The Master Builder (1958)

A well known middle aged architect (Donald Wolfit) is visited by a young woman (Mai Zetterling) he met ten years earlier when she was still an adolescent. She has come to claim the "kingdom" he promised her when she was 13 years old. But her presence will push him to a tragic end. Based on the classic play by Henrik Ibsen and directed by Max Faber. THE MASTER BUILDER is one of Ibsen's most complex and baffling works. I've seen several production of the play and it's always fascinating how it's interpreted by various adapters. This production is streamlined (it runs 90 minutes) but there's an intensity to it that works well with the play's innate ambiguity. The acting is quite good with Wolfit restraining his inclination to overact and Zetterling makes for a fine Hilda. But my favorite performance came from Catherine Lacey (THE LADY VANISHES) as Wolfit's wife. She brings a quiet authority to a role that is too often underplayed to the point of being a cipher. With David Markham and Elaine Usher.