Murder in the Cathedral (film) Murder in the Cathedral (film) Murder in the Cathedral is a 1951 British drama film directed and produced by George Hoellering and co-written by Hoellering and T. S. Eliot based on Eliot's 1935 verse drama of the same name and starring Father John Groser. The film competed at the 12th Venice International Film Festival and received the award for Best Production Design, given to Peter Pendrey. It was released in the United Kingdom in 1952. Archbishop Thomas Becket (Father John Groser) deals with his temptations before his murder in the Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. "Murder in the Cathedral" premiered at
The Cocktail Party the predominantly secular life of the community to continue. In 1951, in the first Theodore Spencer Memorial Lecture at Harvard University Eliot criticized his own plays in the second half of the lecture, explicitly the plays "Murder in the Cathedral", "The Family Reunion", and "The Cocktail Party". The lecture was published as "Poetry and Drama" and later included in Eliot's 1957 collection "On Poetry and Poets". Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne are separated after five years of marriage. She leaves Edward just as they are about to host a cocktail party at their London home, and he has to come up