I read that play a few years ago, and would love to see it on film. How would you compare it to BECKET?
shareHaven't seen the play but the death scene in Becket was crap. He didn't die all saintly he died trying to bash their heads in with his cross, swearing in language that would make a marine blush and using every dirty street fighting trick he had learnt as a young man in the streets of London.
Cry God for Harry, England and St George
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Murder in the Cathedral was filmed in 1952. Eliot wrote the screenplay, writing in Henry II, who was played by Alexander Gauge of Friar Tuck fame, and appeared himself as one of the Tempters. Niall McGinnis, who succeeded Gauge as Tuck when the Robin Hood series finally made it to the big screen and appears as one of the knights in Becket, was in Murder as well. I've heard the print still exists somewhere.
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"An inglorious peace is better than a dishonourable war" ~ John Adams
Every few years, the RSC pulls "Murder" out and stage it. I was lucky enough to see it in the Barbican Pit one summer. Wow! It was brought up to date, at least in costumes and (over?) simplified set to accommodate the Pit's layout, but still a marvelous staging.
Understand that it's a totally different story with the same character of Becket. It would be like comparing Romeo and Juliet to West Side Story. Two great tellings of the same basic story, each with its own strong and weak points to be argued ad nauseum....