STARS: Vanessa Redgrave, George Hamilton, Susan Engel, Donald Sutherland, Laurence Payne
COUNTRY: Great Britain
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Ernest Hemingway
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Penguin
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1966
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1929
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: War
WORDS: I would like to say this is Hemingway’s great novel of love and war. And I will, but it’s not said as a result of my reading. Everyone else says it. I went through a big Hemingway phase in my late teens and twenties (didn’t we all?) and have read all his fiction (not counting the posthumous manuscripts) except for one book …. this one. On top of that I have seen every film version of the book (the excellent 1932 film with Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes and Adolph Menjou, the sprawling though underrated, 1957 film with Rock Hudson, Jennifer Jones and Vittorio De Sica) except for one version … this one. I didn’t even know this existed. In fact it seems to be, like much BBC product of the time, lost. I assume, knowing what they spent on their budgets it would have been all indoors anyway. Strictly speaking it’s a mini series for television (3×45 minute episodes) rather than a movie. A “tie-in” nevertheless.
FILM STARS: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, Mickey Rooney, John McGiver, Miss Beverly Hills, Orangey the cat.
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Truman Capote
TYPE: Novella
PUBLISHER: Penguin
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1961
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1958
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title (the book was a book of unrelated short stories)
NOTES
GENRE: Romantic Comedy
WORDS: Capote’s melancholy novella is a masterpiece of short-ish fiction. In paragraphs he rounds out entire characters and gives life to months of events. You read a page and you come out feeling you have read a chapter, and it’s never tiresome.
A classic it is but it will always be overshadowed by the 1961 film, a masterpiece of the romantic comedy genre, with perfect direction by Blake Edwards, an iconic Audrey Hepburn, magnificent early 60s fashions and the memorable music of Henry Mancini. Blake Edwards could do no wrong (despite all his fame he is still quite undervalued) and George Axelrod’s screenplays always had bite (Bus Stop, The Manchurian Candidate, How to Murder Your Wife, Lord Love a Duck). The cast work perfectly, Hepburn became an even bigger icon and George Peppard’s career was established. Special mention to Orangey the cat, the only cat to win two PATSY Awards (Picture Animal Top Star of the Year, an animal actor’s version of an Oscar), the first for the title role in a favourite film of mine, Rhubarb (1951) (though he could have been one of several cats used in the film) and the second for his portrayal of “Cat” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. And on top of it all Henry Mancini’s theme song (with lyrics by Johnny Mercer) “Moon River” which went to #1 in the easy Listening Charts. Many vocal versions were done, the most familiar one by Andy Williams who never released the song as a single, but his LP “Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes” was certified gold and went to #3 in the pop charts in 1962.
The book (a classic) is (sadly) almost superfluous to the film … it reads easily though, with the usual, astute, Capote observations. The novella is set in 1940s New York City, a place Capote knew well. Many people have been named or claim to be the inspiration to the central character Holly Golightly, but the character is probably a composite of a number of people Capote knew. Holly (in her late teens) is a New York café society girl who lives off wealthy men who take her to clubs, restaurants and the theatre, and give her money, jewellery and expensive gifts. According to Capote she is not a prostitute, but an “American geisha”. The film is lighter and more romantic than the book. though it does hint at or check all the “scandalous” elements in the book. There are, inevitably, some differences – the fairy-tale love in the film gets more teeth in the book where love is complicated, messy, and painful. The narrator in the book becomes Paul Varjak (played by George Peppard) and he is in some ways no different to Holly because he is a “kept man” taking money from older Mrs Emily Eustace Failenson played by Patricia Neal (the Failenson character doesn’t exist in the book and the narrator doesn’t have a female “benefactor”). Many assume the narrator is gay, because Capote was, but in the book, despite not having a girlfriend, that is not mentioned. The Mr. Yunioshi character played by Mickey Rooney is larger and more comedic in the film, the characters of Mag Wildwood and Rusty Trawler are more central in the book, the characters Joe Bell (a bartender) at a bar they regularly drink at, and Madame Sapphia Spanella (another tenant in the building) do not exist in the film, central symbols like the “birdcage” aren’t central in the film and even the cat finds a home with someone else rather than a return to Holly. Dramatic twists and turns, like Holly hearing of the death of her brother Fred, and her arrest and subsequent flight from the USA not to be seen again, don’t feature. Holly has gone from a Bette Grable blonde in the book (Capote would have cast Marilyn Monroe, or her type, in the film) to a stylish brunette in Audrey Hepburn (still from Tulip, Texas though!). The Holly of the film is a free spirit whereas the Holly of the book is wild, crazy, destructive, crass, a little racist, self-absorbed, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a tease, and, perhaps a fantasist. There are many contradictions in her. Females want to be Audrey’s Holly and complain of the unattainability of it whereas Capote’s original Holly is one all more real and attainable. I would take the film’s Holly, if she exists.
FILM STARS: Stacy Keach, Pia Zadora, Orson Welles, Lois Nettleton, Edward Albert, James Franciscus, Stuart Whitman, June Lockhart, Ed McMahon, Paul Hampton, George ‘Buck’ Flower
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: James M. Cain
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Vintage
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1979
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1946
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The Butterfly
NOTES
GENRE: Drama
WORDS: Pia Zadora. There was a time when she was going to the next big thing (well there seemed to be a lot of hype about her). She always seemed she was from some far off exotic land … maybe Hoboken, New Jersey is a far off exotic land because that’s where Pia Alfreda Schipani was born on May 4, 1953. I was only a early teen when this film came out but this film was the one you wanted to sneak into to see … there was nudity. I don’t recall seeing the film then. I haven’t seen it recently. I should … any film with Orson Welles, Stuart Whitman, James Franciscus and a nude Pia Zadora I will see. Director Matt Cimber’s background was in exploitation B cinema – it just gets better. Music by Ennio Morricone – how good is that.
The film was universally derided.
I must watch it again. Such is masochism.
Cain took pulp with sex and violence to high literature. Here, it’s as if William Faulkner were writing for Hustler. I’m not sure how a story about a drunken father, and a flirtatious and promiscuous daughter and (apparent) incest would go down now, but it was a best seller at the time.
FILM STARS: John Wayne, Richard Boone, Maureen O’Hara, Patrick Wayne, Christopher Mitchum, Bruce Cabot, Bobby Vinton, Glenn Corbett, Ethan Wayne, John Doucette, Jim Davis, John Agar, Harry Carey Jr., Dean Smith, Hank Worden, Chuck Roberson
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Richard Deming
TYPE: Novelization
PUBLISHER: Paperback Library
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1971
COUNTRY: USA
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1971
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Western
WORDS: One of my favourite John Wayne films from the 1970s. A lot of humour amongst the action. The closing of the west / turn of the century films have always intrigued me. That point where horses and cars shared streets together. There is a lot of humour in the film, and humour that works, especially in the first half. The director, George Sherman. was an old hand on action westerns like this. It can be clunky but if you know enough about John Wayne and get the in jokes it’s a lot of fun. The cast is populated with Wayne regulars (let’s call it “Wayne’s stock company”) and included Robert Mitchum’s son, Christopher, in a showy role (his third Wayne film). Two of Wayne’s sons (to different wives), Patrick and Ethan, appear, and Patrick’s older brother Michael produces.
Bandits kidnap Wayne’s grandson (played by real life son Ethan) for ransom and someone has to recover him. This is Wayne as the patriarch, a man of action and one liners and determination in a world which is black and white. Did that world exist? Probably not, but if it did and you needed to get something unpleasant done you would want Wayne’s character, Jake McCandles. As Maureen O’Hara’s estranged wife character, Martha McCandles, says “It is I think going to be a very harsh and unpleasant kind of business and will I think require an extremely harsh and unpleasant kind of man to see to it”.
The novelisation is based on the script. A lot of the films dialogue has been changed to suit Wayne, and then, of course inevitably it is changed again. Richard Deming (1915-1983) was a solid and reliable pro whose crime-writing career extended from late 1940s pulps to early 1980s digests. He also wrote several volumes of popular non-fiction late in his life. He is most likely to be remembered as one of the most prolific contributors to Manhunt and the early days of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and as a paperback original writer, sometimes of novels based on TV shows (Dragnet, The Mod Squad, and under the pseudonym Max Franklin, Starsky and Hutch). He was also a frequent ghost for the Ellery Queen team on paperback originals and for Brett Halliday on lead novelettes for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine.
FILM STARS: Jack Nicholson, Jessica Lange, John Colicos, Michael Lerner, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: James M. Cain
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Pan
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1981
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1934
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Drama
WORDS: Famous for its steamy sex scenes, this tale of lust and murder was scripted by David Mamet, directed by Bob Rafelson and stars Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. How can it go wrong? It doesn’t. But I still prefer (by a country mile) the 1946 version by Tay Garnett with John Garfield and Lana Turner (Jessica is a babe but Lana sizzles with heat) or the Italian (unofficial) version, Ossessione (Obsession), from 1943 film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Clara Calamai and Massimo Girotti. The book is typical Cain – always readable and always torrid with sex and violence. If you want to know what the title means there are theories, but it seem the postman is “fate” and the character escapes with his actions the first time but not the second.
FILM STARS: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy, Nancy Gates, Leora Dana, Betty Lou Keim, Larry Gates, Connie Gilchrist
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: James Jones
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Panther
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1960
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1957
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Drama
WORDS: An epic multicharacter domestic drama. I found both the film and the novel fascinating. The (slightly) autobiographical story is about a World War 2 veteran with continuing literary aspirations who returns in 1948 to his hometown in the Midwest after a failed writing career . It follows him and the people he hangs out with. The film captures the post war disillusionment, the lack of direction, the (50s style) questioning on “what’s it all about”. The four leads in the film are perfect. It’s great to see Sinatra and Martin in something other than their (admittedly wonderful) jokey normal on screen roles. Though, that’s not to say there isn’t humour here, especially with Martin’s character. People say Sinatra and Martin play themselves. If they do I don’t care, because they have enough of themselves in the characters as written to make it convincing.. Director Minnelli makes the most of the Cinemascope … you have to love dramas done in Cinemascope.
The main different between novel and film is the novel is more frank with the sex and sex talk but the film does enough for you to put it all together. Well, also (major spoiler coming), the central character is killed in the book but not in the film. (for the same dramatic punch the film has the central female character killed) . The title comes from a bible quote, Mark 10:17, King James Version: “And when He was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked Him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” And, yes this edition is not quite a “tie-in” though that is Frank and Shirley from the film on the front, so, close enough.
SCREENWRITER: Hugh Leonard, Michael Palin (key writer)(uncredited), Terence Feely (additional material) FILM STARS: Hywel Bennett, Denholm Elliott, Elke Sommer, Britt Ekland, Cyd Hayman, Janet Key, Tracey Crisp, Antonia Ellis, Tracy Reed, Patrick Mower, Pauline Delaney, Adrienne Posta, Sue Lloyd, Jane Carr, George Best
COUNTRY: Great Britain
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Raymond Hitchcock
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Sphere
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1971
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1969
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Comedy / Satire
WORDS: The book is a mildly satirical light-hearted sexual farce. Author Hitchcock (father of one of my favourite English musicians, Robyn Hitchcock) was a novelist, screenwriter, and cartoonist, and makes the most of a situation about the first penis transplant. The film is an English sex comedy which they did so well in the 70s. It’s stupid and funny and titillating – more so when you are a teen. The reason I watched this film (at the time) was for that titillation and the music by my favourite band, The Kinks. Ralph Thomas who had his fair share of great films (but wont be considered “great”” did the “Doctor” series of films and is the brother of the almost great Gerard Thomas (who did all the “Carry On” films). A sequel in book and film followed, “Percy’s Progress” (1972 and 1974 respectively).
FILM STARS: Simone Signoret, Laurence Harvey, Heather Sears, Donald Wolfit, Donald Houston, Hermione Baddeley
COUNTRY: Great Britain
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: John Brain
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Penguin
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1960
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1957
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Drama
WORDS: A great novel by English novelist John Braine. Braine is one of the “angry young men” group of English writers from the late 50s. who emerged on the literary scene in the late 1950s. Those novels were a mix of disillusionment, cynicism or observation on working class life, lower middle class with characters trying to punch their ways out of their surrounds, looking for a (or for “some”) “room at the top”. The English trend seemed to replicate the matter of fact or cynical, disillusionment novels of the early to mid-5os in the US (the “slice of life” and “the rat race” novels and plays by Sloan Wilson, Paddy Chayefsky and others). Both trends on either side of the Atlantic also created similar trends in film (and in television in the US). The main difference is that the British novels and films were observant of the rigid, and more obvious, English class structures. “Room at the Top” was followed by a sequel in both novel and film, “Life at the Top”, and a TV series “Man at the Top” in 1970.
This film stars one of my favourite English actors, Laurence Harvey or Zvi Mosheh Skikne as I like to call him. A Lithuanian-born Jew who grew up in South Africa and who had to punch (or sleep?) his way to the top. The film is one of the best English “kitchen sink drama” 9realist) films of the late 50s / early 60s. The story is now, and perhaps was even then, familiar but by film standards of the time it is frank in its attitude to sex and its acknowledgement of regional culture is refreshing. It was a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic (it was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two … not bad for a small English film), and it made a big star out of Laurence Harvey.
FILM STARS: Eva Marie Saint, Warren Beatty, Karl Malden, Angela Lansbury, Brandon deWilde, Constance Ford. Barbara Baxley, Evans Evans
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: James Leo Herlihy
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Penguin
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1962
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1960
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Domestic Drama
WORDS: I have not read the book by Herlihy (who also wrote “Midnight Cowboy” and “Blue Denim”). The film I saw a while back and it’s a kitchen sink southern Peyton Place soap opera with some southern gothic thrown in. Beatty is perfect as the hedonist in the lead role. Screenwriter, William Inge won an Academy Award for his screenplay of “Splendor in the Grass” the year before, also with Beatty. He also wrote the plays Come Back, Little Sheba, Picnic, Bus Stop and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.
LINKS
TRAILER
the Spanish Trailer which features more of the jazzy score by Alex North
FILM STARS: Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner, Shirley Anne Field, Gary Cockrell, Michael Crawford, Bill Edwards
COUNTRY: Great Britain
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: John Hersey
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Pan
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1962
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1959
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: War
WORDS: A great film. Part war movie, part psychological drama, part soap opera. It’s not one for historical minded war movie buffs but it is one that captures some of the emotion in war (I imagine). McQueen is excellent as the central character, a B17 pilot obsessed with war (err hence the title), as is Robert Wagner (much underrated) as his co-pilot, in the air and on the ground. Screenwriter Koch was a blacklisted American screenwriter who lived in England through the 1950s.
The novel, I read many years ago and I loved. I don’t recall now how close it is to the film. It is vivid in its depictions of the title character, amid much philosophising and jabs at authority and war. I highlighted some passages (in pencil of course) as I’m wont to do …
THE FILM (Mini Series)
THE FILM 
THE FILM 
‘ The biggest problem is Mia Farrow’. That comment could be applied to almost every film she appeared in. An…