By: Thomas Yotka

Thomas Yotka — Tue, 31 May 2022 17:50:52 +0000

In answer to Mr. Mundkowsky’s review I think I will leave it to Leslie Hartley to respond, via his letter of
February 4, 1969 letter to screenwriter Harold Pinter:
“After much tribulation with my proofs I have now finished your script of The Go-Between.
It is absolutely splendid – and more faithful to the letter and spirit of the book than I could have
believed possible – seeing that there are bound to be changes in translating a work from one medium
to another.
You needn’t have said ‘based’ on ‘The Go-Between’ –
for it IS The Go-Between ! – the essence of it.
The dialogue, which I thought might sound old-fashioned, you have somehow,
without altering it appreciably, given an infusion of new life, or perhaps just
TIMELESSNESS. And the emotion of the story come through at every word –
I wept at the scene where Leo questions Ted about ‘spooning’ – which is more
than I did when I wrote my version of it.
To have condensed to much, without ever losing – rather, with enhancing and
pin-pointing (if one can use such an expression) the essentials of it, is indeed
a triumph.”
Now perhaps Mr. Mundkowsky will reply, “Well, L.P. Hartley doesn’t know what
HIS novel really is about, and neither do the film-makers.”
But some us who have enjoyed this film for the last 50 years may offer the polite
but firm counter: NO, Mr. Mundkowsky, it is YOU who are “talking through
your hat”.

Comments on: Losey’s The Go-Between – A Look Back

By: Thomas Yotka