of this and asked for a new scene which depicted the central reasons leading to the events in the play. Eliot complied.
Hoellering also thought the knights' final speeches were a problem because "in stage productions these speeches amused the audience instead of shocking them, and thereby made them miss the point—the whole point of the play." He asked Eliot for changes; and Eliot made major reductions to the speeches and added a shorter speech.[5]
Release[edit]
Murder in the Cathedral premiered at the 12th Venice International Film Festival in 1951 before being theatrically released by Film Traders Ltd in the United Kingdom in March 1952 and in the United States by Classic Pictures on 25 March 1952.[6]