One of the extras with the DVD is a short film on the making of The Shooting Party which begins by reminding those intrepid buffs who keep abreast of such things and informing those who don't that Paul Schofield was originally signed to play the lead and would have done so were it not for an accident early in the filming. In other words James Mason may very well not have ended a distinguished career with a film as fine as this which would have been a great pity. Mason leads a fine cast in what amounts to an elegy for a lost age and if metaphors abound they do so stylishly and gracefully in muted tones as befits the time and the place, Autumn, 1913, indeed so subdued and low-key is the lighting that one could be forgiven for thinking that the lamps have already gone out all over Europe. Apparently Mason was given a private screening of the finished film at the Curzon and approved of it as well he might. Though not perhaps everyone's cup of tea this remains an exceptional piece of filmmaking.
Review of The Shooting Party
