Since Greene agreed with O'Ferrall's assessment of the scene, the director assumed Greene wouldn't care if he re-wrote it. The only real uproar came when director George More O'Ferrall told Greene that he was unhappy with a particular scene in which Finch's priest doesn't attempt to give Scobie absolution. The Heart of the Matter enjoyed a fairly disturbance-free shoot. It's a quietly devastating piece of work. This solemn, heart-wrenching movie is exactly the type of grown-up entertainment that's sadly lacking in modern Hollywood. But everyone in this film seems susceptible to sin and temptation which keeps the local priest (a very young Peter Finch) on his toes. Although Harry is a deeply introspective man who seriously tries to abide by his Catholic faith, he finds himself falling in love with an Austrian war refugee (Maria Schell). Harry's wife, Louise (Elizabeth Allan), is a decent woman who's been beaten down by life in on the Coast of Africa, and by the death of the couple's son. Howard plays Harry Scobie, the straight-arrow deputy police commissioner of Sierra Leone. Shot partially on location in Sierra Leone, it's based on a dark story by Graham Greene, who, of course, was the writer behind The Third Man (1949), which was directed by Carol Reed and also features a stellar Howard performance. (1954) was one of Trevor Howard's personal favorites. Of all the movies he appeared in, The Heart of the Matter
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