[1] Olivier won Emmy and Sylvania Awards for his performance,[5][6] which required him to portray the transformation of the protagonist from a timorous London stockbroker to a rude Parisian artist and eventually a noble leper in Tahiti.

He also wrote that the "completely arresting" production proved "that TV can achieve glorious heights if its creative people are afforded free rein.

"[1] In the New York Herald-Tribune, Marie Torre called it "the closest thing to dramatic perfection ever known on television."

"[11] Bob Thomas of the Associated Press found Olivier's transformation from dullish London stockbroker to amoral painter to have been skillful and convincing.

[12] Thomas also found any drama in the story to have been "largely muffled" by the narration-heavy adaptation and "talky" dialogue filled with "idle philosophizing".

[12] He also found much of the dialogue to be dated, including an exchange in which Olivier tells his Tahitian wife, "I shall beat you, you know," and she replies, "How else shall I know that thy love is true?