Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
Message
Author
User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#51 Post by knives » Fri Jul 08, 2016 2:56 pm

The Crucible
This is delightfully dated to the '90s, which weirdly means Burton and Merchant/Ivory in this case, updating the underlying meaning to a more universal sort of frustration with pettiness and covetous in line with the 'invisible crime' of the day. Miller's own adaptation is the highlight of the movie where all of the tension and complexity is born out. The direction is plain with some mediocre lighting and the performances from Ryder and Day-Lewis come close to being bad with the later especially making so many bad acting decisions and dressed with so little care to fit in I have to wonder if he and Hytner were deliberately trying to make the film poor. They don't succeed fortunately, but it really cripples the film from being the definitive version it could easily have been.

I Never Sang for My Father
Gilbert Cates continues to prove himself the master of Bergman knock-offs with this slight if still touching male proto-Autumn Sonata. The film isn't as good as that makes it out to be, but there's something nicely pathetic about how Hackman and Douglas' son-father relationship is defined by conversations that do their best at saying nothing with Cates carefully chronicling how that fails. That care toward dialogue is the only real sign this is developed from a play (and adapted by its own playwright) as the use of multiple sets is built thoroughly into the relationship between theme and story. The highlight to this comes in an intensely awkward coffin buying session. Estelle Parsons also shows up for some good tit for tat.

Rope
It really is quite maddening that even with all the handicaps in place Hitchcock is able to make this film so successful and great hardly breaking a sweat. Given how the technology is clearly not up to snuff, how censorship limits the gruesomeness of the game, and the need to play as straight entertainment retards the dialog significantly that the film still hits what all of those things should prevent is a little absurd. I understand the complaint of the editing which is the one element that doesn't entirely work, but the awkward close ups are worth it for the effect the smash cut to Stewart during the chicken monologue creates. Naturally the big speaking point especially as the film applies to adapting theater (though my understanding is this bares close to no relationship with the original play) is the long takes, but before I go there I want to really take a moment in appreciation of Hume Cronyns' adaptation which plays not entirely unlike if his character from Shadow of a Doubt had his imagination come to life. I imagine, too, that the explicitly political and literary touches come from him. The connection to Crime and Punishment is apparent without further explanation so it's interesting that to fit into a commercial mode Cronyn (and Laurents) grinds a true believer through the reality is a vis a fairly basic chamber mystery. It allows the light philosophizing of Stewart's buffoonish Alfred Knopf type at the middle and end to become illustrated in a way that gets to heart of the matter. Rather then just playing Dostoyevsky through an American lens this seems a critique of lame arm chair academics saying everything with no activity. The only real difference between Stewart and the killers before the final shot, with a proto-Vertigo use of green light, is that they are willing to act out their words. There's something so disappointing and even contemptible about our default hero in the film as constructed.

The textual concerns seem a bit separate from the aesthetic Hitchcock builds. Conjoined though the film does feel more like a DePalma film then any of the Hitchcock features he vocally apes from to the point where I wonder is this is the film to set off De Palma's long take obsession. In a way theater is the perfect setting for that De Palma side of Hitchcock to go wild at since the core of the art is the act of watching people as they live faults and all. The long take especially when pushed to the limit as here gives something of the theater reality. Though of course it is much different when taken with the camera as an active, there's that idea again, intermediary. Hitchcock can't help but control the eyeline of the audience focusing on faces and objects that tears apart the master mis-en-scene. In that way the cinema audience is really just the audience of the audience as represented by the kino-eye. That's a perverse way to meditate on the theater-cinema connection especially as he plays the other element straight as theater. The horrifically artificial background with static clouds is a hoot especially as certain camera movements highlight the dimension of it as a very basic form of trickery. The lighting too is basic theater in its obviousness like when a roof light is clearly turned on to represent the light coming in from a freshly opened window. You almost have to love such callous and probably lazy lack of concern for realism. That makes me a bit surprised that the traversing between rooms was treated in purely cinematic terms by having the camera turn 90 degrees and move in the apartment's confines rather then a Wes Andersonish x axis movement. But I guess the film couldn't afford to be as fake as Stewart(and I haven't even gotten into how John Dall looks a dead ringer for Ben Affleck).

User avatar
Feego
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:30 pm
Location: Texas

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#52 Post by Feego » Fri Jul 08, 2016 5:16 pm

knives wrote:The Crucible
This is delightfully dated to the '90s, which weirdly means Burton and Merchant/Ivory in this case, updating the underlying meaning to a more universal sort of frustration with pettiness and covetous in line with the 'invisible crime' of the day. Miller's own adaptation is the highlight of the movie where all of the tension and complexity is born out. The direction is plain with some mediocre lighting and the performances from Ryder and Day-Lewis come close to being bad with the later especially making so many bad acting decisions and dressed with so little care to fit in I have to wonder if he and Hytner were deliberately trying to make the film poor. They don't succeed fortunately, but it really cripples the film from being the definitive version it could easily have been.
I was just watching a little bit of The Crucible on TV the other day, and something that has always bugged me about this film is the director's attempt to open up the play by re-locating much of the action outdoors. We get many West Wing-style shots of townsfolk swiftly walking and talking, as if they're trying to catch a bus and conduct business at the same time. But to me, this saps the film of the play's sense of claustrophobia that adds to the mounting tension and hysteria. Dreyer basically did this better before Miller even wrote the play with Day of Wrath (another film that qualifies for this project :wink: ). The single most ridiculous shot in the film is also its most "cinematic," as the camera takes the POV of the yellow bird that Ryder and her followers claim to see and chases them outside the courtroom. This exaggerated use of the camera actually undermines the story because it seemingly corroborates the girls' charade that there is a supernatural presence.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#53 Post by knives » Fri Jul 08, 2016 5:35 pm

The yellow bird type stuff is definitely the weakest in the film. During the awakening of Betty there's this ridiculous fish eye lens shot like something out of a Danny Devito film which made me nearly giggle. It's probably telling the most effective sequence is the montage of people being found guilty about halfway through which is simply shot with some dark mood lighting.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#54 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jul 27, 2016 11:06 pm

Did you know... lists are due one week from today?

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#55 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jul 29, 2016 12:32 pm

I've received all of one list so far. You still have til Wednesday to compile your lists, but don't forget to submit by then at least! I'm going to try to get through my stacks in the next couple days after putting off my viewings for this project:

Cyrano de Bergerac (Michael Gordon 1950) Jose Ferrer won the Best Actor Oscar allegedly for his work here, though he was such hot shit on Broadway at the time (starring in two plays at the same time, timed so that he could run across the street and perform in both every night) that this was an all around career reward like George Arliss’ award. Ferrer was famously parodied in the Band Wagon via Jack Buchanon’s character, but his buffoonish over-the-top nature serves this play well, and there are many amusing sword fights and flights of fancy, even if the film like the play is front-loaded. Recommended.

Life of Riley (Alain Resnais 2014) Real talk: I’ve seen enough of his post-60s work at this point to completely write off Resnais after La guerre est finie (which isn’t even that great but shines when compared to the self-parody of Je’taime Je’taime and then the hard right into godawful theatricality that would plague the next couple decades of his work). This swan song is no exception: based on a play by the same author as the interminable Smoking / No Smoking (and the mediocre Public Fears In Private Places), the film like the other adaptations rests on a gimmick, here drapery-backed artificial sets, that is merely a distraction from how pisspoor and uninteresting the basic material is. I honestly don’t know that I’ve ever seen a theatrical adaptation where I ever cared less about what was happening than this one.

the Maids (Christopher Miles 1974) I have extraordinary patience for overacting, especially in theatrical adaptations where scenery chewing is often the point, but I must confess I found this too much by several measures— Glenda Jackson comes off marginally better than Susannah York, but not by enough. It didn’t help that I found the source material quite uninteresting and silly. Another board favorite that’s passed me by, unfortunately. (24)

the War Lord (Franklin J. Schaffner 1965) Charlton Heston, sporting a monk’s pageboy haircut, spends half of the film convincing himself to rape a peasant woman and the second half leading battles on the Universal backlot. This movie is so disgusting in its attitudes towards the central rape (which, of course, the woman is into despite having just been married) that it boggles the mind it was ever made at all. More confusing still is why Eureka would even bother to put this out on Blu-ray. If ever a film deserved to be forgotten…

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#56 Post by knives » Fri Jul 29, 2016 12:37 pm

I don't know if you've seen them, but Resnais' two penultimate (I'm sure that's a stretch of the term) are quite good even if they play to being fun over being great.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#57 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jul 29, 2016 12:42 pm

Honestly, I think I'm done with Resnais. Mon oncle d'Amérique is the only post-60s film I thought was even okay (well, and maybe L'Amour à mort), and the sheer number of life-alteringly bad movies I've had to suffer through (Pas sur la bouche, La vie est un roman, Smoking / No Smoking...) makes the risk too great. Such a shame to rewatch the truly brilliant and essential Muriel a few days ago and realize I was seeing a once-great artist peak so early.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#58 Post by knives » Fri Jul 29, 2016 12:50 pm

Too bad. Wild Grass is sincerely one of my favorite French films and You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet is a pretty fun callback to his first three features. Then again I saw them early in my Resnais watching and I haven't seen too many of his post Muriel films so that probably explains my greater Resnais affection.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#59 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jul 31, 2016 12:58 am

Eight down:

A Breath of Scandal (Michael Curtiz 1960) Exiled princess Sophia Loren falls in love with commoner John Gavin’s incredible simulation of a human.

Boeing Boeing (John Rich 1965) A movie with no qualms about its tasteless sexist excesses— all of the credited female cast are introduced with a super listing their measurements (including Thelma Ritter, who you’ll be happy to learn was “??-??-??”)— but like the best of the Hollywood sex comedies, it goes for broke in such an absurd and grandiose fashion that anyone who actually gets offended is trying too hard. The films offers us the heartwarming tale of a total piece of shit (Tony Curtis) who is engaged to three different airline stewardesses at the same time, all of whom live in the same apartment but never realize it due to their conflicting schedules. I liked swo’s joke in his writeup a few years back that the women in this film are all given exaggerated accents solely so we’d be able to tell them apart, but he’s wrong: they’re also given stereotypically exaggerated negative qualities for differentiation. There’s the nagging bitch (French), the flippant bird (British), and the busty idiot (German). Yes, the film offers us the full spectrum of the female experience when one considers there’s also Ritter on hand as Curtis’ tired housekeeper / polygamy assistant. This one’s based on a French bedroom farce, so there are the requisite moments of characters coming in and out of bedrooms at exactly the right time, and also the equally requisite Jerry Lewis on hand. This is a dumb movie. Recommended. (24)

Carola (Norman Lloyd 1972) The gimmick casting of reunited Lili stars Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrer in this adaptation of a Jean Renoir play is the only non-transient return gained from this TV production concerning the occupation-era backstage drama at a Parisian theatre. The source material is weak and uninviting, and the decision for none of the cast members save Caron to attempt any sort of accent is more distracting than any collective passel of phony voices would have been. (24)

Deathtrap (Sidney Lumet 1982) Failing playwright Michael Caine is sent a manuscript of a brilliant play by former student Christopher Reeve and conspires with his unwilling wife Dyan Cannon to commit murder so as to pass the guaranteed smash hit off as his own. This isn’t exactly a spoiler, more common sense: We know pretty early on that this one must have some significant twists and turns when one of the three credited actors leaves the scene far too early for their pedigree. Such is the danger in casting name actors. I can’t really talk about the film without spoiling it, so here comes the black bar:
SpoilerShow
The source material isn’t particularly good, but it is certainly hobbled by being made a film, which erases the only thing this sort of has going for it, the half-assed self-reflexivity of the play in the play mirroring the play at-large. The decision to frame Reeve and Caine’s relationship like Staircase (also eligible for this list, but why the fuck would you ever do that) is a mistake, as Reeve preening around so as to mask his “danger” is ineffective at best. At least the central pair come off better than the awful psychic character who should’ve been renamed Helga Plot Contrivance— her smug button to this mess cements it as a passably entertaining but empty misfire.
Golden Boy (Rouben Mamoulian 1939) William Holden’s debut as a violinist who gosh darnit just wants to get rich via boxing is about as green as they come, and he was only saved from being fired thanks to co-star Barbara Stanwyck’s intervention. Too bad no one intervened for her before she got cast in this clunker— I’m unfamiliar with the Odets play, and I think I always will be. Also, Lee J Cobb is a great actor, but unless you’re J Carrol Naish, you can’t get away with playing an ethnic stereotype this broadly.

the Killing of Sister George (Robert Aldrich 1968) Oh for the halcyon days of the Childrens’ Hour’s brand of “serious” lesbian depiction… This alternately histrionic and catatonic take on a May-December (or, maybe May-Late August with that last-minute “reveal” that is inconsequential yet given full focus?) romance between a matronly soap opera star and Susannah York’s cheeky party girl hits a wide spectrum of shrill notes. The picture is so milquetoast in its flaccid attempts to shock that by the time we get the clinical detachment of the breast-groping finale, which I gather wasn’t even especially shocking back when it was shocking, the only investment comes in wondering how far from the path a film like this can wander in its futile floundering for relevancy. Plus, dear God, this thing is two and a half hours long— the most important thing getting killed here is the time, and slowly.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Gene Saks 1972) One of the worst-regarded Neil Simon film adaptations (a distinction with no known bottom, I imagine), Alan Arkin and his highly contrived male pattern baldness star as the schlubby owner of a seafood restaurant who somehow finds himself presented with a trio of available women for an affair, all of which the inexperienced cheater takes to his mother’s unoccupied apartment. For about thirty minutes or so, this seemed like yet another slow torturous revenge directed solely at me by Neil Simon decades in advance. Playing with the awkwardness Simon did (does?) infinitely better in the Heartbreak Kid, Arkin excruciatingly fumbles a sure thing with Sally Kellerman, who is not so much playing a character as she is inhabiting the most unlikely collection of contrived social commentary talking points possible— she’s a free spirit, man, who just wants a lay with anyone, like, say, this square fish guy. Okay, suuuure. After Arkin botches things in the least-funny and most-protracted way possible, it becomes clear this one’s taking a page from A Guide for the Married Man and won’t actually let its protagonist cheat. And so we get two more variations on this idea, and I prepared for the worst and… ended up kinda liking this one! Part two is the clear highlight and add Paula Prentiss in the movie to the list of great scene-stealing performances in movies that don’t deserve them. Now, granted, she’s just doing the usual Paula Prentisss routine dialed up to fifty on a 1-10 dial, but it manages to make Simon’s tired notions (here that the sexual revolution has resulted in a woman who has had literally everything happen to her) actually function beyond their limited fair use. Part three, which ties a bow on the message of how the sexual revolution of the late 60s/early 70s passed as many people by as it folded in, is more moderately successful, and hinges on an extended attempted rape that I’m not sure is ever fully reconciled with the narrative consummation. I can’t recommend the film, but any Neil Simon movie that doesn’t make me want to travel back in time and prevent being born so as to never sit through it is doing something right.

the Sunshine Boys (Herbert Ross 1975) This one isn’t though. Old, unfunny hack comics kvetching at each other for two hours, with a pickle on the side.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#60 Post by domino harvey » Tue Aug 02, 2016 11:33 am

And eight more:

Camille (George Cukor 1936) Famous weepie with Greta Garbo flippantly flitting between the ever-wooden Robert Taylor and that guy who always plays Nazis. Post-code Hollywood cinema in the thirties is the weakest period of output in the history of the studio system and must always been considered and graded on a curve, and as such this is okay I guess, entertaining enough without ever being in danger of being mistaken for art.

Casanova Brown (Sam Wood 1944) An embarrassed-looking Gary Cooper steals his newborn daughter from his ex-wife Teresa Wright (utterly wasted here) in order to prevent her adoption. Few sensations are more terrifying than realizing the comedy you’re watching isn’t just unfunny but aggressively so. Not a single laugh here, and the last thirty minutes or so are the slowest of idiotic plot tortures.

Closer (Mike Nichols 2004) Three assholes and Natalie Portman go the La ronde route and inflict artificial and dubious pain on one another as they trade partners and say hurtful things. There’s a flagrant phoniness to the naughtiness of the film, which is never as wicked as it thinks it is (Clive Owen asking Portman what her cunt tastes like… oh dearie, someone find me some pearls to clutch!). I was entertained, and all of the name-brand actors are quite good with the weak material, especially Portman, but it all feels like the equivalent to Billy Wilder making Buddy Buddy and thinking he’s got his finger on the pulse of relevancy.

Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Robert Altman 1982) Grotesque collection of unlikely melodramatic characters facing revelations that are so far from plausible that the film may as well be set on Mars. That said, this tale of a collection of James Dean fangirls who reconvene for a twentieth anniversary of their club in a desolate Woolworth’s is passingly entertaining, and all of the performers are good in delivering all of the implausible and impossible twists and turns. (24)

Frankie and Johnny (Garry Marshall 1991) An undeniably sweet and likable romantic comedy that works 100% only because Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino are the charming leads and manage to sell what is kind of a creepy premise in which Pacino’s short-order cook, an ex-con who likes to quote the most obvious literary works imaginable, relentlessly pursues and brow-beats Pfeiffer’s cautious waitress into submission to his needy “charms”. Pfeiffer is not capable of appearing dowdy, so the film doesn’t even make sense with her in the lead (I’m reminded of that Jim Gaffigan joke about how he can’t take any movie where Halle Berry is poor seriously— “Why doesn’t she just become a model?”), but it’s nice to pretend isn’t it?

Marie and Bruce (Tom Cairns 2009) Even if you missed his name in the credits, you’d know this was based on a Wallace Shawn play the moment Julianne Moore opens her mouth. Her and Matthew Broderick would give those who complain about everyone in a Woody Allen movie sounding like Woody Allen a coronary in this bold and bizarre two-hander in which an unhappy couple passive-aggressively talk in circles around each other (and to the audience). Despite the stars, the film sat on the shelf for five years, and it’s easy to see why: this is not a likable movie, and there is no real rising action or resolution. And yet, I kinda liked it, even if just as a curiosity. If you like Shawn’s other works, it’s worth a watch, and despite some stylistic excesses to pad the film out to a feature-length, there’s enough here of interest to merit a quick watch for those curious. (24)

Salome (Al Pacino 2013) Another film that’s still on the shelf in the US (it was made in 2009) despite Pacino and Jessica Chastain in the leads. Pacino has staged Wilde’s play in modern dress but kept the text, and based on this film Pacino should not be allowed near a camera again. His filmmaking is amateurish, his choice of blocking and editing obvious and uninteresting, and his own performance is untethered and overtly effeminate in a distracting fashion. Chastain may now be one of our greatest actresses, but she’s green here, and Pacino has no intention of tethering her young actorly tendencies. Quite possibly the worst play adaptation I’ve ever seen. (24)

Torch Song Trilogy (Paul Bogart 1988) Harvey Fierstein condenses his own Broadway smash into this charming and frequently funny starring vehicle. While the journey through the 70s NYC gay scene often hits expected notes, it’s the non-universal elements that land hardest. The biggest laughs in the film result not from the easily-relatable moments exploring Fierstein’s grief or neuroticism, but from his specific interaction in the gay subculture of the time— take his riotous trip to the “Paradise” backroom of his favorite gay bar, which hints at how this good film could have been great with a bit more courage and determination to forget appealing to a mainstream (read: straight) audience. Still, there’s a lot to like here even with its crutches, and I give it a solid recommendation.

+++

Three lists in so far, which is pretty low for this close to the deadline. Remember, you can submit a list with a minimum of ten ranked titles, or up to twenty, even if you haven't participated in the discussion so far. You have until I get back from working out Thursday morning to submit a list. If you have already submitted a list, you can revise and resubmit up until I tell you in this thread you can't.

User avatar
bottled spider
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:59 am

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#61 Post by bottled spider » Tue Aug 02, 2016 7:15 pm

Caesar and Cleopatra (Des McAnuff, 2009) -- a recording of a live performance at the Stratford [Ontario] Festival, starring Christopher Plummer.
An excellent production of a lesser play. Shaw's brand of didacticism may be idiosyncratic, witty, and thought provokingly counter-intuitive, but it remains didacticism, and as the play goes on one tires a little of instruction. Caesar's parlour trick is to do and say apparently foolhardy, weak, or amoral things, which after prove to be shrewd, courageous, and principled. That same sort of paradoxical wisdom was done less sententiously in Major Barbara and The Chocolate Soldier.

Older live recordings from the Stradford Festival, found mouldering on the shelves of Canadian public libraries, are generally unwatchably bad, but more recent ones have been superb. Recommended (though not eligible for this project) are the 2010 Tempest starring Plummer again, and especially the 2015 King John.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#62 Post by domino harvey » Wed Aug 03, 2016 2:31 pm

Deadline is tomorrow morning and I've still only received three lists... Are you all waiting to make a dramatic last minute entrance or what?

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#63 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Aug 03, 2016 3:07 pm

I'm sorry for not contributing more to this but on looking through the list of titles I realised that Oliver Stone's great adaptation of Talk Radio is eligible, so I threw that into my list.

It also has a great final scene, full of extrovert introspection, which kind of sums the whole film up! (Of course the linked video contains spoilers for the fates of the main characters!)

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#64 Post by domino harvey » Wed Aug 03, 2016 8:39 pm

Up to eight lists, including mine. Cmon gang, let's keep the trend up and get more lists in before tomorrow morning's deadline. Am willing to go full-on Jerry Lewis MDA telethon mode if necessary

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#65 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 04, 2016 9:42 am

Submissions closed, results soon

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#66 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 04, 2016 10:56 am

Image

THE THEATRE ADAPTATIONS LIST

01 Detective Story (William Wyler 1951)
01 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols 1966)
03 Ordet (Carl Th Dreyer 1955)
04 His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks 1940)
05 the Browning Version (Anthony Asquith 1951)
06 Dial ‘M’ for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock 1954)
07 Sleuth (Joseph L Mankiewicz 1972)
08 Boudu Saved from Drowning (Jean Renoir 1932)
09 Holiday (George Cukor 1938)
10 A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan 1951)
10 Baby Doll (Elia Kazan 1956)
12 A Master Builder (Joanthan Demme 2014)
13 Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley 1992)
14 Waterloo Bridge (James Whale 1931)
15 Day of Wrath (Carl Th Dreyer 1943)
15 Gertrud (Carl Th Dreyer 1964)
15 Heaven Can Wait (Ernst Lubitsch 1943)
18 the Importance of Being Earnest (Anthony Asquith 1952)
18 Rope (Alfred Hitchcock 1948)
20 Twentieth Century (Howard Hawks 1934)
21 Wit (Mike Nichols 2001)
22 Amadeus (Milos Forman 1984)
23 La ronde (Max Ophuls 1950)
24 the Cranes are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov 1957)
24 Secret Honor (Robert Altman 1984)
24 Stage Door (Gregory La Cava 1937)



ALSO RANS

the Matchmaker (1958), American Buffalo, the Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch), He Who Gets Slapped, the Maids, Suddenly, Last Summer, Saint Joan (Preminger), the Girls (Zetterling), Killer Joe, Oedipus Rex (Pasolini)


ORPHANS

A Soldier’s Story, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Afraid to Talk, After Tomorrow, An Inspector Calls, August: Osage County, the Awful Truth

Bell Book and Candle, Bent, Blithe Spirit, Breaker Morant, Brief Encounter, Bug

the Cat and the Canary (1927), Cherry Orchard (1962), City Girl, the Crucified Lovers

the Designated Mourner, Desk Set, Double Suicide, the Dresser

Electra (Kakogiannis), Electra, My Love

the Fanny Trilogy, Five Evenings, Fragments of Isabella, the Fugitive Kind

Gaslight (1940) the Golden Coach, the Good Fairy, the Guest (Donner)

Harvey, the Heiress (Wyler), the Homecoming

the Iceman Cometh (Frankenheimer), Iphigenia (1977), Irma La Douce

Journey’s End

Key Largo

Lenny, the Letter (1940), Little Murders, the Lower Depths (Kurosawa), the Lower Depths (Renoir)

the Magician, Make Way For Tomorrow, Medea (Pasolini), Miss Julie (1951), the Moon is Blue

the Night of the Iguana

the Odd Couple (1968), Oedipus Rex (1957), the Old Maid, One Two Three, the Outlaw and His Wife

Pandora’s Box, the Philadelphia Story, Picnic, Pioneers in Ingolstadt, Play it Again, Sam, Pygmalion (1938)

Sabrina (Wilder), the Seventh Seal, the Shape of Things, Smoking / No Smoking

Talk Radio, Tape, the Teahouse of the August Moon, Three Sisters

Uncle Vanya (1957), Unfinished Piece for the Player Piano

Vanya on 42nd Street, Venus in Fur (Polanski)

Wait Until Dark, the Winslow Boy (1948), the Women (Cukor)

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#67 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 04, 2016 10:57 am

I believe this is the first ever tie for first place in any list project, and I commend the board for making two wise choices for this historic honor

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#68 Post by swo17 » Thu Aug 04, 2016 11:04 am

Nice work dom, but I find this whole tie situation terribly upsetting.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#69 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 04, 2016 11:06 am

If only we could get Kirk Douglas and Richard Burton as their characters to have a furious anger-off to decide the winner

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#70 Post by knives » Thu Aug 04, 2016 12:30 pm

swo17 wrote:Nice work dom, but I find this whole tie situation terribly upsetting.
Yeah, Burton isn't even wearing his right.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#71 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 04, 2016 2:43 pm

My Top 20 with orphans highlighted

01 Detective Story
02 Heaven Can Wait (1943)
03 Twentieth Century
04 Baby Doll
05 Sleuth
06 Holiday
07 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
08 Dial 'M' for Murder
09 His Girl Friday
10 the Teahouse of the August Moon
11 the Fanny Trilogy

12 the Girls
13 Miss Julie (1951)
14 Play It Again, Sam

15 the Matchmaker
16 A Master Builder
17 Irma La Douce
18 American Buffalo
19 Saint Joan
20 Suddenly, Last Summer


Saint Joan could just as easily have been Preminger's the Fan. Suddenly, Last Summer could've just as easily have been either the Night of the Iguana or Sweet Bird of Youth. American Buffalo could just as easily been Glengarry Glenn Ross. Little Murders, Come Back, Little Sheba, and Pygmalion just barely missed out for my list, and there were more than enough worthy titles for a personal top fifty, but here we are. Hopefully the Fanny Trilogy's recent resto gets picked up by a stateside label (Cohen? Arrow?) and these amazing films get some more converts. Props to A Master Builder's commanding representation on the final list as well.

User avatar
Sloper
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 10:06 pm

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#72 Post by Sloper » Thu Aug 04, 2016 3:03 pm

Here's my list:

1. The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949)
2. Gaslight (Thorold Dickinson, 1940)
3. Gertrud (Carl Dreyer, 1964)
4. After Tomorrow (Frank Borzage, 1931)
5. A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951)
6. Day of Wrath (Carl Dreyer, 1943)
7. The Browning Version (Anthony Asquith, 1951)
8. The Letter (William Wyler, 1940)
9. Ordet (Carl Dreyer, 1955)
10. Abe Lincoln In Illinois (John Cromwell, 1940)

Surprised that no one else voted for The Heiress, but glad to see Wyler (my favourite Hollywood director, and one of the greats in this sub-genre) sharing the top spot.

User avatar
mizo
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:22 pm
Location: Heard about Pittsburgh PA?

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#73 Post by mizo » Thu Aug 04, 2016 4:31 pm

Thanks for doing all the heavy lifting domino! For anyone else who's interested, here's my list, quickly thrown together rather late last night (the consequence of which is that I forgot Sleuth, which I would have placed in the lower reaches, but its placing in the final list would indicate it didn't need my help):

1. Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1943)
2. Boudu Saved from Drowning (Jean Renoir, 1932)
3. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
4. Gertrud (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964)
5. Heaven Can Wait (Ernst Lubitsch, 1943)
6. Saint Joan (Otto Preminger, 1957) ALSO-RAN Next to the Dreyers, this is probably the most overtly theatrical film on my list, a costume drama replete with flagrantly artificial sets, a playfully self-conscious "Greatest Hits" structure (that even finishes with a totally charming medley reprising all your favorite characters), determinedly eccentric "I Was a Teenage Jeanne d'Arc" casting of the lead, and, most memorably of all, Richard Widmark playing to the back row...of an entirely different theater...on Mars.
7. Ordet (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1955)
8. The Browning Version (Anthony Asquith, 1951)
9. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966)
10. Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992)
11. Twentieth Century (Howard Hawks, 1934)
12. The Cat and the Canary (Paul Leni, 1927) ORPHAN Surprised there were no other supporters for this one, since it was somebody else's mention of it in the thread that alerted me it qualified for the list. Mostly, this is here because it was the first silent I fell in love with (and tried to inflict on others, some of whom were converted, others not so much).
13. The Odd Couple (Gene Saks, 1968) ORPHAN Not at all surprised this didn't have any other fans. I haven't seen it in ages, and it's probably not all that great a movie, but I loved it so much as a kid that I couldn't leave it out, even if only for nostalgia's sake. And also because I recall the sage wisdom of Felix Unger whenever I'm mad enough to want to break something ("You were angry, why didn't you break the cup?" "Because I'd still be angry, and I'd have a broken cup.")

User avatar
Mr Sheldrake
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:09 pm
Location: Jersey burbs exit 4

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#74 Post by Mr Sheldrake » Thu Aug 04, 2016 6:04 pm

1 The Shop Around the Corner - Lubitsch
2 Ordet -Dreyer
3 His Girl Friday - Hawks
4 The Importance of Being Earnest - Asquith
5 A Streetcar Named Desire - Kazan
6 One Two Three - Wilder
7 La Ronde - Ophuls
8 Pygmalion - Asquith
9 The Women - Cukor
10 The Fugitive Kind - Lumet
11 Picnic - Logan
12 Blithe Spirit - Lean
13 He Who Gets Slapped - Sjostrom
14 Amadeus - Forman
15 The Guest (The Caretaker) - Donner
16 Key Largo - Huston
17 Bell Book and Candle - Quine
18 Dial M For Murder - Hitchcock
19 Desk Set - Lang
20 The Philadelphia Story - Cukor

User avatar
bottled spider
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:59 am

Re: Theatre Adaptations Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggest

#75 Post by bottled spider » Thu Aug 04, 2016 11:44 pm

1. The Lower Depths (Kurosawa, 1957)
2. A Master Builder (Demme, 2013)
3. Medea (Pasolini, 1969)
4. The Homecoming (Peter Hall, 1973)
5. Wit (Nichols, 2001)
6. Boudu Saved from Drowning (Renoir, 1932)
7. Unfinished Piece for the Player Piano (Mikhalkov, 1977)
8. Electra (Kakogiannis, 1962)
9. Three Sisters (Olivier,1970)
10. Cherry Orchard (Michael Elliott, 1962)
11. Uncle Vanya (Goetz/Tone, 1957)
12. The Browning Version (Asquith, 1951)
13. The Golden Coach (Renoir, 1952)
14. The Lower Depths (Renoir, 1936)
15. Oedipus Rex (Pasolini, 1967)
16. Ifigeneia (Kakogiannis, 1977)
17. La Ronde (Ophuls, 1950)
18. Five Evenings (Mikhalkov, 1979)
19. The Old Maid (Goulding, 1939)
20. Oedipus Rex (Tyrone Guthrie, 1957)
<--- STARRING WILLIAM SHATNER!!!

Post Reply