I haven't seen a lot of films from the fifties, so obviously I can't use the same standards I use in today's films to compare the book and the film itself. First and foremost, I must say that I enjoyed reading the book a lot and while watching the film I had the feeling that some parts were lost. When it comes to the characters, I didn't quite picture some of them as they were portrayed in the film. Professor Welch and Bertrand were two of them. On one hand, Welch was too serious and on the other hand, Bertrand was just too old. But, on the whole, I thought the cast was quite good. Another aspect of the film that I must mention is the excessive amount of slapstick comedy scenes that at times tended to be somewhat annoying. Apart from that, my biggest criticism goes to the fact that they haven't focus much on Dixon and Margaret's relationship and didn't include at all Margaret's past with the Catchpole. In my opinion, I think it would be, by far, much more appealing and interesting if they had done that. Even so, I think this is a film worth seeing since the post-war period is quite well portrayed. For those who haven't read the book, the film will only give you a glimpse of what the true story behind Kingsley Amis' novel really is. Therefore, I strongly recommend reading this classic of literature.