April 2017: Daphne duMaurier - Books made into films

April 2017 Books made into films - Featured Author Daphne Du Maurier



Rebecca
Jamaica Inn
The Birds
Frenchman's Creek
My Cousin Rachel
Don't Look Now
Hungry Hill
The Years Between
The Scapegoat

My Pick: The Birds and other stories by Daphne du Maurier



I loved The Birds but my favorite in this collection so far has been, The Apple Tree.

I read The Scapegoat in January, which was very good, so I don't have another du Maurier on deck to read. I will try to read a book made into film, though, maybe Perfume.

>3 sturlington: I have Perfume in my TBR short list pile. I'll try to get to it later in the month. Did you like The Scapegoat?

>4 luvamystery65: Yes, I thought she did a good job with a rather far-fetched premise.

Thanks for starting the thread!

I was hoping to get The Scapegoat from the library, but I think it's damaged or something. I did a few tag searches to see what I could find that's on my tbr, and the closest to horror I could find is some true crime, so I'm thinking Fatal Vision. I've had it since high school and don't recall if I ever read it back then or not!

>6 LibraryCin: I remember that court case and lots of drama between the author and MacDonald.

>1 luvamystery65: Thanks for starting this thread! I have The Scapegoat on my shelves and plan to read it this month.

Made into a film (mini-series)

Fatal Vision / Joe McGinniss
4 stars

In February of 1970 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Green Beret and physician, Jeffrey MacDonald, survived what he said was a break-in that resulted in the murders of his wife and two little girls, aged 2 and 5 years. It was only after 9 years that Jeffrey himself was finally charged and put on trial (though there was a hearing via the army back in 1970). Unfortunately, there were many errors during the army’s investigation into the murders. Jeffrey’s father-in-law, and early supporter, was later convinced of his guilt (after reading the transcripts of the army hearing) and pushed for years to get MacDonald on trial for the murder of his stepdaughter and grandkids.

I’ve had this book since high school and I don’t believe I ever did read it back then. I’m glad I’ve now finally read it. There were some chapters interspersed, mostly at the start of the book, but also occasionally later on, called “The Voice of Jeffrey MacDonald”. At the start, much of this was recounting his and his wife Colette’s history. I didn’t find these parts nearly as interesting, though I suppose it gives the reader a bit of insight into Jeffrey, himself. Overall, though, it was a fascinating read.

Personal opinion on the case: I have no doubt that he did it. He story just doesn’t hold up for me, not even a little bit. And this is before the physical evidence.

>7 luvamystery65: I see where there was drama between the author and MacDonald! Doesn't change my opinion of the case, though. :-)

I ended up reading The Prestige by Christopher Priest for this challenge. Both the book and film are very good. I don't think it spoils the book too much to have seen the movie first. In fact, I was glad to know a couple of the secrets so I could focus on the writing. The book had a much more gothic feel than I remember there being in the movie, which I quite liked-- a sense of the uncanny.

>11 sturlington: I saw the movie years ago when it came out. I remember it being good, and debating about reading the book. I never did read the book, though.

>12 LibraryCin: I also saw the movie a while ago but it is streaming on Netflix now so I'll probably rewatch it.

I'm still working on The Scapegoat but in the meantime, I'd finished The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey, which was recently made into a film. I'm on the library waiting list for the DVD. I really liked this book. The character development makes it so much more than the typical dystopian zombie novel.

>14 mathgirl40: I also read The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey. Forgot to include it here.

I'm a little late with this post, but I wanted to mention that I finally finished The Scapegoat. I thought it was quite good and suspenseful, but all the way through the book, I had trouble accepting the premise that the main character could fool everyone into believing his identity!

I also watched the movie version of The Girl With All the Gifts. I thought it was quite faithful to the book, though it seemed more gory and violent than the book did. I thought that the relationships among the characters were done so well, with many touching moments, that I encouraged my 18-year-old daughter to watch the movie with me. I should have remembered that she dislikes violent and scary films. She watched the whole thing and then said in a bewildered manner, "Why on Earth, Mom, did you think this would be a good family-bonding movie??" :)

>16 mathgirl40: Wish I could have gotten it from my library (The Scapegoat). Hopefully it will become available another time, or maybe I'll just ILL it, if it isn't available next time I want to try it.

>16 mathgirl40: I agree that the premise was far-fetched. I was able to ignore that for the most part because of du Maurier's excellent writing.

I would like to see TGWATG. It's on my Amazon watchlist. I haven't read the book but sometimes I'd rather just watch the movie.

>18 sturlington: Following up. I did watch The Girl With All the Gifts last night, as it just became available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers. I thought it was really well done and a nice twist on an old trope. I may still read the book at some point.

And a postscript to add: I went to see the musical Finding Neverland yesterday, and thus got interested in the life of J.M. Barrie and googled him. What I did not know, but now do, is that Daphne du Maurier was the cousin of the boys who inspired Peter Pan, and that her parents met acting in a Barrie play. Small world it was, back then.

>19 sturlington: I'm glad you liked the movie too. I think the book is still worth reading, even if you already know how it ends.

>20 sturlington: Thanks for that interesting bit of history!