Yvonne

Will someone please remind me why the death of Mrs Baines,the housekeeper, was changed for the film? I think it was something to do with making her husband less guilty, therefore more likeable than he was, but I can't remember how. I suppose the addition of the child's pet grass-snake episode was to underline the nastiness of the wife. Personally, I found her worse than Mrs Danvers in any case.

[ 25. February 2004, 14:30: Message edited by: DB7 ]

Yvonne

Ninive

Actually I didn't see the movie, I've just read the book but I have a work to do about it and one of the questions is “How did Philip consider death?” I don’t know what to say cause the book doesn’t show any clue about this! Do you’ve any idea?
The others questions are “How did Philip consider the death of Mrs. Baines?” and “What was the police’s conclusions and attitudes, and what was Philip’s contribution to them?
For the first question, I would say that Philip saw in Mrs. Baines a kind of enemy, he didn’t like her ‘cause she was very authoritarian and rude sometimes, so he whished she disappeared. When she die, I think that Philip didn’t believe what had happened, that why he kept on imagining, thinking, what would happened to him when he came back from the street. Even when he arrived home, he didn’t show any reaction, he didn’t cry or something like this, he just didn’t what to see the dead body. I think that in fact he was pleasant, relieved cause she would never came back…
For the second one,I think that the police had believed that Mrs.Baines'death was an accident,till they went to the house.They just changed their mind,when Philip,in his innocence talked that the body was in the hall and that he didn't want to see the body.Only after this,the police started to inquire Mr. Baines...

D Cairns

I'd be guessing, but I think the alterations may have been to do with censorship. Certainly in America nobody could be allowed to get away with murder in a film, so Ralph has to be innocent for the movie if it's to be distributed abroad. The film did in fact have some trouble passing the censors in the US, due to the sexual innuendo and the prostitute character.

Greene also liked to soften his dark endings for the movies - he added a more upbeat finale to BRIGHTON ROCK and even argued that Cotton should get the girl iN THE THIRD MAN. Fortunately he was shouted down on that one.