FILM STARS: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Patricia Highsmith
TYPE: Novel PUBLISHER: Vintage
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1999
COUNTRY: Australia
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1955
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Drama, Crime
WORDS: Patricia Highsmith, perhaps the greatest of the female crime (specifically psychological thrillers – she also wrote “Strangers on a Train”) writers. The film by Minghella is (surprisingly) good though I still prefer the first film version of the book, Plein Soleil (Purple Noon) (1960), directed by (the great) Rene Clement in France, with Alain Delon. That captures the Mediterranean, the characters and the mid century mood perfectly
FILM STARS: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, Hugh O’Brian, Bill McKinney, Harry Morgan, John Carradine, Sheree North, Rick Lenz, Scatman Crothers, Melody Thomas
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Glendon Swarthout
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Pan
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1976
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1975
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Western
WORDS: A great film, a great book. The film is faithful to the book up to a point. The film is also an homage to, and for, its star John Wayne (whether they knew it or not). Wayne is great (perfect) in his last role of a shootist (a gunman) dying of cancer. James Stewart is great as the doctor as is the rest of the cast. Director Sigel, is in top form catching the twilight of the west with just the right amount of cynicism and impartiality. There is not heartfelt ruminations over the change from the old to the new, it’s just happening and so be it.
The book is more cynical with a different ending making the film and book contradictory, perhaps, in outlook. Wayne’s contract gave him script approval, and he made a number of major and minor changes I believe Though he would not have taken the role if there wasn’t something already there. The film is violent, the book more so. Perhaps it is one of the most violent books I have read. Not a sadistic violence but a matter of fact vivid one, with almost clinical medical descriptions of what happens when a person is shot. I went out and found a lot more Swarthout and have not been disappointed. A great writer
FILM STARS: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, Stubby Kaye, Johnny Silver, Robert Keith, Sheldon Leonard, George E. Stone, Regis Toomey, Veda Ann Borg
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Damon Runyon
TYPE: Short Story
PUBLISHER: Penguin
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1965
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: Collected 1956 from stories circa 1933
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Musical
WORDS: The film is based on the Broadway hit musical from 1950 by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows (music and lyrics by Frank Loesser). The Broadway show is based on Damon Runyon’s short stories “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown” and “Blood Pressure” and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, such as “Pick the Winner”. This volume collects (first collected together in 1956) those stories that the film was based on, or that informed the time and place of the film. Runyon is great to read, if for no other reason than he shows a New York with characters speaking “New Yorkese” twenties and thirties style. I’m not sure why this tie-in was reprinted some 10 years after the film and original collection. Perhaps the film was re-released. The musical show was often revived including various productions in 1965 and 1966, so perhaps that’s why also.
And the film is a hoot … though I prefer “Robin and the 7 Hoods” which is not dissimilar.
FILM STARS: Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris, Julie Harris, Jack Dempsey, Rory Calhoun, Muhammad Ali
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Rod Serling
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Corgi
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1962
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1957
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Sports Drama
WORDS: This novel, is perhaps, a novelization by the author himself. Rod Serling’s cynical boxing drama was originally filled as a teleplay (an early Made for TV film) in 1957 with Jack Palance in the title roll and directed by Ralph Nelson. That was enormously successful (it was then filmed for TV in Great Britain with Sean Connery in the title role and with Alvin Rakoff directing). The story was redone six years later (here) with the same director, Nelson, but with Anthony Quinn (a favourite of mine) in the title role. This is one the great boxing films along with “The Set Up”, “Champion”, “Body and Soul”, “99 River Street”, “Hard Times”, “Fat City”, and “Rocky”. I would throw “Kid Galahad'” from 1962 in as well (no one else would), as well as “The Quiet Man” (a loose definition of a boxing film).
SCREENWRITER: Philip Yordan (a front for blacklisted writer Ben Maddow who was uncredited)
FILM STARS: Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Tina Louise, Buddy Hackett, Jack Lord, Fay Spain, Vic Morrow, Lance Fuller, Rex Ingram, Michael Landon, Russell Collins
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Erskine Caldwell
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Pan
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1958
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1933
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Drama
WORDS: Great cast, good film though not as distinctive as the best of Anthony Mann … one of the best directors working the 1950s. The cast is great, Robert Ryan, perfect, Aldo Ray, always underrated, and Tina Louise, gorgeous. Future television stars Jack Lord, Vic Morrow, Lance Fuller, and Michael Landon are great in supports.
Caldwell’s book is an easy read, combining political (a “proletarian” novel concerned, in part, with the plight of union less workers), earthy, rootsy, comedic and sexually suggestive (perhaps that why it took 25 years to reach the screen) themes. The book was a big (read “BIG”) seller in the 30s and 40s and was banned from time to time … because of the sex, not the politics. Puritans of the time placed left wing agitators lower on the “annoyance ladder” than sly “pornographers” it seems, as did the film which also dwelt more on the “passion”.
FILM STARS: James Stewart, George Kennedy, Anne Baxter, Strother Martin, Kurt Russell, William Windom, Mike Kellin, David Huddleston
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Davis Grubb
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Signet
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1970
COUNTRY: USA COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1969
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Crime
WORDS: The film was strange, endearing, but strange, in its shifts between drama and humour. It is, perhaps, Jimmy Stewart’s oddest role but one that he owns. George Kennedy was, as always, solid. And Strother martin (always good) and a young Kurt Russell help. The novel I haven’t read but seems to be more strident and dark, as you would expect from author Davis Grubb (who wrote “The Night of the Hunter”).
FILM STARS: Kirk Douglas, Senta Berger, Yul Brynner, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Angie Dickinson, Gordon Jackson, Topol, Rod Dana, Michael Douglas.
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Ted Berkman
TYPE: Biography
PUBLISHER: Pocket Books
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1966
COUNTRY: USA
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1966
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: War, Drama
WORDS: I didn’t see this film till quite late in the piece. In my teens, pre-internet days, I would check and cross reference books to list films of my favourite actors (IMDB has made the world easier) and, then, I assumed that John Wayne was the star … well he would “cast a giant shadow” wouldn’t he? Alas, no. He did a cameo as a favour (as did Frank and Yul) to Kirk Douglas who was emotionally (and financially) invested in the film (actually John Wayne’s company, Batjak, also invested in the film). The biography is about Mickey Marcus, Manhattan born, Jewish, a West Point graduate, a United States Army colonel, and later Israel’s first General, who advised the Israeli military during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
It’s a big budget war film with lots of action and lots of romance. Director and producer Melville Shavelson (who mainly did comedies), was also emotionally invested in the film and apparently found the film making a bumpy ride. He wrote a memoir on the same “How to Make a Jewish Movie” (1971).
SCREENWRITER: John Lee Mahin, Martin Rackin, Claude Binyon, Wendell Mayes uncredited), Ben Hecht (uncredited)
FILM STARS: John Wayne, Stewart Granger, Ernie Kovacs, Fabian, Capucine, Mickey Shaughnessy, Karl Swenson, Kathleen Freeman, John Qualen
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Frank Brennand (Eric Lambert)
TYPE: Novelization
PUBLISHER: Four Square
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1961
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: Ladislas Fodor
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1939
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The Birthday Gift (play)
NOTES
GENRE: Western
WORDS: The word went out and a number of screenwriters turned in an adapted screenplay based on a 1939 play (which I haven’t read … can’t even find). When it came time to do a film tie-in, I assume the play couldn’t be dusted down because it is too different – it is a Hungarian play so I assume is not set in Alaska and by the sounds of it, it is a drawing room comedy or comedy of manners. That would throw off those looking to renew the excitement of the film. Some film tie-in novels are drastically different from their subsequent films but I think this would be a horse too far (to mix idioms). Accordingly, this novelization seems to follow the film closely. I will have to re-read it to see how close. Many of the scenes in the film were improvised on set as the script wasn’t ready for satisfactory filming at the start of the production. Likewise, being an English paperback, I’m not sure the author had access to the original written script as many commissioned writers do. Interestingly, the author, Frank Brennand, is a pseudonym for Australian author Eric Frank Lambert. As Brennand he did novelizations (no doubt to pay the bills) and as Lambert he wrote war novels and action (first from a left wing, then right wing perspective … by the 50s disillusion with communism seems to be normal amongst writers).
I love this film. I have watched it many times. It’s like comfort food. It is one of the earliest (if not the earliest) John Wayne film I recall watching as a kid. It’s two stories. One about gold mining and claim jumping in Alaska at the turn of the last century (much like the novel, and Wayne’s earlier film, The Spoilers) and a sex (well, “romantic”) comedy about misunderstandings, women, and the different types of men who pursue them. Each man in the cast is a different “type” of man. There is the one looking for love and family (Granger), the one who wants women’s company but doesn’t want to get married (Wayne), the youth looking to discover the joys of women (Fabian), and there is the cad (Kovacs). The film works on different levels (comedy, adventure, action, male female relationships) and on different age groups (my kids thoroughly enjoyed it, as I did as a kid, but adults get something extra out of it) and genders (women seem to enjoy it on another level). Everyone in the cast plays well and seem to be having fun. Fabian (who is great) has his best role, Kovacs plays the character (he played elsewhere) beautifully, Granger is energetic and straddles the westerns and swashbucklers he played often well, John Wayne is hilarious (he was much underrated in comedy), and Capucine is stunning and totally believable as the woman being chased.
I might have to go watch it now, again.
LINKS
TRAILER
MUSIC
the theme song by Johnny Horton and one that often gets sung in the shower
FILM STARS: Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Michael Pate, Michael Ansara, Leo Gordon, Whit Bissell
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Louis L’Amour
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Gold Medal Book
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1963
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1957
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: Western
WORDS: This novel comes across as a short story extended, which would be right. Early on author L’Amour had a habit of writing novellas for magazines, then later fleshing them out a bit, giving them new titles, and re-selling them as stand-alone paperbacks or as potential film treatments. That seems to be the case here (though I’m not sure what story it’s based on, if any). This approach had paid off before with his classic novel, Hondo (hence the referencing to it on the cover art), which, was a book adaptation by L’Amour of a movie written by a screenwriter based on a short story by L’Amour. Still, I’ve read a lot of Louis L’Amour, he is one of my “read, clear the head, and be entertained” writers. This isn’t up there with his best but ….
Likewise, the film isn’t one of McCrea’s best westerns but it has a great cast and it is very watchable … a bit like comfort food for me.
FILM STARS: James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn, Ralph Richardson, Burt Kwouk.
COUNTRY: USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: William Harrison
TYPE: Short Story
PUBLISHER: Orbit
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1975
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1973
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: Roller Ball Murder (Short Story)
NOTES
GENRE: Sci Fi
WORDS: The book is a collection of short stories, including the one the film is based on, by sci fi writer William Harrison. Harrison expands this short story into a screenplay for a (just over) two hour film. And it works. Every kid in the 70s loved this film, though as kids we were drawn to the action. There is philosophising and the “near future” of institutionalised violence, corporate sport and anti-individual capitalism is more “near’ than “future”. I’m not sure the deliberate pace and pauses for contemplation would appeal to many of the youth of today who have been brought up on the wham bam of the superhero universe. Caan in Rollerball was superhero enough for us. There was a superficial, bland remake made in 2002.
True re Fonda and In Harms Way - which is a capsule comment on this blog. He was doing a…