A psychological thriller in the guise of a historical romance set during a long hot summer in rural Norfolk. Leo Colston, now a wealthy and elderly bachelor, returns to re-experience traumatic events from the past around 1900, as a 13 year old family house guest of his school friend, Marcus Maudsely. When Marcus falls ill, Leo is left to his own devices until he is invited to play the role of go-between in a tale of secret passion and forbidden love between Marcus’s sister - Marian Maudsley, and a poor but handsome tenant farmer, Ted Burgess. Marian, who is about to be betrothed to a wealthy landowner and ex-soldier - Viscount Hugh Trimingham, befriends the isolated Leo but with tragic and unforeseen consequences.
Directed by Joseph Losey and made at EMI-MGM Elstree Film Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, the film was shot extensively on location in Norwich and north Norfolk. The Go Between was adapted from the novel by L P Hartley, by the late Harold Pinter, one of 25 screenplays written by Pinter, and the third for late American director, Joseph Losey (The Servant 1963 and Accident 1967). The vaguely neo–Lawrentian storyline taken by Pinter from the original novel – and not dissimilar to that of Lady Chatterley (the subject of a famous court case at the beginning of the 1960’s), explores inter-generational themes of betrayal, social class and forbidden sexual attraction through play with neo-classical and mythological and allusion’s fitting to its country estate location. Marian not only bestows “Lincoln Green” upon her “Mercury” but the grounds of Melton Constable house (landscaped by Capability Brown) also provide further key dimensions of the film. Pinter’s own personal and creative interests - his love of cricket and aesthetic exploration of the fragmentation of personality and failure of language and communication figure prominently. With 9 Oscar nominations and winning 8 festival awards this included the 1971 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Starring 60s iconic stars – Julie Christie and Alan Bates (1962 A Kind of Loving, 1963 Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker, 1967, Far from the Madding crowd, 1969 Women in Love, Julie Christie - Dr Zhivagao 1965 and with Alan Bates in Far from the Madding Crowd 1967) with Dominic Guard as the young Leo, Margaret Leighton and Michael Gough, Michael Redgrave as the older Leo, and Edward Fox as Trimingham.
Release / Airing: 01/12/1970
Locations used for this production:
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Melton Constable Hall >
The beauty of the Hall was a perfect backdrop for Brandham Hall, the Maudsley family home. It therefore featured strongly in those scenes where Leo was their house guest. At the time of the filming the Hall was in need of repair and unoccupied so it gave just the right elements of gracious decay. The lawns were brown though and had to be painted with green spray paint! This caused problems for the ladies dresses. “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there”. A dramatic piano score by Michel Legrand sets the tone for the opening lines from the novel. Curtain lines so to speak and spoken by the elderly Leo, introduce the central focus of the story – the relationship between time, memory and space. Leo as a young boy arrives in a horse drawn carriage with his wealthy classmate Marcus, at the Maudsely’s elegant country-house mansion and picturesquely landscaped estate. Exploring the grounds together, Marcus’s assertion of his sister’s beauty coincides with the discovery of a poisonous plant, which Leo proudly boasts by giving its classical name of Atropa Belladonna – introduces a further ironic note of unease. At dinner that evening, Leo is introduced to Marcus’s father and mother and his indeed beautiful older sister Marian (Julie Christie). Later at bedtime we learn that Leo is the only child of a widow and of the arrogant Marcus’s instructions to an embarrassed Leo on how best to treat servants by dropping his clothes on the floor for them to pick up. The next day at an afternoon tea party, now noticing how hot Leo is in the only clothes he has brought with him - a brown Norfolk suit – Marian proposes a trip to nearby Norwich to kit him out with something more suitable for the hot weather.
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Norwich Railway Station >
The station is used in a flash forwards sequence as an older Leo returns to re-experience events of his childhood.
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St Peters & St Pauls Church, Swaffham >
The graveyard of the Church in the village of Heydon forms the backdrop for more flash forward recollections by the elderly Leo.
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Tombland >
Horsefair scene At lunch in Norwich, Leo tells Marian about his dead father - a pacifist and a book collector (the location of which is the Maid’s Head Hotel in Wensum Street). Afterwards, whilst Marian goes on an unspoken errand, Leo explores the Cathedral to then rejoin Marian at a horsefair on Tombland before being measured for a summer suit in “Lincoln Green” at local outfitters. Cutaways disrupting the apparent central storyline serve to re-position our viewpoint of the unfolding story, as the emerging recollections of its principal characters. The first of twenty-five, fleeting flash-forwards, which punctuate the central story, begins with an elderly man visiting a church and graveyard (using locations around the Cathedral). As the story proceeds we come to realise that the man is in fact, a now grown up Leo, returning, as if ghostlike, to re-experience the events we are witnessing. Returning to Brandham Hall, Leo’s outfit is inspected by Marcus much to the amusement of his family. Whilst in voice over, plans to go swimming are discussed, we cut forward again this time to Thorpe Railway Station in Norwich where the well dressed elderly man is collected in a chauffeur driven vintage car.
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These productions were filmed nearby:
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