The Golden Bowl

If you find reading Henry James tedious for his endlessly spun-out and inconsequential sentences, you need not fear. This production is subtly habit-forming throughout its inveigling four episodes. Especially, as other reviewers have commented, for everything that is not said in the text. Perhaps not too sinister, by contemporary standards, it nevertheless treats infidelity, not simply as an extracurricular activity for the lazy rich, but also as a labyrinth of quiet deceptions and undercurrents running through 19th century propriety, presented in a suave and 'delicate' manner. I watched all the episodes several times, sometimes twice in one evening. You too, perhaps, when you 'get caught' by the disquieting and ominous dialogues wafting from scene to scene.

This is a masterpiece....essential viewing for anyone examining the translation of Henry James to film, theater, or television. The screenplay is excellent, the production is impeccably cast. So far superior to the movie version in the later 90's it's not worth comparing. Gayle Hunnicutt BECOMES Charlotte Stant in an exquisite performance that can't be surpassed. Uma Thurman's feeble attempts in the movie version are pathetic in comparison. Cyrill Cussak in the narrator role as Bob Assingham is brilliant. Barry Morse may lack Nick Nolte's sex appeal, but that is a benefit when it comes to to this production. If you are an English or Theater teacher looking to assign excellent film adaptations for analysis and review, you can't o better than this production.

This is a genial-enough comment, from a lifetime (up till now, anyway) of reading Mr J and being long used to his floating ways with the language. Back when this miniseries was running, my father, who was a good man interested in the world around him but no longer much of a fiction reader--when he was a young fellow, he was earnestly taken by George Eliot--sat down to watch The Golden Bowl and submit to a barrage of Jamesian commentary and sideways talk. After the fourth episode he suddenly stood up, said This is too damned silly! and retired to his study. I knew what he meant; I kept on watching. So it goes.

Alistair Cooke, in introducing a re-broadcast of this six-hour series, called it the finest ever shown on Masterpiece Theater, and he'll get no argument from me: it was superb. I quite agree with my fellow commentor's perception that it was the slow unfolding over six hours that made the material mesmerize (the novel is very long too), so I share his concern about the Merchant/Ivory production, but I suppose we'll see. In any case, do not miss this version if you get the chance to view it. Following James's subtle analysis of human motivations is, Cooke memorably said, like "entering the mind of Sigmund Freud," and the greatest compliment I can pay this adaptation is that it does justice to that subtlety. I find the performances excellent, too (whatever happened to Gayle Hunnicutt, who shows such talent here?). And there's a memorable use of Ravel on the soundtrack.

One of the most riveting productions I have ever seen on television, The Golden Bowl encapsulates a story of wicked romance and deception amongst Britain's 19th century upper classes with an atmosphere so sinister, I could not but marvel at the actors' ability to create such social realism on the screen. Gayle Hunnicutt's Charlotte is so devious and contemptible in her characterisation of a seductress with such love of intrigue and slippery guile and silent contempt for her associates, one can almost hate her in real life! Upper-classes, playing with life and a marvelous opportunity for the literary dialectical materialist's interpretation in any university seminar group. I will never forget the dimminishing light surrounding Maggie as she sits alone in frozen bewilderment - effected by a gradually dimming studio light - slowly putting together the web of deceit that has surrounded her. Terrific drama! First rate!