The Heart of the Matter

Harry Scobie is a police officer. He is posted in Sierra Leone. The years are those of the Second World War. Scobie is a married man. He and his wife lost their young daughter. Since that day she has been miserable there. Scobie wants to arrange a journey for her. But he does not have the money. In the end he borrows from a shady man. That debt will later put him wrong with his superiors. Around then he meets a woman called Helen. Helen is a young widow who survived a shipwreck. The two of them grow attached. When his wife returns the situation knots. Scobie is a Catholic and is left alone with his conscience. The film was adapted from Graham Greene’s novel. Trevor Howard and Maria Schell take the leads in George More O’Ferrall’s British film of 1953.