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Mr. Greg: I recorded to DVD-R a terrific making-of special the network (BBC America?) was showing with it, but never bothered to record the program itself until my DVR started giving me problems and to get a new one I lost everything then on it. Joseph Morgan is such an improbable Judah -- he played the cruelest of the bad vampires on the CW's "Vampire Diaries" until they built a spin-off around him and some of his cohorts from the original show. And his love interest is played by Emily VanCamp, who went on to be THE star of ABC's "Revenge," and I sometimes found it hard to forget those very distinctive roles I had seen them in when I watched it. It's available on DVD and Netflix has it. [Follow-Up: At only 99 cents plus shipping, I just bought it from a Calif vendor! Now I don't need to DVD-R it!]
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The answer that sprang to mind was The Godfather. Great book, great film, and rather a lot in common!
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I never got over the casting of Marlon Brando in THE GODFATHER. I really liked the book, and the entire time I was reading it, I pictured Lee J. Cobb as Vito Corleone. I never warmed to Brando and his mush-mouth performance. No matter how iconic it became. I still think it's a well made film and a very good adaptation. Although, these days, I couldn't possibly ever sit through it, again. I've completely had my fill of "mob" stories.
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Posted: |
Nov 29, 2013 - 10:08 AM
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By: |
RoryR
(Member)
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I think once Brando expressed an interest in playing the Godfather, that was it, the die was cast. But I watched HOUSE OF STRANGERS a couple weeks ago, and thought Richard Conte would have been great in the part, and I often wonder how Anthony Quinn would have done it -- probably with his usual over-playing, but Coppola might have gotten his best out of him. Anyone have any other ideas in this regard?
This brings to mind another movie, PATTON. First, it was based not on a novel, but on two biographies. Still, it's a great example of adaptation to the screen.
And, I often wonder what it would have been like if another actor had played Patton. George C. Scott is great, of course, but I don't think he was the only actor back then that could have played the general (who by most accounts had the personality of a true asshole). That PATTON was the film that earned Franklin J. Schaffner his best director Oscar, and that his previous movie was PLANET OF THE APES, I often wonder if PATTON would have worked with Charlton Heston as the star. Not that he was an asshole (unless you're so inclined to think so -- I'm liberal, but don't hate Heston for being conservative, just as I don't hate John Wayne. In fact, I love their screen personas.), but because Heston was really good at playing bastards. With the right makeup, I think Heston would have looked more like the real Patton than Scott did.
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Rory: Re: "With the right makeup, I think Heston would have looked more like the real Patton than Scott did.z'
I think the problem there was that it would have been, to so many of us, Ben-Hur (or Charlton Heston) as Patton, and while George C. Scott had been around a lot himself, he really wasn't such a recognizable star (much like his wife at the time the fine Coleen Dewhurst), and so he became George Patton for so many of us. And as much as I hated what he had them do at the Oscars, he genuinely believed that acting (or Acting!) should be above such awards that too much of the time are little more than popularity contests with many voters who haven't even seen all (or any) of the films in competition.
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Two great little efforts with a sort of 'perfection' are:
'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'
The Red Badge of Courage'.
It helps greatly if a writer with a cinematic awareness writes his book with that in mind, though that can stultify the writer's technique. The two above could be filmed straight from the pages with minimal adaptation, and look as though they were.
And of course there are all the gems in Lean's output.
The more impressionistic the book, the wider the scope for indiviual direction in a movie.
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Mr. Greg: Re: One film I forgot to put in my original list though - the original "The Invisible Man"  ...so beautifully realised on-screen, captured the tone so well, and adapted (with, again, some judicious pruning) so well...I know Wells was not too happy with the film, but hey...I love it 
As a child, I just loved the book "The Invisible Man," and while I enjoyed some of the filmed versions, they never seemed to match H.G. Wells' original novel.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Invisible Man
Author H.G. Wells
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Horror, Science fiction novel
Publisher C. Arthur Pearson
Publication date 1897
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 149 pg
The Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells published in 1897. Originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man of the title is Griffin, a scientist who has devoted himself to research into optics and invents a way to change a body's refractive index to that of air so that it absorbs and reflects no light and thus becomes invisible. He successfully carries out this procedure on himself, but fails in his attempt to reverse the procedure. While its predecessors,The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau, were written using first-person narrators, Wells adopts a third-person objective point of view in The Invisible Man.
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Mr. Greg:
I received the DVD of the mini-series version of "Ben-Hur" today and it looks and sounds great! While it's not the long making-of special the network broadcasting it repeatedly showed, there's a very good 7 minute one on the DVD, but 7 minutes is embarrassingly skimpy! Keep an eye out for verrrrrrrrrry cheap copies on Amazon (or you can also rent it).
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"The Lion In Winter" was mentioned. I fell in love with that movie when it was released and probably saw it in the theatre 3 or 4 times. James Goldman adapted his own play, and while I never saw it on stage, I've read that Goldman's very witty dialog in the film is pretty faithful to his own play. In the early 1980s I bought the movie on 2 low-fi VHS tapes for about $30, back when $30 was worth more than it is today. Years later they released it on a single HiFi/Stereo VHS tape for under $20, and then the DVD for about the same. I was conflicted that year when Katharine Hepburn was nominated for an Oscar for her sly (if tongue in cheek!) performance as Eleanor, and, being a huge Streisand fan, was torn -- as much as I wanted Streisand to win, I felt that Hepburn probably deserved it more. So when Ingrid Bergman exclaimed "It's a TIE!" and then read both names I was thrilled. Looking at the DVD box, it's a sign of how long it has been since I gave much thought to it that I had forgotten that a very young Anthony Hopkins played the militantly combative (but secretly gay) Prince Richard. Oh, how I wanted Peter O'Toole to win that year for his very visceral but brilliant portrayal of Henry II, so hapless in the face of his domestic woes along with 3 very disappointing sons who want his job. Just love that movie! And of course it has that delicious John Barry soundtrack! I was horrified when Cliff Robertson won best actor for his role in "Charly," the film version of Daniel Keyes "Flowers For Algernon."
Follow-Up. I wrote the above several hours ago, and would later re-watch "The Lion In Winter" and be reminded of how wonderful it is and what an amazing performance Peter O'Toole gives in it. For him to have lost the Oscar to Cliff Robertson proves how much of a popularity contest some of those awards can be. (I was a longtime fan or Robertson going back to his role as the Big Kahuna in "Gidget," but I just don't feel that his role in "Charly" was in the same ballpark as O'Tool's.) As Henry, O'Toole BECOMES the person he is playing.
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1984 with John Hurt, even with the dollop of The Eurythmics thrown in for Virgin media synergy. Watching that felt like reading the book, in the best possible way.
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CinemaScope: After having it repeatedly cited over the decades, I need to see "The Entertainer." But the clips I've seen make Olivier look like such a caricature, and have blocked any interest I may have ever had in seeing it. But you've convinced me to try!
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