BBC Play of the Month (TV Series) Heartbreak House (1977) User Reviews

Wordy State-of-the-Nation Piece

[l_rawjalaurence · 6/10 · 20 November 2013]

HEARTBREAK HOUSE is one of Bernard Shaw's most overtly political pieces. Written just before the outbreak of World War One, it lays bare the complacencies lurking at the heart of Britain's upper classes in the face of total war. It is a rather wordy piece, and needs a competent cast to render it entertaining to audiences. The BBC's PLAY OF THE MONTH production boasts an extremely competent cast of performers, including Sian Phillips, Daniel Massey, Lesley-Anne Down, Richard Pearson and Barbara Murray, who deliver the dialog efficiently, bringing out the Wildean aspects of Shaw's text, where words and phrases are used to shock as well as entertain. Director Cedric Messina is keen to underline the political aspects of the play, as he inserts several black-and-white sequences showing the Zeppelin, plus a montage at the end of the production comprised of Second World War bombing and the atom bomb in Hiroshima. The only real criticism that can be leveled at this production is that Messina omits one of the play's most significant lines, where Captain Shotover (John Gielgud) refers to what he terms "the seventh degree of concentration" - in other words, a state of forgetfulness induced by rum. The line emphasizes the extent to which the upper class characters in the play willfully blind themselves to what is happening around them.

I Shall Call This Heartbreak House!

[Sylviastel · 7/10 · 9 December 2018]

The late great actor, Sir John Gielgud, played the patriarch of this unusual family with two middle aged daughters, Dame Sian Phillips and Barbara Murray. The story of Ellie Dunn coming to spend a dinner party at a house in Sussex. The story is strange to me and perhaps dated like one of the reviewers said. The cast is first rate and solid British stock like Gielgud, Phillips, Massey and Joyce Grant. The state of the play was taped for television audiences as if you're there in the seats. I didn't care for it as much. The play is set during the Great War or World War I.

One of Shaw's worst and badly done to boot!

[robertocartera · 2/10 · 6 May 2007]

This is a 1977 BBC version of an awfully dated and rather boorish piece. The production is shoddy at times, with actors fluffing lines and the boom shadow clearly visible etc.

It actually has a rather fine cast, but even the likes of Gielgud, Daniel Massey and Sian Phillips look all at sea with the self-indulgent waffle they have to deliver here.

There are some good lines, where the famed Shavian wit survives, but overall, I found the entire enterprise a tedious bore.

For good examples of Shaw's work I heartily recommend the film versions of Major Barbara and Pygmalion. Both feature Wendy Hiller - the best exponent of Shaw.