The Heat of the Day

I was never impressed by Harold Pinter, and when this film turned up and I saw his name on it I was almost tempted to turn it off, but I usually see a film to the very bitter end, and at least it was worth while. The story is excellent, a widow with a relationship with Michael York working in the war office during the war is importuned by Michael Gambon as a rather rude and most disturbing elderly stranger, who suggests to Patricia that Michael York is a spy. A most intrinsic discussion about motives, truth, honesty and war morals follow, which is interesting indeed, but Harold Pinter obfuscates the intrigue into a fog of vagueness in which no one can find his way and least of all the audience, who is fooled by Pinter into a black hole of trivial beatings around the bush. Harold Pinter has the habit of compensating his lack of dramatic talent by tricking the audience into arguments of nothing by a trivial dialogue that sounds like basic language lessons. However, the actors are good, and the trick to appreciate this film is to try to find Elizabeth Bowen behind the smoke screens of Harold Pinter.