THE LAST HURRAH (1958)

Posted on January 23, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: John Ford

SCREENWRITER: Frank S. Nugent

FILM STARS: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster, Pat O’Brien, Basil Rathbone, Donald Crisp, James Gleason, Edward Brophy, John Carradine, Willis Bouchey, Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Ford, Frank McHugh, Carleton Young, Edmund Lowe, Dan Herlihy, Anna Lee, Ken Curtis, Jane Darwell

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Edwin O’Connor

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Pan

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1959

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1956

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Political drama

WORDS: I loved this Ford film and his American Irishness (and I’m not Irish). The films’ cast is perfect and there are many motion picture asides and grace notes that are pure John Ford and not in the book or script. The film hints at the reality of politics but is relatively genteel with it’s warm (though admittedly slightly cynical) Fordian humour and emotionalism up front, rather than the political satire of the book. That’s not to say the book doesn’t have its warm humour or emotion.

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Posted in Drama, Novel, Political Thriller | Tagged | 2 Comments

HOME FROM THE HILL (1960)

Posted on January 19, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Vincente Minnelli

SCREENWRITER: Harriet Frank Jr., Irving Ravetch

FILM STARS: Robert Mitchum, Eleanor Parker, George Peppard, George Hamilton , Everett Sloane, Luana Patten, Anne Seymour

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: William Humphrey

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Pan

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1960

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1958

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Domestic Drama

WORDS: Southern Gothic melodrama? Peyton Place goes south with a dash of Flannery O’Connor. Perfect for Mitchum who is perfect in the title role. Apparently “husband and wife team Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch wrote the screenplay, making some key changes in Humphrey’s story to emphasize the core conflicts. They created the role of Mitchum’s illegitimate son and made his wife a desirable though bitter woman instead of the aging crone from the book. The writers also tried to capture the cadence of Southern speech and had written another family drama located in the South, The Long, Hot Summer. Minnelli would later call the screenplay “one of the few film scripts in which I didn’t change a word”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_from_the_Hill_(film)

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TRAILER

Posted in Domestic Drama, Novel | Tagged | 4 Comments

SERGEANT RUTLEDGE (1960)

Posted on January 19, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: John Ford

SCREENWRITER: James Warner Bellah, Willis Goldbeck

FILM STARS: Jeffrey Hunter, Woody Strode, Constance Towers, Billie Burke, Juano Hernández, Willis Bouchey, Carleton Young, Jack Pennick, Hank Worden, Judson Pratt.

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: James Warner Bellah

TYPE: Novelization

PUBLISHER: Bantam

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1960

COUNTRY: USA

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1960

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS: One of Ford’s greatest films (yes, a big call) and one of his least known. Bellah wrote a lot for Ford. The book reads like a transcript of the film, albeit a well written one with quite a bit of detail. I love the film so …

 

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TRAILER

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THE OMEGA MAN (1971)

Posted on January 16, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Boris Sagal

SCREENWRITER: John William Corrington, Joyce H. Corrington

FILM STARS: Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash, Paul Koslo, Eric Laneuville, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Brian Tochi

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Richard Matheson

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Berkley

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1971

COUNTRY: USA

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1954

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: I am Legend

NOTES

GENRE: Sci Fi

WORDS: The film is one of my favourites. Sometimes corny (and a little clunky) it is one of those things I come back to. It scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. The Omega Man is the second adaptation of Matheson’s novel. The first was The Last Man on Earth (1964), which starred Vincent Price and the third, I Am Legend (2007), starred Will Smith. Chuck is the best. The book is a great read though the mutants of the film are more like vampires in the book (as they are in the first and third films). The protagonist in the book also spends a lot of time burning bodies infected by the plague whereas in the film he spends a lot of time driving around in American muscle car convertibles. Cool.

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FOLLOW THAT DREAM (1962)

Posted on January 12, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Gordon Douglas

SCREENWRITER: Charles Lederer, Herman Raucher (uncredited – he apparently had a hand in transforming the novel into a play before it became a film. I know very little (nothing) about the play).

FILM STARS: Elvis Presley, Arthur O’Connell, Anne Helm, Simon Oakland, Roland Winters.

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Richard Powell

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Hodder

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1962

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1959

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: Pioneer Go Home

NOTES

GENRE: Comedy

WORDS: One of Elvis Presley’s most underrated films. It’s laugh out loud and good natured, as is the novel. Powell, popular then, but largely forgotten now, had written the the dramatic domestic drama best seller “The Philadelphian” (1956), immediately before this. A comedy was unexpected. The book is evocative of time and place and is gently anti-establishment without the black humour cynicism that was to come in the 1960s. In any event it caused me to go out and read other novels by Powell, all, thus far, good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer,_Go_Home!

extract page 170 – Toby Kwimper (as played by Elvis). A naive country boy with a big heart, who is unofficial sheriff of the community, confronts four hired guns who have been sent to deal with him for closing down the gambling …

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TITLE SONG FROM THE FILM

Posted in Comedy / Satire, Novel, WITH MUSIC | Tagged , | Leave a comment

TRUE GRIT (1969)

Posted on January 9, 2022 by velebit2

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Henry Hathaway

SCREENWRITER: Marguerite Roberts

FILM STARS: John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Jeff Corey, Jeremy Slate, Strother Martin, Hank Worden.

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Charles Portis

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Penguin

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1969

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1968

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS: A wonderful book and a wonderful film. The book is written with the words and the speech patterns of the time. The film doesn’t use all of the book and some critics use that as a criticism, especially when comparing it to the Coen Brothers adaptation of the book from 2010. Despite that version being more faithful to the book (though Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn seems to be aping John Wayne whereas Rooster in the book looks more like Warren Oates who played the character in the 1978 made for TV film “True Grit: A Further Adventure”) I still prefer the 1969 film. And, despite people saying the 2010 film isn’t a remake but and adaption (or re-imaging) of the book, there are enough camera angles and positions (which obviously aren’t in the book) which would lead me to believe the Hathaway film was watched a lot by the Coens. Either way the novel is a great read and brings Rooster to life. Appearance aside, John Wayne was faithful to the character in the book. He wasn’t playing himself as is often criticised … or maybe he was if Charles Portis based some of Rooster Cogburn on the John Wayne movie image (I don’t think he did, I’m just sayin’). This is a reading must. And, I must add, as much as I love Glen Campbell as the LaBoeuf character, it would have been phenomenal if they had got Elvis Presley for the role, as producer Hal Wallis originally wanted.

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Posted in Novel, Western | Tagged | 10 Comments