[9][10] An egocentric artillery Captain and his venomous wife engage in savage unremitting battles in their isolated island fortress off the coast of Sweden at the turn of the century.

Alice, a former actress who sacrificed her career for secluded military life with Edgar, reveals on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary, the veritable hell their marriage has been.

Edgar, an aging schizophrenic who refuses to acknowledge his severe illness, struggles to sustain his ferocity and arrogance with an animal disregard for other people.

It is surely perverse to take a performance pitched in purely theatrical proportions and to record it, virtually without adaptation or modulation, for a medium which depends on intimacy and subtlety for its effect.

Microphones amplify each word with no apparent attempt at balance so that everyone seems to be shouting his head off – particularly disastrous in the case of Olivier, who uses a staccato military bark that shatters the eardrums.

"[12] Leslie Halliwell said: "Too-literal film transcription of an applauded theatrical production, with the camera anchored firmly in the middle of the stalls.