Although this is considered an original screenplay, Bolt essentially adapted the Flaubert classic.
Yes, Bolt always assumed the strong influence of Flaubert's novel for Rosy's character. He even kept husband's original name (Charles) and gave the name of "Randolph" to Rosy's lover, which sounds pretty much like "Rodolphe".
Would love to see a genuine 70mm print of this one before I'm gone...
And one more comment: philiperic, Mitch played Rosy's husband. It was Trevor Howard as the priest.
No, Philiperic is right because he's referring to the first cut of the movie in which Mitch would play the priest who eventually joins the rebels to avenge his honour.
This is a frame from that version :
Unfortunately authorities asked to make some changes because according to them it was unacceptable to show a priest joining the IRA, and so they had to reshoot the movie.
And, of course, this is now a hard-to-find copy...
And one more comment: philiperic, Mitch played Rosy's husband. It was Trevor Howard as the priest.
of course you are right -- Bob acted sort of like a passionless priest but he was a passionless schoolteacher -- a bit of a stretch for Mitchum, I thought.
When he made RD, Christopher Jones had such a career ahead of him, if he wanted it, but he took another path -- there is an official website devoted to him
It made for some interesting tension though - Mitchum's character was meant to be wimpy, but he looked like he could whip everyone in the village with one hand tied behind his back!
