Northanger Abbey (1986) (Tv-Drama)

Give it a chance!!


Regency drivel   February 10, 2003
 8 out of 17 found this review helpful

As I understand it, the book NORTHANGER ABBEY was Jane Austen's one attempt at a Gothic satire - vastly different from her comedic novels built around Regency polite society, period manners, and notions of courtship and romance. If this film version (for the British telly) of NORTHANGER ABBEY is an accurate indicator, Jane should have stuck with her day job.

Katherine Schlesinger stars as Catherine Morland, a genteel adolescent sent off to the spa city of Bath to tarry awhile with good friends, Mr. and Mrs. Allen (Geoffrey Chater and Googie Withers respectively). Of course, right off one can see a difference between NA and PRIDE & PREJUDICE, SENSE & SENSIBILITY, MANSFIELD PARK, and EMMA, where the storylines evolve principally in rural manor houses. While in Bath, the Allen's make every effort to introduce Catherine to "society". Two of those that befriend her are Henry Tilney (Peter Firth) and his sister Eleanor (Ingrid Lacey), who eventually invite her to sleep over at the family manor, NORTHANGER ABBEY, presided over by their widowed father, General Tilney (Robert Hardy). This is where the satire comes in.

Catherine and her impressionable girlfriends are absorbed in one particular Gothic novel - a contemporary best seller, so to speak - that has an illustration of the heroine at the mercy of the ogreish master of a gloomy estate. Anyway, Catherine has delicious nightmares of being in a similar situation extrapolated to the point where the peril to her virtue seems at hand after the dreamworld villain carries her upstairs during a violent storm, then leers suggestively after tossing her onto a bed. These dreams work on Catherine's overwrought imagination such that, while at NORTHANGER ABBEY, she begins to suspect that the creepy general had something to do with the sudden death of his wife. The connection between the two scenarios seems dodgy, but the point of Ms. Austen's satire was "Oh, puhleeze!" That, at least, I can agree with.

For me, the main problem with this film was that absolutely none of the characters were engaging or particularly interesting. Miss Morland is the epitome of the wide-eyed Silly Girl whose foolishness knows no limits. Moreover, the screenplay was borrrring from beginning to end, the soundtrack was melodramatic to the point of campiness, and the ending was so low key as to be almost invisible. (I didn't realize the conclusion had arrived until the credits rolled. A nice surprise, in retrospect.) Good heavens, what was the BBC thinking when it produced this drivel? It makes the cinematic versions of Austen's other works released in the 1990s, more clever by far, look comparatively like the greatest films ever made. The only positive note was the use of the romantically moated, 14th century Bodiam Castle in Kent for the exterior shots of Northanger Abbey.


worthwhile and winning adaptation   June 20, 2002
 13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Although the dream snatches from catherines imagaination are a bit iffy this is a definately an enjoyable dramatisation. katherine schlesinger comes over very well as the over imagainative catherine and peter firth makes an excellent henry tilney. I especially love the ending when henry appears to that haunting music which certainly captured my imagination ( i actually prefer the films ending to the book! sacriledge perhaps but true)An overlooked jane austen gem.


Disappointing/over-the-top melodramatics   February 21, 2002
 5 out of 8 found this review helpful

Although this book has its darker side I am sure that Miss. Austen did not have in mind some of the 'over-the-top' melodramatic interpretations of Catherine Morland's imagination which the BBC have included. I was quite horrified to see Mrs. Allen actually sewing her fingers together! I appreciate that it is impossible to condense a novel into such a short viewing time and that poet licence has to be included, but I feel that the BBC should be able to produce a more tasteful adaptation than this one. I have like everyone else seen how well they can adapt one of Miss Austen's novels - namely Pride and Prejudice and so feel that their adaptation of Northanger Abbey does not do the novel or the author justice.