The celebrated playwright Sir Tom Stoppard once leapt at the chance to adapt a novel by his literary hero, Graham Greene. The project, however, would become a notorious cinematic failure, plagued by financial woes that were visibly apparent in the final cut.
From Page to Screen: A Promising Adaptation
In 1979, Stoppard penned the screenplay for The Human Factor, based on Greene's novel which the author himself described as "a novel of espionage free from the violence which has not, in spite of James Bond, been a feature of the British secret service". Stoppard, a known admirer of Greene's work, crafted a script that was remarkably faithful to the original source material.
Much of the filming took place in and around Graham Greene's home town of Berkhamsted. Despite this authentic backdrop, the production was constantly hamstrung by severe budgetary limitations. These constraints affected every aspect, from artistry to technical execution and logistics, setting the stage for disappointment.
A Bond Joke Lost to the Cutting Room Floor
Stoppard did allow himself one notable departure from Greene's text, which he later said he particularly enjoyed writing. It was a playful, meta-textual wink to the world of 007, which stood in contrast to Greene's more subdued spy story.
In the scene, a character laments never going to the cinema, recounting: "Ian [Fleming] took me to one of his once. Couldn’t make head nor tail of it – fella kept killing people with gadgets and being kissed by amazing-looking girls who then tried to kill him – and all the time he was trying to save the world from some foreigner in a submarine I think it was."
This humorous dig at the James Bond franchise, however, would not survive the final edit. Like much else that might have salvaged the film, the scene was left on the cutting room floor, a victim of the production's broader troubles.
The Inevitable Outcome: Bankruptcy on Screen
The ultimate result of these chaotic and underfunded conditions was a film that was widely considered a disaster. Reflecting on the project in an interview for the book Travels in Greeneland: The Cinema of Graham Greene, Stoppard offered a blunt assessment of the finished product.
"You could see its bankruptcy all over the screen," Stoppard stated, succinctly capturing the film's fatal flaw. The noble attempt to bring Greene's nuanced espionage tale to life had been undermined by financial realities, leaving The Human Factor as a cautionary tale in adaptation.
