I've never read the play, nor have I seen it on stage (was sorry to miss the recent Broadway production) but Mamet says in the "making of" feature on the DVD that he really only adapted it for the screen. So I suspect this reviewer is making the mistake of crediting Mamet for many features inherent in Terrence Rattigan's original play. Also, we learn from the bonus material on the DVD that it was Jeremy, not David Mamet, who devised the particular personality quirks with which his Robert Morton is imbued. What Mamet probably contributed, as an American interpreting the English, is the emphasis on a British "stiff upper lip" response to problems. Compare Robert Morton's interrogation of Ronnie in this film with Robert Donat's (clip on youtube); Donat literally shouts at him, where Jeremy just barely raises his voice at the end. I agree completely with the reviewer's high praise of Nigel Hawthorne, but wish he had given a little more credit to the rest of the cast. And of course, I love the way Jeremy's Morton stumbles in his speech, cracking his facade in his final scenes with Catherine.
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