Excellent rendition of difficult novel to translate to the screen. Richard Chamberlain is charming and lovable as Ralph Touchett portraying a touching relationship as the cousin of the "lady", Isabelle Archer. Their relationship makes a lasting impression to your heart and memory. It is filmed as a play so the production values are not modern but the acting is excellent and the dialogue is appropriate for the 1880s. In my opinion, it is much better the more current movie with Nicole Kidman, directed by Jane Campion.

Liked the movie...four hours, must have followed the book fairly closely. Good actors/acting. Only criticism is the movie wasn't digitally remastered...has that "seventies" blurriness. A remake in wide screen would be nice, too. Well worth the price to have it in your home movie library.

I was drawn to this 4-hour BBC version because I found that Jane Campion's highly stylized 2-hour version--while beautiful and lyrical--omitted major points of the story that the viewer really must know the novel to fill in any missing gaps. For instance, I found that the Campion version didn't fully address *why* Isabel would be drawn to Gilbert Osmond. In my opinion, this BBC version gives more time to their courtship and at least offers up a more plausible reason. Another shortcoming of the Campion film is that it truncated Caspar Goodwood's part, making it difficult to follow the full arc of Caspar's and Isabel's relationship. On the other hand, I like Campion's ending better because it features Isabel's and Caspar's final scene together, which is quite poetic in its own right. The BBC version ends with just the final, poignant scene between Isabel and her cousin, Ralph.

Another major difference between the two films is how the part of Gilbert Osmond was played. I had a little difficulty watching John Malkovich in the Campion version because I thought he played it too closely to his brilliant Valmont character in "Dangerous Liaisons," which actually spoiled the fun. You knew immediately where this character was going. The actor in the BBC version, I thought, played the role with perfect pitch, slowly revealing Osmond's deviousness.

As for Cousin Ralph, both Richard Chamberlain (BBC version) and Martin Donovan (Campion version) did a wonderful job with their roles. You couldn't wait for either one of them to reappear on the screen.

All in all, both film versions have something to offer and I recommend each as a complement to the other.