The Spoils of Poynton

Disc three of The Henry James Collection. I see that ajbakeresq has given an account of the difficult conditions actors and technicians had to deal with in the early days of TV drama; I can't add much to this but I want to say this is a triumph for Gemma Jones, playing the unlucky-in-love Fleda Vetch, and it's also a triumph for Henry James, whose works have translated to film and TV with difficulty.

It was James's genius to write about women's lives in the nineteenth century, when women were seen as inferior creatures who had to be humoured by men, when they weren't being ignored totally. The struggle between Mrs. Gereth and Mona Brigstock for the soul of the hapless Owen is titanic, even though it plays out over teacups and antimacassars. Dickens would have been incapable of writing about such a contest, even if he'd thought of doing so. Fleda and Owen are the unwilling witnesses of this struggle, and the victims of it too. The last scene with Fleda at the train station is very poignant; I'd say I've become a supporter of Gemma Jones on the basis of it--her work in The Duchess of Duke Street never made much of an impression on me. The supporting players are very capable, especially Pauline Jameson as Mrs. Gereth.

I watched this series when it was first aired in the first season of Masterpiece Theatre back in the early seventies. It stayed in my memory as one of the best adaptations of Henry James I have ever seen. Now the BBC has made it available as a DVD part of the Henry James box set. I discovered it by accident trolling through Netflix one day. Try searching for "Masterpiece Theatre Seasons 1 & 2" or "Face of God Lists" I now have watched the first episode and still think this is marvelous after almost forty years. Although today's viewer may be put off by the primitive level of cinematography here, TV scripts never came up to this level of wit,sophistication and literate adaptation again. And of course it proves that James was a compelling dramatist who just needed some"help" adapting his work to another media.

(I don't know why the BBC or PBS Masterpiece Theatre do not make it easy to locate these items).

I am delighted to have the Spoils of Poynton in DVD. I saw it in Black and White in 1970 - we didn't have colour until February 1971.

Another post refers to primitive cinematography and I feel this needs explaining. These early (pre c1975) BBC dramas are mainly made in the studio on video tape (not long before they would have been live), The studio system used three or four very large colour TV cameras trundling round on trollies, and the scene was controlled from a control room. Generally entire scenes had to be done in one go as editing was still hard to do. Actors had to do 10 minutes or so without errors - not just words but being in exactly the right place.

So you can;t compare the style with a film, it's more like a stage play with a few 16mm filmed inserts. The great advantage was that the drama depended on dialogue rather than action. Seeing these things in colour I am amazed by the costumes and sets - and notice all the unnecessary extras in the shop scenes.

Spoils of Poynton mainly depends on Gemma Jones, a delightful performance. You had to have real actors in those days!

The Golden Bowl, also on the BBC R1 box set, is the ultimate production in this old style. Hardly anything happens but it really captures the Henry James style.

The Spoils of Poynton is one of the short novels James wrote before turning to the three large novels that ended his career -- The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl. As such Spoils is a wonderful introduction to the subtleties of late James. Since it is the complicated story of a fight over who inherits the family furniture, and how that may influence whom the son marries, the plot is like most James very subtle and complex. This screening makes the characters' motives clearer without in any way simplifying the Jamesian turns of the story. I haven't see this production in over thirty years, but I remember it as charming, and fairly truthful to James. It came the year before Masterpiece Theater's famous GOLDEN BOWL, and is in every sense its equal. A special bonus is a very young Gemma Jones as the wretchedly named heroine Fleda Vetch. Hard to find, but see it if it comes you way.