5 JULY 1963, Page 7

A Picture of Preachment

Now that Torn Jones has been made into what promises to be a profitable film, perhaps pro- - ducers will cease their desperate search among the dregs of current fiction and realise how much classical material is still at their disposal. Leaving aside such obvious choices as Vanity Fair, what better could they want than that epic of fraud, The Way We Live Now, or, for a medieval cos- tume piece, George Eliot's Romola? Savonarola must surely be ideal box-office in an affluent society which is beginning to get guilt.