Where Angels Fear To Tread

In the wake of A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984), A ROOM WITH A VIEW (1985) and MAURICE (1987), two more screen adaptations of novels by E.M. Forster were released in 1992. The Merchant-Ivory production of HOWARDS END was a tremendous critical and commercial success, earning nine Oscar nominations and taking in over $25 million at the box-office. WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD, unfortunately, ran a very distant second. Though it closely follows the novel--written after Forster's first trip to Italy with his mother, when he was just twenty-six--much has been lost in the translation.

The rich and recently widowed Lilia Herriton (Helen Mirren) goes on a three-month Italian hol...