This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week, the theme is one that's probably been done here on more than one occasion, but there are a lot of movies that fit the theme: book adaptations. Adapting a book has been one of the laziest forms of coming up with a movie for the Hollywood screenwriter. Indeed, books were being adapted into movies even before there was much of a Hollywood to make movies. With that in mind, I went with three extremely old adaptations, all of which are in the public domain now:
The Wizard of Oz (1910). Everybody remembers the Judy Garland movie. But there were two silent versions, including this one from before there was color photography in movies. As you can see, it's got some differences from the 1939 film, but some things stay the same. Frank Baum wrote something like two dozen books in the Oz universe, so there are still a lot of stories that could be turned into movies.
Ben Hur (1907). Fifty years before Charlton Heston, and twenty years before Ramon Novarro, we get this early version of the movie that, as I understand it, ran into rights issues from the estate of author Lew Wallace. In a piece TCM did on letterboxing, director Sydney Pollack said that the thought of Ben-Hur panned and scanned gave him the heebie jeebies, but I don't think I ever heard him say anything about this version, or even the later epic-length Novarro version.
Frankenstein (1910). Thomas Edison's studio produced this version, which as you can see in the opening credits describes itself as "A liberal adaptation from Mrs. Shelley's famous story". There's also no bolt in the side of the monster's neck.
3 comments:
I really like the direction you went here. I didn't realize there were silent versions of Oz and Ben Hur.
Nice theme within the theme.
This Oz plays like a cliff notes version of the story by necessity because of the brevity of its runtime but you can definitely see shadows of the classic '39 film. In its day it was probably considered quite a lavish production.
Ben Hur is less successful since it sort of hops and bops at breakneck speed and its a bumpy ride. But again considering the language of film was being invented when it was made it's not bad.
The one that really seems cut to ribbons is Frankenstein. I'm sure the reason for that are the same as the others but it seemed to most different from the book if memory serves.
I also did a theme within the theme. Robert Redford at the peak of his career in the 70's made three book adaptations back to back to back beginning in 1974 with the most poorly conceived and ending in '76 with a stone cold classic.
All the President’s Men (1976)-Near perfect adaptation of the Woodward/Bernstein book of the same name that details how the two dogged reporters methodically uncovered the Watergate coverup and brought to light the corruption that led to the fall of Nixon’s presidency. A phenomenal cast in every role headed by Robert Redford as Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein. Jason Robards won a Best Supporting Actor trophy for his work but equally deserving was the unnominated Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat.
Three Days of the Condor (1975)-Joe Turner (Robert Redford), code name Condor, is a low-level CIA analyst working as a reader in a small NYC office. One rainy day he slips out the back door for lunch and returns to find everyone slaughtered. Panicked he contacts the agency but instead of help finds himself a hunted man. With danger all around he tries to find answers before the mysterious stranger on his trail (Max von Sydow) catches up with him. Adapted from the compulsively readable spy novel “Six Days of the Condor.”
The Great Gatsby (1974)- Young Midwesterner Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston) serves as our guide through the lives of the fabulously rich but mysterious Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford), his former paramour Daisy (Mia Farrow) now married to intractable Tom Buchanan (Bruce Dern) and the others in their sphere. Gatsby still yearns from Daisy and that triangle will lead to tragedy. Gorgeous looking but sterile adaptation of the difficult to translate F. Scott Fitzgerald masterpiece is all surface with a few good performances (Dern, Waterson, Karen Black as the ill-fated Myrtle) but a surprisingly bland one from Redford and the total miscasting of Mia Farrow in the key role of Daisy.
Loved watching these very old films. Oz was a good attempt at the story even though it was brief. Ben Hur was good even though it looked like a set but it was 1907 so, yeah, it was a set. Frankenstein is pretty ugly and well done. I like the way they changed the colour of the scenes to reflect the mood. Great picks of films over a 100 years old.
Post a Comment