Television in the Eighties saw a shift in tone occur in police procedurals and investigation series.  While individual series had their darker moments and character focus, the trend wasn’t picked up by competing shows.  Two series did lay the groundwork, though.  Hawaii Five-O, 1968-1980, showed that a police procedural can get involved in a longer plot, specifically, McGarrett’s quest to bring down Wo Fat.  The Rockford Files, 1974-1980, had a balance between Jim Rockford’s work and home life and included the conflicts between the two.  From that start, shows like Magnum, P.I., 1980-1988, The A-Team, 1983-1987, and Miami Vice, 1984-1990, expanded what stories could be told.  Magnum started as a detective series, but, as the seasons progressed, delved deeper into the title character’s background in Naval Intelligence during the Viet Nam War.  The A-Team started as light action-adventure, but had four Viet Nam vets and later got into how that war had changed them.  Miami Vice grew beyond the concept of “MTV Cops”* and, again, went into the relationships between the characters.  Vice also provided a stylized approach to violence, using music to set the mood of the scene.

In 1985, a new drama debuted on CBS.  The Equalizer, starring Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, combined elements from three different genres – espionage, detective, and vigilante.  McCall, a former agent with “The Company”**, advertised his services in the classified ads section of the newspaper; “Got a problem?  Odds against you?  Call the Equalizer.”  Each week, McCall would use his unique skill set to deal with problems that law wouldn’t or couldn’t be involved in.  The Equalizer’s background was never stated outright, though as the series progressed, McCall’s past returned to haunt him.  The series’ approach to violence also broke new ground.  Instead of being stylized, as seen in Miami Vice, or over-the-top, as in The A-Team, The Equalizer saw violence that was intense and personal to a degree that hadn’t been seen on television before.

Part of the change in how violence was portrayed came from a looser hold on what was allowed on television.  The Eighties saw cable television expand, with new channels available for a low, low cost.  Premium channels cost more, but added to the variety available.  With specialty channels catering to specific interests, such as MTV showing music videos and only music videos, viewers weren’t limited to watching what the major networks aired.  Prior to cable, ABC, CBS, and NBC all set their programming to maximize audience size.  Controversy would drive away part of the potential viewers to the competition, so programming was aimed at the lowest common denominator.  The advent of cable meant that the networks had to lure viewers back.  Old staples fell away as the Big Three revamped their lineups.  Since they couldn’t use some elements that cable channels had available, such as gratuitous nudity, the networks had to get creative in other areas.  Thus, Miami Vice‘s marriage of police drama and music video and The Equalizer‘s use of intense, personal, and implied violence.  The show may not have shown much, but it allowed the viewers’ imagination to fill in the gaps.

The Equalizer ran until 1989.  Edward Woodward suffered a heart attack in 1987, forcing him to reduce his workload as he recovered.  The show won an Edgar Award for Best Television Episode Teleplay in 1987 for the “The Cup”, where McCall helps Mickey Kostmeyer, his assistant through the series, protect his brother, a priest who had heard a confession about an assassination by a KGB agent.

In 2014, Denzel Washington starred in a remake movie, also called The Equalizer.  Washington plays Robert McCall, who appears to have an unremarkable life, spending time at night at a 24-hour diner and working at a hardware store during the day.  A widower, he spends his free time reading the 100 books that everyone should read, since his late wife had been doing the same, passing away before she could finish the last three books on the list.  At the diner, he befriends a young Russian woman, Adena, played by Chloë Grace Moritz, who works as a prostitute.  She shares her dreams with McCall, who tells her that all she needs to do is change her world.  McCall also has friends at work, including Ralphie, played by Johnny Skourtis, a clerk who wants to become a security guard at the store with McCall’s help.  Some of his co-workers wonder what he did before, believing he may have worked in finance.  McCall says that he was a Pip, as in Gladys Knight and the Pips.

When Adena’s pimps put her in the hospital, McCall discovers where there office is and pays them a visit.  He offers $9800 in cash to buy Adena’s freedom.  The Russian mobsters just laugh at him.  McCall starts to leave, then locks the office’s entrance.  The next thirty seconds sees McCall demonstrating why the enforcers should have taken the money.  The five mobsters are killed, with the lead enforcer shot in the neck and able to watch the action before he dies.

Viewers who aren’t familiar with the original series may suspect that McCall is far more than he appears.  An older gentleman who works at a hardware store, spends his free time reading classic novels, and lives in a small apartment should not have $9800 in cash, nor should he understand Russian, nor should he be able to kill five Russian mobster half his age.  Yet, McCall did.  Not much later, there’s an armed robbery at the hardware store.  McCall approaches the cash where the robbery is happening, aware of what’s going on.  He notes a few details of the thief, including the skull head on the robber’s hoodie zipper, similar to the skulls in the mobsters’ office, and the gang tattoos.  When the robber demands the cashier’s ring, one that belonged to her late mother, McCall appears ready to take action but is stopped when he sees a family with young children enter.  Instead, he has the cashier give over her ring, then follows the thief to get the license plate of his car.  The scene ends with McCall picking up a sledgehammer from the racks.  The next day, the cashier opens her drawer and sees her mother’s ring.  McCall is then seen wiping down a sledgehammer before returning it to the rack.

The Russian mob isn’t happy with the loss of their gangsters.  The five men killed weren’t just pimps; they were senior members of the mob’s organization in Boston.  Vladimir Pushkin, played by Vladimir Kulich, the head of the gang, sends an investigator, Teddy, played by Marton Csokas, an ex-Spetsnaz soldier who’s capability for violence isn’t tempered by civility.  Teddy is a blunt instrument, who doesn’t care about anything except finding the men who killed the senior gangsters.  His investigation leads him to McCall, who appears to be a plain American.  Teddy’s instincts, though, tell him that everything about McCall is wrong.

Pushkin’s mob has its fingers in many pies, including protection rackets and police corruption.  That combination is why Ralphie leaves the hardware store despite his hard work to qualify for the guard exams; his mother’s restaurant was burned down after she was unable to pay a pair of corrupt cops.  McCall tracks Ralphie down to find out why he left so suddenly and notices the scorch marks at the restaurant.  He finds the corrupt cops, records them on their rounds, and forces them to return the money extorted.

After another confrontation with Teddy, McCall gets photos of the enforcer and takes them to friends who are also former agents.  The friends pass along all the information they have on Teddy, including his real name and his background.  McCall takes the information and starts a one-man war against the Russian mob.  His first stop is with one of the corrupt cops, Frank Masters, played by David Harbour.  McCall forces Masters to take him to Pushkin’s money laundering operation, which he then shuts down, paying the Chinese women sorting and bagging the money before they leave then calling in the FBI.  Masters gives up his escape plans to McCall, which include a USB memory stick filled with who was being paid off by the mob and for how much.  The FBI receives a copy of the data through an anonymous tip.  The second stop for McCall is to destroy one of Pushkin’s ships filled with valuable cargo, along with the pumping station used to fill the tanker.

With the hit to the mob’s income, Pushkin gets insistant that the man responsible be found and killed.  Teddy brings in his own people, but loses one before they can even get started.  McCall meets with Teddy, bringing the broken glasses of the Russian’s own man with him.  The point of the conversation is to give Teddy and the mob the choice of shutting down operations and leaving peacefully.  Teddy scoffs and refuses.  McCall shrugs and walks away.

Teddy has done his homework, finding where McCall works.  He has men take the store employees hostage during closing then calls McCall.  McCall now has a choice; show up in twenty-nine minutes at Teddy’s location or his friends and co-workers will be killed in thirty.  Teddy tracks McCall’s movement by using the GPS on the the American’s phone.  The bus the signal is on approaches the Russian’s location.  Teddy has a sniper ready to shoot McCall on the bus, except the bus is empty.  Teddy was tracking the phone, but the phone rode alone.

McCall, instead, is at the hardware store.  The Russians have the employees in a back room.  Teddy gives the order to kill one, but Gladys Knight and the Pips starts playing over the store’s intercom.  One of the mobsters forces Ralphie to take him to the security office.  McCall is ready and kills the mobster.  In the back room, the radio crackles and a Russian voice asks for assistance.  The other mobster is dealt with as quickly as the first.  McCall tells Ralphie to get the employees out the back, then gets ready for Teddy’s arrival.

Teddy arrives at the store.  The lights all go out as soon as he and his men are inside, the main doors locking.  Teddy and his men are armed, but McCall not only has had time to prepare but knows the layout of the store far better.  McCall sets out traps, waiting for one of the Russians to come by before triggering them.  Soon, it’s just McCall and Teddy, with Ralphie back to assist.

There were a few changes made between the original TV series and the movie.  The location moved from New York City to Boston, though that change was to take advantage of not just shooting locations but the difference in organized crime in the cities.  New York City is known for the Mafia, the Five Families with ties to Italy.  Boston, however, is more diverse, with Italian, Irish, and Russian mobs.  As well, Washington’s McCall is far more integrated with his community.  Woodward’s McCall was the outsider who lived in New York but wasn’t a part of day-to-day life.  This McCall would be called in to solve a problem.  Washington’s McCall was a part of the community, helping friends and co-workers with problems, from getting Ralphie ready to qualify as a security guard to retrieving a co-worker’s special ring.  This McCall, like Woodward’s, may have been atoning, but the approach was different.  The core of the character, though, was there.  A former agent with a skill set that could be used to help those who needed it, and a willingness to get involved.

The movie showed more violence than the TV series did, though that is more from movies having far more leeway, depending on rating, to depict violent acts than television.  The tone remained, though, and not all violence was shown.  Much more was implied.  The armed robber never re-appeared after fleeing the crime scene; all the audience sees is McCall picking up a sledgehammer, the ring in the cashier’s register, and McCall wiping the sledgehammer down before returning it to the racks.  Credit for maintaining the feel of the TV series goes to Antoine Fuqua, the director.  Fuqua, who broke into movies with The Replacement Killers and worked with Denzel Washington on Training Day, maintained the mix of everyday life and McCall’s past, using the contrast to heighten the mood.  The theatrical remake of The Equalizer keeps the tone of the original series while taking advantage of being a movie and modern technology.  The Robert McCall of both is easily recognizable, though each version is its own take on the character.

Of note, the movie performed well enough at the box office that Sony has announced a sequel, provided that Fuqua and Washington both have the time in their schedules that mesh with each other.

Next week, the April news round-up.

* Brandon Tartikoff, head of NBC Entertainment, had used the term, “MTV Cops”, wanting a show that included the visual style of a music video, but that concept did not turn into /Miami Vice/. [http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2014/08/06/tv-legends-revealed-did-miami-vice-really-begin-as-mtv-cops/]
** The series never specified which intelligence agency and just called it “The Company”, though the implications were that it was the CIA.

Sorry folks, but that last Tumblr update the company made?  Looks like it crashed the system I use to make updates to the site with generated results – after trying several troubleshooting steps I ended up opening a support ticket.

Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.musehack.com/
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

The History of Adaptations
Thirties
Forties

It’s time to step back a bit with the history of adaptations.  To prepare for what’s coming up during the Fifties, I need to cover the early years of the film industry.  I’m still using the compiled list at Filmsite.org as a base.  By using what was popular, I hope that the movie titles and the actors are familiar to readers to give an idea of how beloved films came about.

I delayed looking at the early years mainly because of the age of the works.  I was expecting the era to be mainly adaptations of works long forgotten.  I was also expecting works that were lost to the ages, through neglect, disaster, or other means.  Several of the works below have been lost, with only production and marketing stills the only remains.  Others, though, have been preserved and enshrined.

The early years of the movie industry didn’t have anything like the MPAA or the Hays Code to limit or even censor content.  Censoring was done at the local level, by concerned citizens.  Movies could be and were as steamy as they wanted.  However, local censors could remove scenes that they felt were offensive to moral standing.

The Great War, as World War I was known prior to 1939, began in 1914.  The war began with the armies using tactics from open ground charges as seen even in the American Civil War to trench warfare, due to the weapons used being far more lethal than in previous conflicts.  Artillery and the machine gun changed how infantry was used, and the introduction of airplanes further evolved tactics.  The War resulted in over 16 million dead and 20 million wounded by the time it ended in 1918.

Prohibition took effect in the United States in January of 1920 with the certification of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919.  The Amendment made illegal the production, transport, and sale of alcohol, though, if one could somehow obtain it without violating the law, private consumption and possession was not prohibited.  To assist in enforcing Prohibition, the Volstead Act was also passed, with both the House of Representatives and the Senate overriding President Woodrow Wilson’s veto.  The Act prohibited intoxicating beverages, defined as over 0.5% alcohol by volume; regulated the making, selling, and transporting of intoxicating liquor; and ensured there was a supply of alcohol for use in scientific research and for religious rituals.  The Twenty-First Amendment, certified in December of 1933, repealed the Eighteenth while still prohibiting the transport of alcohol across state lines when that transport was in violation of state laws.*  Moves became a legal form of entertainment, one where audiences didn’t have to worry about money getting into the hands of criminals.

The Nineteenth Amendment fared better.  The Nineteenth gave women the right to vote in August of 1920.  With the right to vote and the dawning of the Jazz Era, the flapper was born.  Women could have a greater influence on their communities, and young women were eager to take the opportunity available.  The Roaring Twenties saw an exuberance until it ended with the stock market crash of 1929, heralding the Great Depression of the Thirties.

Movie technology was in its infancy.  Most of the films listed are silent movies, unless otherwise noted.  The advent of sound was huge.  Early films needed someone in the theatre to play the music.  As sound recording developed, the musician was replaced by a separate recording that needed to be synchronized with the film.  The Jazz Singer, as discussed below, represents a huge leap in audio.  Colour was also slowly coming about.  Technicolor**, invented in 1916, used a red-green additive process in the early years, but costs could be prohibitive.

The era had a mix of styles as directors experimented to see what worked and what didn’t.  Epics, comedies, dramas, the early years had them all.  The list below is lengthy, but covers fifteen years instead of the usual ten.  Accounting procedures would have had to account for releases moving from city to city instead of a release across the country on the same day.

1915
The Birth of a Nation – adapted from the novel and play The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr.  This was director D.W. Griffith’s movie about the birth of the Ku Klux Klan and left controversy in its wake.

1916
Intolerance – original.  D.W. Griffith made this movie in response to the reaction to the The Birth of a Nation, showing the dangers of prejudice.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – adapted from the novel by Jules Verne.

1917
Cleopatra – adapted from several sources; H. Rider Haggard’s novel Cleopatra, Émile Moreau’s play Cleopatre, and William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra.  Starred Theda Bara as eponymous ruler and Fritz Leiber, the science fiction author‘s father, as Caesar.  Cleopatra has been lost to the ages after two fires destroyed the only full prints in existence, leaving only production stills and fragments of the original film.  Bara’s costuming, what there was of it, was considered scandalous at the time and could still be considered risqué today.

1918
Mickey – original.  Starred Mabel Normand as the titular tomboy and was produced through her film company.

1919
The Miracle Man – an adaptation of an adaptation, Frank L. Packard’s novel via the 1914 George M. Cohan play, both of the same name.  Another lost movie, it starred Lon Chaney.

1920
Way Down East – adapted from the play Way Down East by Lottie Blair Parker.  Another D.W. Griffith film, it starred Lillian Gish.  The climax has Gish running across an icy river, a scene more famous than the rest of the movie.
Over the Hill to the Poorhouse – adapted from the 1872 poem “Over the Hill to the Poorhouse” by Will Carleton, thus showing that the film industry will adapt other media.
Something to Think About – original.  Cecil B. DeMille directed the film that Jeanie Macpherson scripted.  The two will combine efforts for several more movies.  Gloria Swanson starred.

1921
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – adapted from Vicente Blasco Ibañez’s novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  Set during the Great War, the film established Rudolf Valentino as the Latin Lover despite being a supporting role.
The Kid – original.  Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film.  His co-star was Jackie Coogan, better known today as Uncle Fester from the black and white Addams Family TV series.

1922
Robin Hood – adapted from the legend of the roguish outlaw.  Douglas Fairbanks starred as Robin with Alan Hale co-starring as Little John.  Hale would reprise the role with Errol Flynn in 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood and with John Derek in 1950’s Rogues of Sherwood Forest.  Robin Hood was the first movie to have a Hollywood premiere.
Oliver Twist – adapted from the Charles Dickens novel.  The movie had Lon Chaney as Fagin and Jackie Coogan as Oliver.

1923
The Ten Commandments – adapted from the Bible.  Cecil B. DeMille directed and Jeanie Macpherson wrote the script.  DeMille would go on to do a partial remake of the film in 1956.
The Covered Wagon – adapted from Covered Wagon, a novel by Emerson Hough.  Alan Hale played Sam Woodhull, the film’s villain.  The movie was dedicated to the memory of Theodore Roosevelt.

1924
The Sea Hawk – adapted from the novel of same name by Rafael Sabatini.  The 1940 Errol Flynn movie was originally going to be another adaptation of the book, but went a different direction, using Sir Francis Drake as an inspiration.

1925
The Big Parade – adapted from two sources; Joseph Farnham’s play of same name and Laurence Stallings’ autobiography Plumes.  The movie was directed by King Vidor and was set in the Great War.  It is considered the first realistic war drama.
Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ – adapted from the 1880 novel of same name by Lew Wallace.  William Wyler, the assistant director, would remake the movie in 1950, including a shot-for-shot reproduction of the chariot race.  The chariot race itself is influential, as can be seen in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace with the pod-race.
The Gold Rush – original.  Charlie Chaplin starred as the Tramp, and also was the writer, director, and producer.

1926
Aloma of the South Seas – adapted from the 1925 play of same name by John B. Hymer and LeRoy Clemems.  The movie would be remade in 1941 with the same name, starring Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall.  Once again, the movie is considered to be lost, with no prints known to have survived.
Flesh and the Devil – adapted from Hermann Sudermann’s play The Undying Pass.  Greta Garbo stars with John Gilbert.
For Heaven’s Sake – original.  A Harold Lloyd action-comedy.  Lloyd alternated between character pieces and action/comedy to keep audiences coming out to see his works.
What Price Glory? – adapted from the 1924 play of same name by Maxwell Anderson and Lawrence Stallings.  The movie was remade in 1952 as What Price Glory with James Cagney.

1927
Wings – original.  Set during the Great War, it starred Clara Bow and saw Gary Cooper in a role as a doomed cadet.  Wings was the first film to win an Academy Award.  With The Big Parade and What Price Glory?, both above, showing that audiences wanted to see war movies, Paramount played Follow-the-Leader.  The studio hired director William A. Wellman because he had experience in airplane combat in the War.
The Jazz Singer – adapted from the the play The Jazz Singer by Samson Raphaelson, which was based on his short story “The Day of Atonement”.  The Jazz Singer was the first feature length talkie, at least partially.  There was still some synchronization of film and audio recording, but Al Jolson’s singing was integrated with the playback.
Love – a very loose adaptation of /Anna Karenina/ by Leo Tolstory.  The movie took advantage of the film chemistry between Greta Garbo and John Gilbert as seen in Flesh and .the Devil, above.

1928
The Singing Fool – original.  This was Al Jolson’s follow up to The Jazz Singer.  Still only part-talkie, but that was the music, which audiences were coming out to hear.
The Road to Ruin – original.  The movie was an exploitation film that warned against the dangers of alcohol and sex.  Helen Foster stars as the unlucky teenaged girl who drinks during Prohibition and sees men.  The movie was remade in 1934 with sound with Foster in the same role despite being 27 at the time and six years older than the actor portraying her boyfriend.  Since alcohol was legal in 1934, it was replaced by drugs in the remake.

1929
The Broadway Melody – original.  It was a musical that took advantage of the new sound technology.  Also had a Technicolor sequence, influencing a trend of musicals using colour.  The Broadway Melody was the first all-talking musical, unlike Jolson’s movies above which were only partially talkies.  The film won the Academy Award for Outstanding Picture (now called Best Picture).  Three sequels were made, The Broadway Melody of 1936, The Broadway Melody of 1938, and The Broadway Melody of 1940.  The movies was also remade in 1940 as Two Girls on Broadway.
Sunnyside Up – original.  Once sound technology became easier to use, musicals, such as Sunnyside Up flourished.

Of the 29 films listed above, 18 are adaptations with the remaining 11 being original works.  Of the adaptations, two, The Miracle Man and The Jazz Singer, were second generation adaptations, having adapted material that itself was an adaptation.  Two more, Cleopatra and The Big Parade, used multiple sources, with Cleopatra pulling from three different original works and, ultimately, the life of the Egyptian queen herself.  Six movies, two of them original works, would get remade; Robin Hood in 1940, The Ten Commandments in 1956, Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ in 1959, What Price Glory? in 1952, the The Road to Ruin in 1934, and The Broadway Melody in 1940.  The remakes of The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ will appear in the discussion for the Fifties; the movies were popular in two eras.

With the advent of sound in 1927, especially after The Jazz Singer, musicals became popular.  Three of the four movies listed after 1927 are musicals, and they are all original works.  Prior to 1928, nine movies, or half of the adaptations, were based on stage plays.  Eleven were based on novels, including the movies with multiple sources, such as Cleopatra, and adaptations of adaptations.  The Bible, a short story (itself adapted as a play before becoming a film), and a poem account for the remaining adaptations.  Plays were an expected source; they’re already written and have had performances on stage.  Novels, especially the older ones like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ, have a good chance of being read by a portion of the audience.  The unexpected source was the poem.  Over the Hill to the Poorhouse may be unique in this series by being based on a poem.

Colour film processes were still being developed in this era.  As mentioned above, Technicolor was pioneering an additive colour process, but it required a camera the split the light into a red and a blue-green stream, landing on separate film.  Hand colouring was also done, but was time-consuming.  Black and white was easier and cheaper; most theatres only had equipment that could only handle silent black and white films.  As seen in the Thirties, though, once colour is introduced, black and white fades away, only returning as an artistic choice***.

Popular movies of the early years of film tended to be adaptations.  The main reason is that the years were transitional.  Everyone involved was still learning the differences between film, where the camera could move around, and stage, where the audience was the fourth wall.  There were still people willing to play with the new medium.  Charlie Chaplin’s entries above show him in the four key areas, writing, directing, producing, and starring.  The ratio of adaptations to originals is similar to those found for the Thirties and Forties.  This ratio, roughly 2:1, won’t change for a few decades; the direction it does change in may be surprising.

* Any resemblance between Prohibition and the War on Drugs is from people not learning from history.  Prohibition was killing a wasp with a wrecking ball.  The result of the War on Booze was a massive influx of cash to organized crime, since they were the ones supplying illegal alcohol, and a loss of respect for the law.  Al Capone could make far more in one day than any fine under the Volstead Act, and the agents working for the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Prohibition could be easily bribed to look the other way.
** Technically, Technicolor is a trademark for the colour processes pioneered by the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, now a division of owned by Technicolor SA.
*** Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is a perfect example of the use of black and white filming as an artistic expression.

Continuing from last week’s discussion on adaptations surpassing their originals. it’s time to look at a specific example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The original Buffy hit theatres in the summer of 1992.  Kristy Swanson played the titular character, with Donald Sutherland playing her Watcher, Merrick.  The film was marketed as an action/comedy/horror movie, taking the elements of the typical slasher flick and flipping them around.  Thus, the blonde cheerleader who would normally be one of the first victims of the slasher becomes the heroine, with her love interest, Oliver Pike as played by Luke Perry, becoming the dude in distress.

Los Angeles is in danger from a cabal of vampires led by Lothos, played by Rutger Hauer.  One girl can save the city.  Too bad she doesn’t know she’s LA’s only hope.  Buffy Summers is a high school senior and a cheerleader, looking forward to her hobbies of shopping and her boyfriend, Jeffrey.  Naturally, at Buffy’s school, there’s a schism between the popular and the outcasts, where Oliver and Benny (David Arquette) fall.  Fortunately for LA, Merrick is searching for the new Slayer.  The Chosen One, Buffy, isn’t as impressed, but her new abilities start manifesting.  In addition, Merrick describes a dream that Buffy keeps having.  She begins training under Merrick’s tutelage.

Oliver and Benny are the first of the school to run into the vampires.  Merrick arrives too late to prevent Benny being turned into a vampire, but does rescue Oliver.  Another of Buffy’s classmates, a girl named Cassandra, played by an uncredited Ricki Lake, is kidnapped by Amilyn, played by Paul Reubans, and sacrificed to the vampire’s master, Lothos, played by Rutget Hauer.  Lothos has killed a number of Slayers in the past and has set his sights on Buffy.  An encounter in the woods has Amilyn and his gang of vampires fight Buffy, Merrick, and Oliver, leading to Amilyn losing an arm and Buffy and Oliver getting closer.

Later, at a school basketball game, Oliver recognizes a classmate who has become a vampire.  Buffy chases the the vampire and runs into Lothos himself.  Lothos hypnotizes Buffy, but Merrick arrives in time to prevent anything further.  Merrick is staked himself by Lothos, and dies.  The Watcher gives Buffy one last bit of advice, to do things her way, not the old ways.

Shaken, Buffy tries to return to her old life.  At school, though, her friends have turned on her, making her an outcast.  Buffy realizes that her priorities have changed while her old friends are still fixated on shopping and the upcoming senior dance.  Even her boyfriend, Jeffrey, has found a new girlfriend.  Oliver, though, stays by her, understanding what Buffy is going through.

The senior dance is for seniors only.  As per tradition, vampires cannot enter a building unless invited.  The vampire army built by Lothos and Amilyn, though, consist of high school seniors, and each of them received a formal invitation to the dance.  Buffy arrives in time to fight the vampires inside and outside.  Oliver takes on his old friend, Benny, while Buffy first stabs Amilyn then goes after Lothos.  Once again, Lothos tries to hypnotize her, but Buffy is ready with a cross and a can of hairspray.  By using her keen fashion sense, Buffy defeats Lothos.

As mentioned, one aspect of the film was comedy.  The movie was light entertainment, a summer popcorn movie that was common before the Blockbuster Era we currently have.  Buffy was moderately popular but not a major hit.  Joss Whedon wrote the screenplay for the movie, though there may have been some meddling by executives to get popcorn fare.

Five years later, Joss Whedon returns to the character with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series.  The pilot for the series was once meant for a potential sequel to the original film, but as the show continued, the link between the movie and TV series became nebulous.  Ideas from the film appeared, but reworked to fit the new show.

The TV Buffy, with Sarah Michelle Gellar taking over the lead role, kept the horror and the comedy, but became far more darker and tense.  The show first aired on the WB, owned by Warner Bros, and was a breakout hit for the fledgling network.  In 2001, Buffy moved over to UPN, a Paramount owned network.  Despite being on smaller networks, the show gained a following.

In the pilot, Buffy Anne Summers and her mother move to Sunnydale after an incident that resulted in the burning down of the gym at Buffy’s previous school.  Buffy is hoping to be a normal girl, despite being the Slayer.  All those hopes are dashed when Rupert Giles, played by Anthony Stewart Head, appears as her new Watcher.  Sunnydale High sits on top of a Hellmouth and Buffy’s abilities are needed to prevent Hell from boiling out.  Being the newcomer, Buffy starts out as an outcast in the school.  She meets Xander Harris, played by Nicholas Brendan, and Willow Rosenberg, played by Alison Hannigan, who befriend her through common experience of being outsiders.  Cordelia Chase, one of the popular crowd and a cheerleader to boot, represents what Buffy could have been.  Cordelia eventually joins in with Buffy and her friends in fighting the evil lurking in Sunnydale.

Through the series, the cast grows, emotionally and numerically.  Seth Green, who had an uncredited role as a vampire in the original Buffy, joins the cast as Oz, Willow’s boyfriend.  David Boreanaz joins as Angel, a vampire who becomes romantically linked with Buffy.  After Buffy is clinically dead but revived, a new Slayer, Kendra, played by Bianca Lawson, arrives.  Unlike Buffy, Kendra was raised by the Watchers, and the difference between the two Slayers is evident.  Kendra lacks Buffy’s ability to improvise, leading to her death and the activation of Faith, played by Eliza Dushku.  Again, the difference between Buffy and Faith is evident.  Faith didn’t have the support system Buffy did with her friends.

Each season carried a theme.  The first season, set mainly in and around Sunnydale High, showed that high school was hell.  By the time Buffy graduates in season three, she had prevented several apocalypses, saved the student body more times than they could count, and befriended many others.  Season two shows how Buffy’s approach, while not always successful, had advantages over a strict teaching.  The season also had Buffy fall in love with the wrong man, Angel.  Angel was under a Gypsy curse; if he ever achieved happiness, the Angelus personality within would be released, causing untold tragedy.  Season three shows the difference between the relationship Buffy has with Giles, the relationship the Council of Watchers would impose on Slayers, and the relationship Faith had with the Mayor, who was using the girl for his nefarious purposes.  Season four was about change, with Buffy and Willow heading to university, Xander getting a job, Oz leaving because he’s a danger as a werewolf, and Cordelia leaving for LA with Angel for a spin-off series*.

The series became known for its writing, taking chances that wouldn’t normally be seen on the regular networks.  “Hush”, a fourth season episode, took a show known for its snappy dialogue and made everyone mute, unable to speak, and was successful.  “Once More, with Feeling”, from season six, was an all-musical episode, making /Buffy/ the second show to try that, the first being Xena, Warrior Princess.

How does the TV series stack against the original?  The series built on top of ideas presented in the movie and gives them more time to develop.  The implications of the Buffy-verse is shown to viewers.  The result is a TV series that has more than its fair share of academic papers written about it, with over two hundred produced about various aspects of the show, from dialogue to characterizations to the metaphors of humanity used as the base of many episodes.  The Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series has had comics, including Seasons 8 through 10, and games, including Eden Studio’s role-playing game of the same name.  The TV series has far surpassed its original.

Next week, continuing the history of adaptations with the early years of the film industry.

* Angel, naturally enough.  Set in LA, Angel was the head of a small private invesitgation company, specializing in the unusual.

Throughout this series, I’ve focused on comparing adaptations to originals and seeing where the differences were and why they came about.  What I haven’t touched on is how an adaptation or remake can become better known than the original.  There are works where people are unaware of the originals, or prefer the new version over the old.

Last week’s Frankenstein is a perfect example.  Boris Karloff’s portrayal of the Monster made the character sympathetic and was the focus of the movie.  Mary Shelley’s original novel, Frankenstein, or a Modern Prometheus, had Frankenstein’s homunculus appear just once, behaving as a fully grown man; the rest of the novel focused on Victor Frankenstein and his travels as he first fled then pursued his creation.  Karloff’s Monster was embraced early because of his child-like behaviour and has become part of the pop culture consciousness to the point where people who have never seen the movie will recognize the character.

Recent works can also have the same effect.  Far more people are aware of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series than the original movie, and those who have seen both tend to prefer the show.  With Buffy, the advantage of a longer format like a TV series gave the adaptation an edge; not only did Buffy and her Watcher get fleshed out to a greater degree, the Slayer also got a supporting cast who also had depth.  The movie focused on Buffy’s mission, not her, and worked as a parody of slasher movies.  The TV series moved the focus to Buffy and her friends and brought in the horror element.

Longer formats don’t necessarily result in being the more popular.  Little Orphan Annie is a good example.  Starting in 1924, Little Orphan Annie was a long running comic strip, ending in 2010.  The strip spawned a radio show in 1930, movies in 1932 and 1938, and a Broadway musical in 1977.  The musical led to the 1982 movie, Annie, which is now the definitive version for audiences.  Since 1982, all movie adaptations have used Annie as the base, including a 1999 Disney TV movie and the 2014 remake with Quvenzhné Wallis and Jamie Foxx.

Audience reception is the key factor.  Sometimes, it’s a matter of sheer numbers, as with Buffy and Annie above.  More people saw the remakes than the original, even with Little Orphan Annie being a syndicated comic strip.  Both also offered a fresh look at the original concepts, with Buffy being what Joss Whedon wanted the movie to be.  The Karloff Frankenstein was one of the top movies of the 1930s and led to a number of sequels and related films to the point where high school English students are confused on reading Shelley’s novel about Frankenstein’s monster.

The Wizard of Oz, from 1939, is a good example.  Again, one of the top grossing films of the 1930s, the movie was loosely based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  Prior to 1939, Baum’s book was adapted as a Broadway play in 1902, silent films in 1910 and 1925, and an animated short in 1933, plus the sequels resulting from each of those.  The 1910 film was done by Baum through his own production company.  However, the 1939 film, with its creative use of Technicolor and memorable songs, remains the version that later remakes use, including The Wiz with Janet Jackson and Muppets Wizard of Oz.  The audience sees the Judy Garland movie as being the core work; the story from the 1939 work is the best known.

This is the problem that Warner Bros. and DC Comics is having with Superman movie adaptations.  There have been a number of adaptations of the character, from radio to serials to television to movies.  Superman is the best known superhero.  With all the adaptations around, though, the definitive portrayal comes from the 1978 Superman, where Christopher Reeve showed how a pair of glasses could convince people that Clark Kent and Superman were not the same person.  Superman Returns built itself up from the 1978 film, trying to combine a more serious tone with the comic book sensibility of the Reeve movie, to mixed results.  The subsequent movie, Man of Steel, retold Superman’s origin as part of the plot as a means to separate itself from /Superman/, again, to mixed results.  Meanwhile, the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Smallville had their own approaches to the movie.  Lois & Clark treated it as background, allowing Dean Cain to build up Clark Kent as a character.  Smallville focused on a young Clark as he grew up in Smallville, learning about himself and leading towards being the Reeve character.

Not all works have this effect.  While the 1966 Batman TV series did have lingering effects on audiences, the comic was already heading towards the Dark Knight aspect of the character.  When Tim Burton’s Batman came out in 1989, he mixed both versions together, resulting in Michael Keaton as a darker Batman than the general audience remembered but satisfying comic fans while still having the Joker be whimsical despite being a killer.  With the release of Batman Begins in 2005, audiences were ready for the darker Batman.  Yet, the portrayals by Adam West, Michael Keaton, and Christian Bale are all Batman.  A Batman for all seasons*.

A work doesn’t have to be obscure to be surpassed, as Superman shows.  What an adaptation needs to do is add the little details that will lodge in the audience’s mind.  It can be as simple as a portrayal, like Karloff’s Monster as child-like or Reeve’s physical change from Clark Kent to Superman through posture and confidence.  The adaptation can go into depths that the original didn’t or couldn’t, as seen with the Buffy TV series.  Will an adaptation today ever be considered the definitive version?  Hard to tell, especially with studios using highly popular works, but it is possible.

* To cut a long discussion short, I’m ignoring the impact of Kevin Conroy’s performance in Batman: The Animated Series, which could be the definitive version of the character, and Will Arnett’s portrayal of Batman in The LEGO Movie.  Suffice to say, there’s a Batman for everyone.

One of the most sympathetic monsters in cinematic history came from a rainy Swiss vacation.  While stuck inside due to the rain, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, her husband Percy Bysshe Shelly, and George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron, decided to have a writing contest.  Percy and Lord Byron were already known as poets.  Mary would write the first science fiction novel, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.  Frankenstein was a Gothic horror, invoking a feel as the novel told of Victor Frankenstein’s life, including his endeavor to create life and the fallout from his success.

The novel is told through letters from a ship captain to his sister after he is trapped in the ice of the north Atlantic Ocean.  Captain Walton rescues a forlorn man who is also trapped and learns of his tale.  Victor Frankenstein, the rescued man, tells a story of warning, of trying to reach too far beyond.  Frankenstein wanted to learn the secret of life.  He studied under Professor Waldman, learning chemistry, biology, anatomy, and physiology, then applied his lessons in creating new life, a new species.  Frankenstein’s creation wasn’t what he wished for.  Instead of appearing healthy and whole, the creation looked like an animated corpse.

Frankenstein abandoned his creation in disgust.  The creature followed.  Everywhere the creation went, people recoiled in fear.  Frankenstein’s creature had one desire, to be happy, and the only way he thought he could achieve that was through his creator.  As Frankenstein travelled to escape his creation, the creature followed and saw that for every man was a woman, for every beast was a mate, except for him.  He demanded of Frankenstein a bride, and when Victor refused, vowed killed his creator’s own bride, Elizabeth.  After the murder, Victor chased his creation, getting trapped in the ice field and leaving Captain Walton’s ship when Walton turned south for home once free.

Frankenstein was almost immediately adapted for the stage, with numerous plays being written within years of publication.  The first film adaptation was made in 1910 by Thomas Edison, a short silent film.  The best known film, though, came from Universal Studios in 1931.  Like several other popular works of the 1930s, Frankenstein was an adaptation of an adaptation, based on the 1927 play by Peggy Webling.  Several new elements were introduced, elements that still appear even in today’s works.

Universal was having money problems, thanks to the Great Depression.  Dracula, with Bela Lugosi, was released earlier 1931 and helped, but the studio was still on the brink.  Frankenstein, thanks to the performance of Boris Karloff as the Monster, became the top film for 1931.  The Monster was a sympathetic character, the victim instead of the villain.

The movie veers off from the novel at the start, with Henry Frankenstein and his henchman, Fritz, spying on a funeral.  Once the body is buried and the gravedigger gone, Frankenstein and Fritz dig the coffin back out, stealing it plus the fresh remains of hanged man before they return to Frankenstein’s lab in a windmill.  The novel never went into detail about how Frankenstein brought his creation to life.  The movie shows the final step, skipping over most of the sewing of the Monster’s body together.  Frankenstein uses the power of lightning and electricity to bring his creation to life, uttering the now famous line, “It’s alive!  It’s alive!” when the Monster moves.

The Monster is portrayed as child-like.  There is joy when he first sees the sun.  There is fear when he sees fire.  The Monster cannot speak and moves awkwardly*.  Fritz torments the Monster with a torch and a whip, and pays the price.  Frankenstein and Dr. Waldman come to the conclusion that the Monster is too dangerous and must be destroyed.  Waldman fills a hypodermic needle with enough sedative to kill a man and plunges it into the Monster.  The Monster falls.  Wanting to see how the Monster was brought to life, Waldman decides to dissect him.  The Monster wakes up during the first incision and kills the doctor, then escapes the mill.  While out, he meets a little girl, Marilyn, who plays with him.  She shows him how she can make daisies float.  The Monster tosses a few daisies into the pond, then tosses Marilyn in.  When she doesn’t float or even come back up, the Monster runs away.

At the Frankenstein manor, Baron Frankenstein hosts the wedding of his son, Henry, to Elizabeth.  Henry feels that something isn’t right.  Waldman is seldom late for anything, yet he hasn’t arrived at the manor.  Killing the Monster didn’t sit well with him; the Monster was tormented by Fritz and reacted.  Out in the courtyard, the festivities die as Marilyn’s father carries her body to the Burgomeister and the Baron.  The villagers are organized into a search party, complete with torches.  Henry Frankenstein takes one group up the mountains, where the mill sits.  He spots the Monster, but his villagers continue past him.  Henry and the Monster fight, and the Monster hauls Frankenstein to the mill.

The villagers hear Henry’s calls for help and reach the mill.  Inside, Henry tries to escape his Monster.  The fight ends up outside on a balcony, with the villagers’ torches lit below.  The Monster picks up Henry and throws him off the balcony.  Henry hits one of the mill’s wind blades before landing on the ground.  The blade slowed his fall; Henry lives and is carried away by several villagers.  The rest leave, setting torch to the mill.  The Monster is trapped inside and is caught under a collapsed beam as the mill burns.

As mentioned above, the movie heads in its own direction, taking names and some ideas from the novel.  Yet, it is this movie, the 1931 Frankenstein, that most people are familiar with.  All the trappings of the mad scientist, from the secret lab to the Jacob’s ladders to the thunderstorm to the minion.  Fritz was never in the novel; Victor Frankenstein worked alone.  In the novel, Frankenstein’s creation moved at “superhuman speed” and spoke with eloquence.  The Monster in the movie lumbered around with awkward movements and could only growl.  The sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, gave the Monster a voice and picked up on an element in the novel, the creature wanting a mate of his own.  The novel gives no name to the creature; Frankenstein calls it “monster” and “creature” and the creature compares itself to Adam.  In the movie, Henry, in a shout of encouragement, says, “Take care, there, Frankenstein,” implying that he sees it as his own child.  The big difference between the novel’s creature and the Monster is maturity; the creation in the novel behaves as a grown man while Karloff imbued a child-like quality to the Monster, making it sympathetic to audiences.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or a Modern Prometheus and the movie, Frankenstein, share a few names and the sense of hubris on the part of Frankenstein, but go off in different directions.  As an adaptation, the movie bears little resemblance to the original.  As a cultural touchstone, Frankenstein and Boris Karloff have had more impact than the original novel.

Next week, a look at adaptations have had a bigger impact than their originals.

* Helped in part by the heavy costume that included a pair of asphalt-layer boots, where each boot weight 13 pounds.

The History of Adaptations
Thirties

Moving on with a look at the history of movie adaptations, this month is a look at the Forties.  I’m still using the compiled list at Filmsite.org as a base.  By using what was popular, I hope that the movie titles are familiar to readers to give an idea of how beloved films came about.  There may still be surprises, like 1930’s Ingagi, which did well but has not been seen since because of controversy surrounding it.

The Forties can be split into two periods.  The first, covering World War II, started in 1939 and ended in 1945.  The beginning of the war also marked the end of the Great Depression as factories stepped up to supply materiel to the forces in Europe and, after 1942, the Pacific.  Even though the US entered the war late, American companies were selling equipment to Allied countries for their war effort.  The result was two-fold.  First, people started to have money again and could afford to go out for a night on the town, even with rationing in effect.  Second, with loved ones overseas fighting, the movies were a way to escape worries.

The second half of the decade, the post-war era, saw soldiers return home and take advantage of various programs to get a career outside the military.  No longer having to build equipment for the war, factories changed gears to produce goods for the civilian market.  With the economy booming, Hollywood was in a good position to provide a reason to go out.  The post-war era also saw a baby boom along with the economic boom.

Movie technology continued to advance.  Colour was still expensive but seeing more use, particularly in animation.  Stock footage from the war was available.  Stereo sound started to get used in theatres.  The popular movies tended to be lighter fare, as seen below.

1940
Pinocchio – Disney’s animatated adaptation of the 1883 children’s book, The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.
Fantasia – an original feature from Disney featuring animation set to classical music.  Fantasia was the first movie recorded in stereo.

1941
Sergeant York – the biography of Alvin York and thus an adaptation, for the purposes of the analysis.

1942
Bambi – another Disney animated adaptation, this time based on Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten.
Mrs. Miniver – original.  The movie spawned a sequel called The Miniver Story in 1950 which had same cast.

1943
For Whom the Bell Tolls – adaptation of the novel by Ernest Hemingway
This Is the Army – adapted from the stage musical.  The movie was used as a morale booster overseas.
A Guy Named Joe – original.  Steven Spielberg would go to remake this film as Always in 1989, changing the backdrop from World War II to aerial firefighting.

1944
Going My Way – original.
Meet Me in St. Louis – a Judy Garland musical that was based on short stories by Sally Benson originally published in The New Yorker.

1945
The Bells of St Mary’s – a sequel to 1944’s Going My Way, above.
Mom and Dad (aka The Family Story in the UK)  – original.  Mom and Dad was a sex hygeine exploitation film about the dangers of premarital sex and the lack of sex education.  Reefer Madness for sex.

1946
Song of the South – a Disney animated adaptation based on the Uncle Remus stories.  Disney has not released the film to home video.
The Best Years of Our Lives – adaptation based on novella /Glory for Me/ by MacKinlay Kantor who served as a war correspondant.
Duel in the Sun – adaptations based on the novel by Niven Busch.  The movies was a Western starring Gregory Peck.

1947
Forever Amber – adaptations based on the novel by Kathleen Winsor.
Unconquered – adaptation based on the Neil Swanson novel.
Welcome Stranger – original.
Road to Rio – the fifth movie in the /Road to …/ series.  The seven movies made in the series were an excuse to have Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour together on screen.

1948
The Red Shoes – adapted from the story by Hans Christian Andersen.
Easter Parade – original musical.
Red River – original.  The movie was a Western starring John Wayne and was based on the first cattle drive on the Chisholm Trail.

1949
Samson and Delilah – adapted from the story in the Bible.

Of the twenty-three movies listed above, eight were originals, two were sequels, and thirteen were adapted from a previous work.  In comparison with the Thirties, the percentage of adaptations to the overall count is about the same.  The question of sequels is now at hand.  For the purposes of analysis, do sequels count as an adaptation or a continuation of a previous film?  Whatever the decision I make now will be followed with the remaining decades.  In general, the amount of time between the original and the sequel will make the difference.  Having the same cast also leads to being a continuation.  With The Bells of St. Mary’s, it appeared a year after Going My Way, thus is a continuation.  Looking at Road to Rio, it’s part of a series that existed solely to have Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour together.  Audiences went to see them, not necessarily the plot.  With that in mind, I’ll place Road to Rio as a continuation and not an adaptation.

Westerns start showing up in the latter half of the decade, beginning their domination of entertainment.  Filming on site is easier, with cameras built that can be taken away from studios.  Bing Crosby is also popular, starring in four of the movies above – Going My Way, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Road to Rio, and Welcome Stranger, along with at least one other movie per year in the decade.  Musicals are still around, and, especially with Crosby, having an actor known for singing allows for songs to be added to the story.

Disney is still using children’s stories and folk tales for its animated features, with three of the four movies being adaptations.  Fantasia went a different route, a number of animated shorts brought together through the use of classical music.  With the other adaptations, the main source is the written word.  Seven movies were based on a novels, novella, or short story.  The remaining three adaptations were based on a Bible story, a stage musical, and a life story.  Compared to the Thirties, the number of stage works dropped considerably.  There aren’t any adaptations of adaptations as there were in the previous decade.  Film is coming into its own as a medium, with its own approaches.  Adaptations were made, but they were direct from a source instead of being filtered through a stage play.

Adaptations still were made, but remakes didn’t reach the levels of popularity the above movies had.  Part of the reason may be the relatively few movies that were released in the Twenties and Thirties; compared to today.  Even Frankenstein went back to the source instead of the earlier adaptation.

Next week, returning to reviews.

The dam broke.  News just keeps flowing, with nothing outside consideration.  Let’s get started on the March news roundup.

Catan TV and movie rights purchased.
Gail Katz, producer of /The Perfect Storm/, has bought the rights to the board game, The Settlers of Catan.  While the purchasing of rights is just the first of many steps to get a movie or TV series made, it’s not a guarentee.  Catan also has the interesting problem of having no set plot.  Instead, players are in competition to settle the land of Catan, but may also trade with each other.  The trading is the source of endless “wood for sheep” jokes amongst the game’s players.

Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar becoming TV series.
Starlin, creator of Guardians of the Galaxy, will also be the executive producer of the TV series.  /Dreadstar/ will follow Vanth Dreadstar, sole surviror of the Milky Way galaxy, as he tries to end an war between two empires.  No casting has been announced.

Fox greenlights Sandman spinoff.
Lucifer, a spinoff of Sandman, has been ordered by Fox.  The original Lucifer had the lord of Hell giving up the title and moving to Earth to run a piano bar while interacting with other religious figures.  The Fox series, though, has Lucifer assisting the Los Angeles police department in solving crimes.

New Alien movie to be directed by Neill Blomkamp.
Blomkamp, who directed /District 9/, has a deal with Fox to film a new /Alien/ movie.  This film is separate from Ridley Scott’s Prometheus 2.  Blomkamp’s movie will be a sequel to Aliens, and will bring back Sigourney Weaver as Ripley.

EL James to write script for 50 Shades sequel.
James, who wrote the 50 Shades trilogy, is exerting ownership and control and will be the scriptwriter for the next movie in the series.  The sequel may be delayed as a result; James has not written a script before and the Valentine’s Day 2016 release date may not be possible.  The sequel also needs a new director; Sam Taylor-Johnson will not be back after numerous fights with James on set during the filming.

MacGuyver may be getting a reboot TV series.
Lee Zlotoff, the creator of the original MacGuyver TV series, is working with the National Academy of Engineers on a crowdsourcing competition to find the next MacGuyver.  The challenge – the new character must be a woman, who doesn’t necessarily need to be named MacGuyver.   The prize is $5000 and working with a Hollywood producer to develop the script.

Netflix to make new Inspector Gadget, Danger Mouse series.
Netflix is becoming the newest source for series.  Besides the Marvel offerings, Netflix will be adding animation to the lineup.  First, Inspector Gadget, a 26-episode reboot of the classic cartoon, will start in March in the US and in other countries later.  A revival of Danger Mouse, will follow.

Not to be outdone, Disney brings back Duck Tales.
Duck Tales, a staple of the late 80s and early 90s, is returning with new episodes on Disney XD in 2017.  The same characters from the original will be in the new show.

The Search for More Money may become a reality.
Mel Brooks has said he wants to make Spaceballs: The Search for More Money.  Nothing is confirmed, but the idea is to have the sequel come out after Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination may be adapted in near future.
Paramount Pictures may be signing a deal the lead the way to a movie adaptation of the novel.  The novel’s been in development hell for twenty years, with Richard Gere and Paul W.S. Anderson being attached to the project.  Talks are still early, though.

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl getting remade.
Taking the titular roles are Grace Helbigg and Dana Hart, both of whom are known through their work on YouTube.  The original Electra Woman and Dyna Girl was a 1976 Sid and Marty Krofft series and starred a pre-Days of Our Lives Deidre Hall.

Adventure Time to become feature film.
Cartoon Networks’ Adventure Time is in development for an animated film.  Chris McKay and Roy Lee, producers of The LEGO Movie and the upcoming The LEGO Batman Movie will produce the film.

John Barrowman to develop project from Heavy Metal.
Barrowman, known for his role of Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who and Torchwood, will produce and star in The 49th Key, a miniseries based on a story by Erika Lewis that just started in the magazine, Heavy Metal, as of issue #273.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM being remade.
MGM will adapt the book by Robert C. O’Brien as a mix of live action and CGI.  Adapted once before by Don Bluth as The Secret of NIHM, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM is about a widowed mouse who gets help from escaped lab rats to save her home and her son.

Valiant Comics bringing their characters to the movies.
DMG Entertainment of Beijing has invested in Valiant Comics and wants to bring the Valiant characters to the silver screen and television.  Valiant has Bloodshot, Shadowman, and Archer and Armstrong already in development.

Live action Akira film delayed again.
The director attached to the project, James Collet-Serra, is taking time for himself after making the movies Non-Stop and Run All Night back-to-back.  The fate of the adaptation is back in the hand of Warner Bros.  The studio has been trying to cut the budget from the initial $180 million estimate down to between $60 and $70 million to offset the fan backlash currently happening.  Warner has had the Akira adaptation in some form of development since 2002.

Sony working on an male-driven Ghostbusters remake.
The male-driven remake/reboot is being developed in parallel with the female-driven version.  Sony is hoping to expand the franchise.  Maybe the best approach for the movies is to borrow from the West End Games Ghostbusters role-playing game and set each movie as a separate Ghostbusters International franchise in different cities.  Ghostbusters Tokyo: The Anime anyone?

Three Days of the Condor becoming a TV series.
The conspiracy thriller of the 70s is being developed for TV by Skydance and David Ellison.  The original movie was itself adapted from the book, Six Days of the Condor, and involved a a CIA operative whose co-workers were murdered as part of a government cover-up.

Archie getting a reboot, new look.
In a possible first for the publisher, Archie Comics is getting a reboot and a new #1.  Mark Waid and Fiona Staples will helm the title and will bring Archie to the 21st Century in appearance without taking away from what makes the character who he is.  The re-imagining comes with Archie’s 75th anniversary and follows such works as AfterLife with Archie and the announced Riverdale TV series.

A third Tron movie is in the works.
A sequel to Tron: Legacy will be directed by Joseph Kosinski, who directed the previous Tron movie.  The movie should follow from events in Legacy.

A popular character is valuable.  They have fans who are interested in seeing more of that character.  If the popular one is a supporting character instead of the star, then the creative staff can take a look at a spin-off.  Spin-offs take the popular character* and place him or her into the starring role.  Examples abound.  Better Call Saul features the popular criminal lawyer from Breaking Bad.  Frasier follows the psychiatrist Frasier Crane in his career as a radio host after the end of Cheers.  I’ve discussed spin-offs before.  They are a mix of adaptation and continuation, which puts them into a grey area for Lost in Translation.  They’re also not new or restricted to just television.  In some cases, the spin-off can become better known than the original work.

One such series of spin-off movies feature the characters of Ma and Pa Kettle, a hard-luck couple living in Cape Flattery, Washington, with their numerous children.  The Kettles first appeared in The Egg and I, the fictionalized memoirs of Betty MacDonald, published in 1945.  The book chronicled MacDonald’s life as a newlywed on a chicken farm that she and her then-husband, Robert, bought.  The popularity of The Egg and I led it to being adapted as a film in 1947 starring Claudette Colbert as Betty and Fred MacMurray as Bob, her husband.  Ma and Pa Kettle also appeared in the film, portrayed by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride.  The Kettles were a contrast to the MacDonalds; where Betty was out of her depth with the older style stove and manual housework, Ma kept her household going despite the number of children, including Pa.  Where Bob, Betty’s husband, was willing to put in a full day just to get his farm started, Pa was content to let things fall to pieces, putting in a minimal effort.  Since The Egg and I was about the MacDonalds and their farm, the focus was on Betty.  Still, Main won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Ma Kettle.

The Kettles – Ma, Pa, and their brood – turned out to be popular.  From 1949 until 1957, seven movies** were made featuring Ma and Pa Kettle, with two more made with just Main after Kilbride retired from acting due to injuries and being typecast.  Each one used a familiar theme – Ma and Pa adjusting to the wider world while the wider world adjusted to them.  The theme works and has appeared throughout entertainment, from Pygmalion to The Addams Family film adaptation.  Ma and Pa are simple folk, used to doing things in their way.  In Ma and Pa Kettle, Pa wins a “house of the future” with such modern conveniences as a television, electric stove, electric washer and dryer, and electricity.  The film covers how the Kettles adjust to the modern devices, from Ma learning how her new kitchen works to Pa having to get up to turn on the radio.

In Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town, Pa wins another contest, this time for a cola company, with the prize being a trip to New York City.  With only two plane tickets available, the Kettles almost have to decline, except a kind gentleman on the run from the law for bank robbery offers to watch the children.  Again, the humour comes from the adjustments both the Kettles and the wider world have to make for each other, with the added fun of the children, barely manageable by Ma, making the bank robber prefer a nice, quiet cell.  The other movies follow the same general format, with the Kettles making their way through trial and error with neither the simple way nor the modern way being touted as the right way.

The Ma & Pa Kettle movies are spin-offs of an adaptation, much like the relationship the TV series Angel has with the movie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  As such, working out the accuracy of the movies compared to the original is difficult.  As a spin-off, the movies kept the core of the characters as portrayed in The Egg and I, a back country husband and wife with too many children and content with their lives.  In both the book and the adaptation, the Kettles were the voice of experience compared to Betty and Bob.  In the Ma & Pa Kettle movies, the Kettles are often out of their depth, much like Betty was at the start of The Egg and I, but with the experience they had, they could get by and thrive despite circumstance, keeping true to their original appearance.

Next week, the March news round up.

* Or, sometimes, an unpopular character.  See also, Joey, the Friends spin-off that lasted two seasons
** The list of Ma & Pa Kettle movies in order of release date:
Ma and Pa Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home, which was Percy Kilbride’s last film role.
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki, the last released film with Kilbride as Pa; it was filmed in 1952 but released in 1955.
The Kettles in the Ozarks, with just Marjorie Main.
The Kettles on Old MacDonald’s Farm, with Parker Fennelly as Pa Kettle.

There has been much said about the number of adaptations being made today.  Most of the top grossing movies this decade have been adaptations.  Studios are risk adverse, wanting guaranteed hits instead of unknown quantities.  There’s even talk of a superhero movie bubble, one due for a collapse.  Problem is, adaptations have always been around.  The 1970s and the 1980s are unusual in having the majority of popular films be original.  This series, The History of Adaptations, will look at the box office hits through the history of film, using the compiled list at Filmsite.org.  There are obvious issues working with a limited list; the main one being missing out on the vast majority of releases.  The goal, though, is to show what was popular.  Follow ups may go into detail of certain years.

Today, the 1930s.  Two major events occured in the Thirties, the Great Depression and World War II.  The Great Depression saw massive unemployment as stock markets crashed.  As a result, Hollywood’s output was pure escapism, alloying people to forget their troubles for the length of a movie.  Studios had to watch their budgets, knowing that the number of people able to afford a night at the movies had dwindled.  Several studios survived solely on the success of one movie; if it had failed, the studio would have folded.  The start of World War II saw the end of the Depression Era as industries switched to a war footing, supplying materiel for the armies in Europe.

1930
Tom Sawyer – adapted from the novel by Mark Twain.  This was not the first film adaptation; Edison Studios made theirs in 1917.
All Quiet on the Western Front – adapted from the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, released the previous year.  The film won the Best Picture Oscar for 1930.
Whoopee! – adapted loosely from the stage play by Florenz Ziegfeld, creator of the Ziegfeld Follies.  Zeigfield had to shut down the run on Broadway because he lost everything in the stock market crash and convinced the studio to fund the adaptation.
Ingagi – original, sort of.  The original “found footage” movie, the producers claimed that the film was a documentary.  The controversy around the film, which implied gorillas kidnapping women for sex, drove people to see it.  Turned out, the found footage was found in other movies, and at least one extra was recognized as an actor.  The movie was pulled from distribution and hasn’t been seen since.  Adding to the colourful history, Ingagi was the inspiration for Gorilla City and Gorilla Grodd at DC Comics.
Hell’s Angels – original.  A Howard Hughes film, Hell’s Angels followed the exploits of pilots in the Great War*.

1931
Frankenstein – adapted from the novel by Mary Shelley.  The Universal film classic, it wasn’t the first adaptation, but was the first with sound.  Boris Karloff starred as the monster, becoming the basis for future film versions of Frankenstein’s monster.
City Lights – original.  In an unusual move during the talkie era, Charlie Chaplin made the film as a silent movie.

1932
The Kid from Spain – original.
The Sign of the Cross – adapted from the 1895 play of the same name by Wilson Barrett.  Cecil B. DeMille directed, hiring Charles Laughton in his first Hollywood role, Nero.
Grand Hotel – adapted by William A. Drake from his play, Grand Hotel, which in turn was based on the book Menschem im Hotel by Vicki Baum.
The Most Dangerous Game – adapted from the short story by Richard Connell.  This is the work where men are hunted by man.
Shanghai Express – adapted from a 1931 story by Harry Hervey, which was based on the taking of the Shanghai-Beijing Express by a warlord.

1933
King Kong – original.  While King Kong has been adapted several times, this was the original.
I’m No Angel – original.  Mae West wrote and starred in the film.
Cavalcade – adapted from the Noel Coward play.  The same play would be the inspiration for the British TV series, Upstairs, Downstairs.
She Done Him Wrong – adapted from the play Diamond Lil by Mae West.  West had the starring role in the film.

1934
It Happened One Night – adapted from the story “Night Bus” by Samuel Hopkins Adams, first published in the August 1933 issue of Cosmopolitan.
The Merry Widow – adapted from the 1901 operetta by Franz Lehár, which itself was based on the 1861 play L’attaché d’ambassade (The Embassy Attaché) by Henri Meilhac.
Viva Villa! – adapted from the book by Edgecumb Pinchon and Odo B. Stade.  The book was very loosely based on the life of Pancho Villa.

1935
Mutiny on the Bounty – adapted from the book by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, which was based on the historical event.  Liberties were taken from the historical records.
Top Hat – original, but inspired by the plays Scandal in Budapest by Sándor Faragó and A Girl Who Dares by Aladar Laszlo.

1936
San Francisco – original.  The movie is set during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

1937
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – adapted from the fairy tale by Walt Disney.  Disney cartoons will appear in the top grossing movies by decade from the Thirties through to the Sixties.

1938
Alexander’s Ragtime Band – original.  Irving Berlin used the name of his 1911 hit for the title of his movie tracing the history of jazz.
Boys Town – a fictionalized drama based on the life of Father Edward J. Flanagan and the real Boys Town.
Test Pilot – original.
You Can’t Take it With You – adapted from the play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

1939
Gone With the Wind – adapted from the novel by Margaret Mitchell.  The movie was the top grossing film of the Thirties and still remains at the top overall after adjusting for inflation, edging out Star Wars and The Sound of Music.
The Wizard of Oz – adapted from the book by L. Frank Baum.  Again, not the first adaptation, but the best known, to the point where other adaptations base themselves off this movie and not the book.

From the above, of twenty-nine films, only ten are original works, that is, films that were created as films.  Of the remaining nineteen, five are adaptations of adaptations; Viva Villa!, Mutiny on the Bounty, and Shanghai Express, all based on a story based on historical events, Grand Hotel, ultimately from a book via the stage, and The Merry Widow, based on an operetta that itself was based on another play.  Eleven, including the adaptations of adaptations, were based on novels or short stories.  Gone With the Wind had record sales as a novel, leading it to be adapted for film, much the same way as the Harry Potter books.  All Quiet on the Western Front was originally published as a serial in a German newspaper in 1928, then as a book in 1929, being translated into other languages and selling over 1.5 million copies before being adapted to film.  The Wizard of Oz is better known as a movie instead of a book to the point where later adaptations, including The Wiz and Wicked, use the film as a starting point.

Stage plays are the next biggest source of adaptations.  Seven stage productions, including Grand Hotel, were adapted for the silver screen.  The transition from stage to screen seems natural; the script is already made and just needs to be tweaked to take advantage of how cameras replaced the audience seating.  Grand Hotel is a good example; the screenwriter turned his own stage play into a screen play.  The advantage of film over stage is that all costs are paid up front instead of over time.  Florenz Ziegfeld took advantage of this after losing everything in the stock market crash of 1929 when making Whoopee!.  The age of the play didn’t appear to matter.  The Sign of the Cross was based on a play written in 1895, The Merry Widow can trace itself back to 1861; at the other end, Whoopee!‘s original play was produced in 1928, and the original Cavalcade was produced in 1931.  Today, the adaptation path has reversed.  Several movies, notably The Lion King, have been turned into Broadway stage plays and musicals.  There are exceptions – Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera in particular – but the attention to stage plays as dropped a long way since the early years of Hollywood.

Four of the adaptations, including three adaptations of adaptations mentioned above, were based on historical events.  For the purposes of the analysis, I did not include any work that was set during an historical event.  San Francisco is about the people whose lives are affected by the 1906 earthquake and not about the quake itself, much like James Cameron’s Titanic was about how the sinking affected two people on the ship and not about how the ship sank.  The events are the backdrop for the story and not the story in and of itself.  With that out of the way, Boys Town is the easiest to examine.  It was based on the work of Father Edward J. Flanagan, who set up Boys Town to help turn around the lives of boys who were in trouble.  The movie is fiction, but relies heavily on the work done by the real Father Flanagan.  At the other end of the scale, Viva Villa! is almost an original work of fiction, having very little accuracy to the life of Pancho Villa.  The movie’s intent was to be a biographical work, even if facts weren’t of importance.

Two movies of special note.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first Disney animated film and the first to adapt a fairy tale, but would not be the last.  The movie set up a pattern that works for the studio even today.  Top Hat, while original, was at least inspired by two stage plays.  The film may have been intended as an adaptation of either play but turned into its own work during production.

The Thirties were a decade similar to now.  An economic crash that caused massive unemployment sent people looking for escapism.  The difference between the sources then and now is the lack of superhero movies.  The superhero, as we now know it, started in the Thirties with the introduction of Superman in Action Comics #1.  Prior to that, most comic characters were masked mystery men along the lines of Zorro.  That’s not to say that these characters weren’t adapted or weren’t popular.  They were more likely to show up in a serial, something not covered by the list.  Serials and newsreels were part of the theatre-going experience, but weren’t considered the main draw.  A future series of posts may cover them.

Instead, the bulk of adaptations in the Thirties came from written works – novels and short stories – and stage plays.  Novels, short stories, and stage plays have a long history in the role of entertainment; going to that well for adaptations is a natural inclination.  Comics, from newspaper strips or comic books, were relatively new, much like film.  The nature of comics leads them to a serial nature.  However, some strips were turned into films.  Blondie was adapted as a movie in 1938.  It just didn’t rate high enough on box office numbers to be included in the list.  The use of the top ten movies by decade cuts out many films and is an acknowledged limitation.

In summary, adaptations aren’t a new phenomenon.  They’ve been around since the dawn of Hollywood.  The sources may change, as this feature of Lost in Translation will explore, but adaptations have always been with us.

Next week, back to the reviews.

* The Great War, aka World War I before a numbering system was needed.