I like the play a lot, and I liked the first Broadway production a lot. I haven't seen the movie in a long time, but I remember liking it a lot, and my memory is that it was well-received by the critics.
It's perhaps surprising but Pinter's plays seem to work well as movies. I base this on The Homecoming and Betrayal. I haven't been able to see the films of The Caretaker and The Birthday Party, but it does seem that both were well-received and are generally highly regarded. There used to be a few scenes from the former on youtube, and they were terrific.
And how great is it that EMI finally released the live recording they did in London of the original cast of The Caretaker? They sat on it for decades, having decided it did not work as a recording, then they perhaps forgot that it even existed, and then they found it and issued it. It's fantastic, although I suppose you have to like such things. Around the same time, they also released the live recording they did of The Entertainer with the original London cast, which they had also decided didn't work after they recorded it. These are the kinds of things that make life worth living for me. |
