I’m in the preparatory stages of writing a sourcebook called Species Shock, for really weird non-rubber forehead aliens. It’s going to include a dozen or so species, covering evolutionary history, present culture, psychology, value systems, language… On and on. A lot of stuff.

And that’s just the second part of the book, a grab-and-go section. But the other part of the book is a how-to guide that will be the theory to the second section’s in-practice. It’ll go over things like the different kinds of intelligence that exist, how to justify humanoid aliens if you really absolutely have to (but please don’t), cultural universals, and so on.

If all goes well, it won’t do badly as a companion to Robert Freitas’ Xenology, which you should totally check out right now and I mean right now, because this article will totally wait for you.

Done? Great.

So as I’m in the process of putting my notes together, I thought it might be nice to gloss over a few ideas in this column. We’re not going to get too in-depth, though.

1. Don’t forget to study

And by that, I mean that there are a few other things that I think are relevant and worth reading. The first is Freitas’ Xenology, which I’ve already linked to and just did again.

Second, there’s a page that I wrote on TV Tropes several years ago which covered some of this ground. You should check that out too: ”So You Want To Design An Alien Mind”.

Finally, if you haven’t been with me since the beginning then it might be worth mentioning an earlier article of mine from this column: “Blue and orange morality for fun and… profit????”

2. Don’t forget to talk about humans

In every profile featured in Species Shock, there are going to be two sections called Conflict and (more-or-less positive) Relationships. No species is going to be so nice and fantastically hippie’d that they won’t ever have strong disagreements with humans, which they won’t be able to settle with just a trip to the ballgame and a talk over beers. They may not react with physical violence (though they may, and the profiles will discuss the possibilities) but there will be situations in which they will desire to exert their will contrary to the wishes of humankind.

These don’t necessarily have to be over resources or anything, mind. I’ve got a species who may potentially come into conflict with humans over the fact that they act as brood parasites toward their own kind.

On the flip side, I don’t have any interest in designing species that can only have conflicts with humans in every conceivable universe. So I’m going to think about what each species might want from, and be able to give to, humankind, and how they might relate to our species on a more peaceful, symbiotic basis.

3. But don’t forget that they’re aliens

Some species will share psychological traits with humans. Any similarities to human psychology will often serve only to make the differences more jarring and, insofar as they may be unexpected and/or downplayed, dangerous.

They have different value systems. They have different mental concepts and maybe even different logic and truth systems. They definitely have different languages, and almost certainly they don’t communicate exactly like people do, with the same range of noises produced in the same manner (in fact, one of the default assumptions I’m making in the book’s profiles is that nobody can pronounce each other’s languages properly).

4. Don’t forget about cultural universals

Cultural universals are elements of culture that can be found in all human cultures. Here’s a sample list. As part of making sure that your aliens are truly alien, you should take the time to decide which universals the aliens do and don’t share with us.

Robert Freitas goes over cultural universals too, including a sample list of cultural universals for hypothetical alien species.

And don’t make humans the center of the universe either. If you have multiple alien species then you should come up with some cultural universals that are shared by some of the aliens but not by humans.

5. Don’t forget to make your aliens individuals

There will be rough cultural outlines, basic assumptions, stuff like that, common to each species profile. But I don’t want to make any of these species into a planet of hats, and one section of the profile will be geared to that end.

Let’s say that for some reason I were writing up Klingons for Species Shock. They kind of go against everything that the book stands for (indeed, you wouldn’t be totally off the mark in saying that they’re the reason that the book is being written) but whatever.

Klingons are pretty hardcore about honor and being warriors and stuff like that. So this section of the profile would give a few different examples of Klingon warriors, showing that there are multiple interpretations of their codes and honor systems and such. It will also describe, say, Klingon scientists, Klingon taxi drivers, and, oh, let’s say Klingon farmers, and discuss how each of these occupations applies the common Klingon ideas to their lives.

6. Don’t forget to set them in context

Your aliens did not arise out of the nether of the never-never. They have an evolutionary history, and even if they exterminated all other life on their planet there was other life there once upon a time. So take the time to get an idea of how they got from single celled organisms to where they are now. Figure out some of the places where their path diverged with other species. And above all, figure out what some of the species were that they are or at least were contemporary with.

You should be able to give a few decent paragraphs of what their world’s wildlife is like, and by having an outline of their world’s evolutionary history it should make sense.

Your turn: What else do you think is worth keeping in mind when writing up aliens?

R. Donald James Gauvreau works an assortment of odd jobs, most involving batteries. He has recently finished a guide to comparative mythology for worldbuilders, available herefor free. He also maintains a blog at White Marble Block, where he regularly posts story ideas and free fiction, and writes The Culture Column, an RPG.net column with cultures ready for you to drop into your setting. 

Over at Crossroads Alpha, the gang has started doing a regular podcast.  It’s a “deep dive” on various subjects.  In this case the first episode is about Auterism and Individual Vision.  I’m biased, but I was pretty happy with the depth of conversation, from Wendy And Richard Pini to great Japanese Directors, to David Lynch.

First go on over and get it at iTunes!

You can find us at Talkshoe!

There’s also an RSS feed!

Respectfully,

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

Over at Trilobyte studios, Blaze has some disagreements on my columns on worldbuilding and race. Check them out for some intelligent discussion that’s got me thinking.

Respectfully,

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

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.

A little ways back I wrote an article about the second-person POV. I don’t think that there’s much for me to say on that topic that I haven’t already said, but there are other ways of telling a story, including a few that I haven’t seen taken advantage of very often. (more…)

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.

Yes, I’m actually alive.  I figured I’d clear that up.

Mostly life has stayed crazy.  Work is busy, though I’m seeing a light at the end of the tunnel there, and I’ll keep you updated on that.  Sadly, there’ve been some family health issues that are proving stressful, though I hope for good news there as well.  2015 has been pretty bloody busy already.

On the plus side:

• More Way With Worlds.  I’m about to tackle race design – which is going to go into an interesting semantic direction.  This is an area I want to speak on a lot more.
• Generators: I’m really hoping to return to the generators – at this rate I’ve been jotting ideas for some simple ones but might just go all out on the Magic Power Generator as I really want to get that sucker done.
• More Writing: I assume Way With Worlds will end at some point or become intermittent.  But I definitely want to write up my theories on randomization.  Was thinking of either doing it as columns over time OR as a book, but I’m not sure which would be best – and feedback would help.  A book would be coming either way as I’d like to start archiving my ideas – been at this 16 years, and I won’t be around forever.
• Podcasts and More: The Crossroads Alpha group and I are talking about podcasting/videocasting, which may also touch on what we do here.

That’s it here.  Now just going to go rest and get some writing done . . .
Respectfully,

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