Plays made into movies

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Plays made into movies

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1almigwin
syyskuu 8, 2008, 10:47 pm

This is a place to comment on stage plays that have been filmed, or otherwise adapted into movies. The BBC has issued some Ibsen, Chekhov, and of course, Shakespeare. There are filmed versions of plays by Clifford Odets, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, David Mamet and many others. Let us know about the ones you have seen and whether you enjoyed them, or thought they were successful or unsuccessful as films.

2almigwin
syyskuu 8, 2008, 10:54 pm

I will start by praising Awake and Sing by Clifford Odets, with Walter Mathau. I thought he was wonderful. I always loved the line about the baby having 'Feinschreiber eyes' when everyone knew his father was NOT Feinschreiber. And in the Chekhov collection of the BBC, there is an adaptation of The Cherry Orchard done by John Gielgud with Peggy Ashcroft that was beautifully acted. There is another version with Judi Dench in the same set.

3Prop2gether
syyskuu 10, 2008, 5:44 pm

There was a PBS (I think) series in the 70s filming stage plays and I saw Hogan's Goat on video, starring Faye Dunaway. It was the featured role that moved her up ranks, and it's quite an amazing piece even today.

4leahbird
maaliskuu 25, 2009, 8:23 pm

One of my favorite examples of this is the play The History Boys by Alan Bennett. It opened in London in May 2004.

The thing that was so amazing about this movie-made-from-a-play was that the original stage cast reprised their roles for the film and the film was directed by the original stage director. It made watching the actors so much better because you knew they had a vested interest in their roles.

I thought the film was a bit better than the play (there was a bit of slight editing) but both are more than worth enjoying.

5CurrerBell
maaliskuu 25, 2009, 8:33 pm

Personally, I think the greatest acting performance I've ever seen is JASON ROBARDS as "Hickey" in the 1960 two-night television production of The Iceman Cometh directed by Sidney Lumet. Incidentally, it co-starred Robert Redford as "Don Parritt" in one of the very earliest performances (and probably the best) of his career. Myron McCormick was also particularly impressive as "Larry Slade."

It's currently available on DVD, but be prepared to set aside some time for it since its running time is four hours. There's a natural break, however, at the two-hour point (and that's where the movie was interrupted at the end of the first night in its original 1960 airing).

One thing, though. This really isn't a "movie adaptation" of the play. It's more as if Lumet simply turned on the camera and let the actors act, because it's definitely got the feel of a stage play that's been recorded for video, as opposed to an adaptation for the screen.

6Godlike
heinäkuu 7, 2011, 7:34 am

the seven year itch marilyn monroe that was a good movie except the main guy kept talking to himself where as the play would have had him talking to the audience, in the movie he comes across aa a lunatic.

7CurrerBell
heinäkuu 8, 2011, 11:43 am

Oh, and I think Laurence Olivier's greatest performance may very well have been "Archie Rice" in The Entertainer (1960).

8Jestak
kesäkuu 17, 2012, 2:14 pm

There have, of course, been innumerable adaptations of Shakespeare to film. My very first Shakespeare film was the MGM version of Julius Caesar, which I saw in middle school. I've found quite a few good ones from the 1990s; I like Kenneth Branagh's versions of Hamlet and Henry V and the Ian McKellen version of Richard III.

There was an excellent French adaptation of Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu in the title role, directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau.

9jennybhatt
maaliskuu 31, 2013, 6:01 pm

In recent times, I've enjoyed the movie versions of both Doubt: A Parable and Frost/Nixon. Saw both plays on Broadway ages ago, and they had stayed with me due to their powerful dialogues/scenes/performances.

It's always interesting when a play's performers win awards but then don't make it into the movie version (for many different reasons, I get that). Still, Eileen Atkins was amazing as Sister Aloysius (not that Meryl Streep wasn't amazing in the movie). At least Frank Langella played Nixon in the movie - it really would have been difficult to find anyone else who could morph so completely into Nixon as he did.

10aulsmith
maaliskuu 31, 2013, 6:11 pm

The filmed version of Michael Frayn's Copenhagen was really excellent.

11marq
maaliskuu 31, 2013, 7:21 pm

Although I've seen it on the stage a few times now, I still love the 1977 film with Richard Burton of Peter Shaffer's Equus.

12WholeHouseLibrary
maaliskuu 31, 2013, 7:50 pm

13sweetiegherkin
huhtikuu 2, 2013, 10:19 am

>12 WholeHouseLibrary: Yes, love that movie!

14sweetiegherkin
huhtikuu 2, 2013, 10:35 am

I absolutely love the film version of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer, which starred Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and Katherine Hepburn. I know some people found Taylor's performance over the top, but I thought it was fitting with the role.

Another play adaptation I thought was well done was Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour with the movie starring Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, and James Garner.

Clifford Odets' Golden Boy was made into a fairly decent movie starring William Holden (if I recall correctly), but the ending veered off quite a bit from the source material.

Someone else mentioned Kenneth Branagh's movie adaptation of Hamlet, which I also recommend.

Undoubtedly there are plenty others that I am forgetting right now but enjoyed at the time.

On the flip side, I recently watched the movie adaptation of Crimes of the Heart and disliked it, whereas I had found the play so entertaining.

15Jestak
huhtikuu 2, 2013, 1:00 pm

Another good one: Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's play The Front Page has been filmed several times. The classic version is Howard Hawks' film "His Girl Friday."

16barney67
huhtikuu 2, 2013, 3:54 pm

I've seen and enjoyed:

Branagh's Henry V -- Branagh, Derek Jacobi

Branagh's Hamlet -- Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie

Zefirelli's Hamlet -- Mel Gibson, Helena Bonham Carter

Tom Stoppard's Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead -- Gary Oldman, Tim Roth. The movie, also directed by Stoppard, was so-so, kind of flat. The stage version I saw at Stratford, Ontario was better. It used the same cast members in the two roles as in the previous night's showing of Hamlet. That was something special.

David Mamet's Glengarry Glenn Ross -- Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin.

About Last Night (based on David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago) -- Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, James Belushi.

David Mamet's Lakeboat -- Tony Mamet, Denis Leary, Jack Wallace, Robert Forster. Don't miss this semi-autobigraphical, hidden gem.

Sam Shepard's True West -- Gary Sinise, John Malkovich.

Al Pacino's Looking For Richard -- Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Winona Ryder. This is a documentary about Al Pacino's attempt to understand Richard II, cast and stage scenes from it, and make it relevant for a modern audience. I thought it was a lot of fun.

--------
I enjoyed these movies but did not see the plays on which they were based:

12 Angry Men -- Henry Fonda, Jack Warden, Jack Klugman
Amadeus -- Tom Hulce, F. Murray Abraham
Animal Crackers -- Marx Brothers
A Bronx Tale -- Chazz Palminteri, Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesce
Deathtrap -- Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve
Dial M for Murder -- Grace Kelly, Ray Milland
A Few Good Men -- Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Demi Moore
Play It Again, Sam -- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts
Proof -- Anthony Hopkins, Gweneth Paltrow
Shadowlands -- Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger
Sleuth -- Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine
David Mamet's The Winslow Boy -- Nigel Hawthorne, Rebecca Pidgeon

17sparemethecensor
huhtikuu 2, 2013, 4:01 pm

>16 barney67: Tom Stoppard's Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead

I agree with your assessment of it being "flat." I was excited to see it as I am a Gary Oldman fan, and an even bigger fan of the play, but the movie just didn't seem to have the rhythm the play always has on stage. I've seen this play done in at least three different theaters, all wonderful, but the movie was kind of a dud.

18jennybhatt
huhtikuu 2, 2013, 5:45 pm

>16 barney67: - Great list.

I've loved all of Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations. The entire musical score of Henry V, particularly, was quite amazing too.

Seen most of Mamet's stuff too - on stage and at the movies. A lot of them tend to adapt well to movies. There's a revival of Glengarry Glen Ross in the works or already on Broadway, I think. This time, Al Pacino is playing one of the older characters while Bobby Cannavale (of Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire) plays the younger Ricky Roma. I'd like to go see that sometime..... Cannavale was on NPR's Fresh Air talking about it a month or so ago.