Murder in the Cathedral (film)

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Murder in the Cathedral
File:Murder in the Cathedral (movie poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by George Hoellering
Produced by George Hoellering
Screenplay by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Based on Murder in the Cathedral
by T. S. Eliot
Starring Father John Groser
Music by László Lajtha
Cinematography David Kosky
Edited by Anne Allnatt
Production
company
Film Traders Ltd.
Distributed by Film Traders Ltd.
Release dates
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  • 1951 (1951) (Venice)
  • March 1952 (1952-03) (United Kingdom)
Running time
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  • Original release:
  • 146 minutes[1]
  • 2015 re-release:
  • 114 minutes[2]
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Murder in the Cathedral is a 1951 British drama film directed and produced by George Hoellering and co-written by Hoellering and T. S. Eliot based on Eliot's 1935 verse drama of the same name and starring Father John Groser.

The film competed at the 12th Venice International Film Festival and received the award for Best Production Design, given to Peter Pendrey.[3] It was released in the United Kingdom in 1952.[4]

Plot

Archbishop Thomas Becket (Father John Groser) deals with his temptations before his murder in the Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.

Cast

Release

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.[5]

Reception

Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times: "Whatever literary merits T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral may have and whatever strange dramatic virtues it may possess in performance on a stage, it is obvious that this stylized verse drama is not felicitous material for the screen. ... There are flashes of stark pictorial beauty in some of the somber scenes of prelates and noblemen and worshippers gathered in the Archbishop's Hall of Canterbury Cathedral, where the entire action of the play takes place. And some nods toward cinema dynamics are more or less effectively made in not too imaginative cutting for dramatic emphasis and flow. But, for the most part, Mr. Eliot's cold recounting of Becket's defiance of the King and his murder by helmeted assassins for insisting upon the Church's authority is conveyed in lengthy orations by individuals and choral groups, photographed in static poses and solemnly massed attitudes." Crowther continued: "Fortunately, the spoken words have richness as they flow off the cultivated tongues of handsomely costumed performers who, at least, look their medieval roles. Father John Groser, an English cleric, is grandly dignified and benign as the conscientious Archbishop who coolly calculates his martyrdom and Alexander Gauge is forceful as King Henry in a scene especially written for the film."[6]

References

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External links

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