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Article: `Murder' is colorless John le Carre
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- October 12, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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John le Carre has complained that Alec Guinness took George
Smiley away from him. Guinness was such a riveting Smiley that he
would forever replace, in viewers' and readers' minds, the image of
le Carre's chief protagonist, who was pudgy, nondescript, painfully
shy and socially inept. Instead, Guinness brought to "Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and "Smiley's People" an espionage
agent/analyst of stature and dignity, albeit a world-weary and
depressed stature and dignity.
It must have been tempting, then, for le Carre as screenwriter to
remake Smiley in his original image, although he did turn down the
starring role in "A Murder of Quality" himself. Instead, after
Anthony Hopkins rejected ...