Al -- Man for all Seasons a play, which I specifically excluded in OP for reasons I gave there. However, as you have mentioned it: IMO the Zinnemann/Scofield version completely ruined the original stage play by omitting the "Common Man" linking character, a sort of narrator/commenter-pundit and participant in small but significant parts, like Executioner: thus entirely subverting Bolt's dramatic, black-humorous and moral intentions, turning the whole enterprise into a piece of bland hagiography. There was a much better, I thought, version made in 1988, originally for US tv iirc, with Charlton Heston & Vanessa Redgrave, & with the Common Man restored and excellently characterised by Roy Kinnear.

~M~