The 1962 film, directed by Sidney Lumet is not a faithful rendition of the play. In the play, Alfieri's choric comments frame the action and direct us to a view of Eddie and his actions. Alfieri is the voice of modern American liberal civilisation. The intensity of the play is enhanced by Alfieri's understanding of and feeling for Eddie.
In the film Lumet makes a decision to make Eddie the centre, so that Alfieri is reduced to the status of a comparatively feeble old man whose utterances have little authority. Lumet makes changes to the plot at the beginning - for example he has Eddie meet Marco and Rodolfo before the others do. There is an industrial accident on the wharf which allows Lumet to present Eddie as a leader of men, someone the workers can trust. As Eddie walks home from work, he encounters a pack of urchins who know him and like him. He talks to a sweetseller whom he can joke with. When Beatrice arrives home, Eddie is gentle to her as he tells her the news of the arrival of her family.
In order to compensate for the loss of Alfieri as a shaping force in the story, Lumet portrays Eddie as a very sympathetic, almost sentimental figure who suffers and falls. The consequence of this portrayal is that Beatrice must change also. She is altogether more emotional, less shrewd and less capable of combating Eddie than the Miller character. The film script has been edited to force the actors to be at a higher pitch of intensity for longer periods than a stage actor would have to sustain. The ending, which is different from the 1956 play, is certainly worth showing to a class because it is an easy way of helping them to become aware of the director's input into the film. I'll say more at a later time.
