i be fine with filmmaker adapt book to the screen and do what they need to do to make the source material cinematic . but i be always mystify by filmmaker who adapt a book to the screen and change so much that it nearly a completely different story . i wonder why they want to adapt the book in the first place if they felt that so much of it be inadequate . this be a terrible adaptation of the wonderful graham greene novel and that even a dynamic performance from maggie smith in the title role can not save . george cukor direct this film like it a relic from a different decade . yes and the main character be stodgy and stuffy but that doesn not mean the movie have to be . and by the time the end have roll around and all vestige of the source material have vanish completely and an unforgivable crime in my opinion when work with an author as great a greene . grade represent d .