Northanger Abbey (1987)

Jane Austen goes Gothic in this darkly dramatic rendering of her Northanger Abbey, a novel that wasn't published until after her early and sudden death. Austen pokes fun at her peers in this story, in which her heroine, Catherine Morland (Katharine Schlesinger), is hopelessly addicted to macabre romance novels that wreak havoc on her imagination. She comes from a large, but loving family, and she's taken, as a companion, to the decadent society of Bath. There, she meets the duplicitous Thorpe siblings, Isabella (Cassie Stuart) and John (Jonathan Coy), and the kindly Tilney sister and brother, Eleanor (Ingrid Lacey) and Henry (Peter Firth). The Tilneys also have an elder brother, the snobbish soldier Frederick (Greg Hicks), and an oddly eerie father, General Tilney (Robert Hardy). Needless to say, all this provides plenty of fodder for fantasies and Catherine comes up with many, even imagining all sorts of evils on a visit to the Tilney family home, Northanger Abbey. The soundtrack is more than a little melodramatic, but it's best to think of it as a humorous touch rather than a serious, punctuating one. --N.F. Mendoza Amazon.com

 Choose a different version!
I adore most BBC productions but this film was absolutely horrid! Although the casting was appropriate, the production and music make the film almost embarrassing to watch. April 29, 2008

 Avoid at all cost
A horrible movie of this great Austen novel. Bad performances, awful music and cliché acting. Don't buy it. April 25, 2008

 Enjoyed this DVD
We enjoyed watching this version of Northanger Abbey. It takes you back to a more civilized time! Would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys period pieces. April 15, 2008

 Good Book....not so good movie
This movie was directed in a very weird fashion. The characters were awkward and the lines seemed cheesy. The weirdest part of all was the music, which was very much modern and not of the time period of the story. This pretty much ruins movies for me. I really enjoy this story though. But there is a newer 2007 version which I think does a much better job of telling the story and making you fall in love with the characters. Plus, the music is very fitting. April 15, 2008

 Poorly created
First off, I would like to say that this film might be mildly entertaining for someone who has never read the book, Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen. However, having read the book, I find this BBC adaptation a poor substitute. The film cuts out so much of the plot and action. The action it does not cut out, it changes or summarizes. For the BBC to have done the book justice would have required at least 200 minutes. Instead,the film is compacted into about 90 minutes.

In fact, I enjoyed the Wishbone children's television 30 minute edition more than this one. The emphasis of this BBC film seemed to be into making General Tilney a villain with horrible habits rather than merely a villain in Catherine's eyes. Furthermore, the film makes Catherine too gothic in my opinion. The music and seens all appear too hastily create, with poor action and an extremely modern-gothic setting.

Futhermore, many of the secondary characters are hardly even developed. While I generally enjoy the BBC versions of Charles Dickens' and Jane Austen's works, this BBC work is flawed. Unlike many BBC productions, (ex: Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Jane Eyre, Sense and Sensibility, Emma)I would not want to show this to a class of students for fear of them coming away with the wrong themes and motifs. April 1, 2008

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