I saw this film years ago on television AFTER I had read the excellent book on which it is very loosely based. What a disappointment!.So many integral characters are eliminated,ie, Gaetano Orselli, most of Stephens family, and several of his clergy friends. Although Tom(Thomas) Tryon, Burgess Meredith and John Huston are excellent, there is very little thread to tie them together in this over long film. And will someone please tell me why the character of Ghislana Falerni Orselli was turned into the student temptress for lack of a better term, Anne-Marie. The character only cheapened the film. Even today with the crises in the Roman Catholic church, this film is dated and downright silly. There was so much potential in the book that Preminger chose to ignore for the sake of heaven knows what. Maybe this one should be remade(NOT UPDATED,but using the original source to show how a man of the cloth really should behave.
Review of The Cardinal
