Sometime back, Lost in Translation looked at the intricacies of adapting tabletop role-playing games to a different medium. There haven’t been many such adaptations. Lost in Translation has looked at three, the Dungeons & Dragons movie and the animated adaptations of Heavy Gear*, and Dragonlance. There aren’t many more; Fox aired a short-lived Vampire: The Masquerade series called Kindred: The Embraced, and Dungeons & Dragons and BattleTech both had their own cartoons.
The usual approach with adaptations and tabletop games is that the RPG is adapted to a video game. From the earliest Rogue-like games to massive multiplayers like World of Warcraft owe a lot to Dungeons & Dragons. But adaptations in other media are next to non-existent. The failure of the Dungeons & Dragons movie may have a role, but other factors are at work.
The biggest factor is name recognition. D&D is the 800 pound gorilla in tabletop RPGs, with name recognition outside the hobby. Few games even come close to the sales figures or the longevity of D&D. In the 80s, TSR even bought television ad time for the game. D&D, though, is atypical. Marvel tried releasing a game, Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game, but cancelled the publication when the RPG did not see the returns of D&D or Marvel’s own comics. RPGs are a niche market; the built-in audience is not enough to risk a budget on.
Next, the nature of a typical RPG means there aren’t many iconic characters and next to little plot to adapt. Most games allow players to create their own characters, with the Games Master creating the plot and adjusting it in reaction to the players’ actions. A few games, including D&D, don’t come with a setting, though they are in the minority; even those games have published campaign supplements for groups that don’t have the time to create their own world. Even the published settings take on different lives once the players and GM start playing. The Traveller fandom even has acronyms for this phenomenon – OTU, or Original Traveller Universe; IMTU, In My Traveller Universe; and IYTU, In Your Traveller Universe. Movies, books, and stage plays all need characters and a plot. That isn’t to say that there isn’t a typical adventure for RPGs. The classic D&D adventure involves exploring an underground structure fill with monsters while a Traveller adventure has the players travelling the space lanes earning money through speculation and working for patrons. It just takes more effort to come up with a plot and characters that fit a setting than adapting a work that falls under a more traditional form of storytelling.
Game play may be the most difficult part of adapting a game, though it may not be as important as the above. The main goal for a gaming group is to have fun, whether through mindless mayhem, intense angst, or delving into the unknown. It’s a gathering of friends who can take the time to catch up with each other and josh around. There’s banter both in-character and out, with inside jokes coming up. Action in-game can take less time than it does for the players to resolve the action. Combat taking less than a minute can eat up most of a gaming session. Conversely, some actions that would take hours can be resolved with a die roll or two. The pacing is different to traditional storytelling. The dice introduce an extra element; chance. There isn’t a sure thing in RPGs; sometimes, the dice just roll poorly. In a narrative, random failure is jarring. Failure has a purpose in a plot, and doesn’t come up otherwise. An adaptation, though, can throw the equivalent of a failed die roll as a setback for the characters. Failure isn’t always fatal.
Game mechanics, however, do need to be adapted well. Not necessarily the die rolls, but the appearance of details such as spells, weapons, and opposition. The Dragonlance animated movie has a scene where the adaptation got a spell detail wrong; Fizban in the novel cast fireball but, on screen, the spell shown looked more like flaming sphere. While the two spells sound similar, fireball is the more potent of the two, being more explosive and damaging. Details are the devil that make or break an adaptation; getting something like a spell’s appearance wrong can lose a knowledgeable audience, leading to poor word of mouth.
Given the above, it is still possible to adapt a game well. As mentioned above, tabletop games have been adapted and adapted successfully as video games. D&D was one of the first with the gold box series of computer games and both Vampire and Shadowrun have had success in the electronic realm with Bloodlines and Shadowrun Hong Kong. The ability for a player to create a character is a plus in the video game realm, allowing the player to personalize the experience. There have been tie-in novels for several game lines. But of the existing adaptations, only one, the BattleTech cartoon, came close to having the right feel. Even Kindred: The Embraced had issues, such as vampires out in broad daylight, and lasted eight episodes.
Adapters need to understand the source material, no matter what the original work is. With tabletop RPGs, the nature of the games have a different focus. The storytelling in interactive with rules acting as framework and setting physics. Failing to take the mechanics into account leads to characters that don’t quite fit the setting, a setting that only has superficial resemblance to the original, and action that just isn’t possible in the game. The result can be much like the D&D movie, disappointing to fans of the game and incoherent to the casual audience. Adapting a tabletop RPG well will take an effort that may be more than potential returns, leading to the dearth of adaptations made.
* Technically, Heavy Gear was written to be both an RPG and a wargame when it was first released.
** Not all, but, in general, audiences appreciate at least a token plot even in a character piece. Something needs to happen.
Something that came to mind while working on the last entry for the history of adaptations is how publishing and, indeed, writing, has changed over time. While series have been around for some time in several genres, from mysteries to westerns to science fiction and fantasy*, Over time, though, the length of novels has been growing, not just in page count but in story.
A few examples before continuing. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë and released in 1847, has anywhere between 350 to 500 pages, depending on edition, and covers the title character’s life from childhood to adulthood in detail. Eyre was also originally published in three novels, not one. A Study in Scarlet, the first novel-length Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is slightly over 100 pages. A Princess of Mars, the first of the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is 186 pages. Daybreakers, part of the Sackett family saga by Louis L’Amour, is 240 pages. Casino Royale, the first 007 novel by Ian Fleming, clocks in at over 210 pages. Jumping ahead, Firefox, by Craig Thomas, is over 380 pages and A Game of Thrones, the first of the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin, is over 835 pages.
If the above paragraph made your eyes glaze over, longer novels gave way to shorter ones which then were muscled away with longer novels once again. Casino Royale was fully adapted as a movie. Firefox was adapted in full, but details were lost along the way to keep to the core of the book. Comparing the two original novels, there was far more happening at different levels in Firefox, from Gant’s infiltration of the Soviet Union to the monitoring of the mission by the head of MI-6. Casino Royale kept the focus on Bond and his investigations. The two stories fall into the Cold War-era espionage genre, but Firefox gets into greater detail.
In the fantasy genre, doorstoppers are de rigeur today. Earlier works, like Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian series and Burrough’s John Carter and Tarzan series, were of a length that allowed entire books to be fully adapted. A Game of Thrones, however, required a TV series to do the novel justice. Martin has a large cast, with each character having his or her own plotline. There is no way that a movie could hope to encompass everything happening. The game changer in the fantasy genre was JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. When it gained in popularity in the Sixties, a number of future writers became inspired by the scale of the story.
What does the expansion mean for adaptations? First, the best format for the adaptation may no longer be a feature film. While movies still have the cachet of being the premier form of entertainment, they have a time limit. Few movies lasst longer than three hours, and most are two hours or shorter. Casts of characters have also grown, which leads to either having a large number of actors or rolling several characters into one. Both have pitfalls. A large cast means that a favourite character might get only a few minutes on screen. Combining several minor characters into one conglomerate means a new character appears.
Adding to the complexity is that, while series seem to be on the wane in science fiction and fantasy**, multi-book epics are the norm. Stories like JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, and Martin’s unfinished A Song of Ice and Fire all provide a challenge to complete. The Harry Potter movies dropped several elements just to get as much in as possible. This task had added difficult as the successive books in the series got longer and more detailed and intricate. Both Harry Potter and The Hunger Games needed to split the last novel into two movies to wrap up the story properly.
The expansion of stories may be one of the reasons why comic books are a popular source today. Comics have had ongoing plots mixed in with one-issue stories in the past, and today’s focus on writing for the trades still allows for an arc to be easily adapted. Even if a story needs to be compressed, it is still possible to get a popular story filmed with minimal loss of detail.
Peter Jackson’s recent film treatment of The Hobbit may be the vanguard of a new approach to adapting novels. Provided that the book is popular, adaptations may no longer be kept to just one movie but as many as needed. Again, there is a risk. If the first movie doesn’t perform to expectations, the rest of the film series may never be made. The Mortal Instruments fell to this fate, with just one movie, City of Bones released to a lukewarm reception.
In short, adapting novels to movie form, a tough task of balancing audience expectations with practical and budgetary demands to begin with, now has added problems in terms of including the full story. There is no simple solution. The best that can be done is to see what works and what doesn’t.
* Including planetary romance, which includes the John Carter of Mars novels.
** Excluding tie-in novels and urban fantasy. Tie-in novels exist to take advantage of an existing property, acting as an extension. Urban fantasy appears to be taking its cue from both fantasy and from mysteries, where there are single plot arc series leading to a pre-planned ending and series that return to see how characters are faring.
The History of Adaptations
Twenties
Thirties
Forties
Fifties
Sixties
Welcome to the history of adaptations. I’ve been looking at the top movies of each decade, analyzing them to see which ones were original and which ones were adaptations, and of the adaptations, what the source material was. I’m using the compiled list at Filmsite.org as a base. So far, the number of popular adaptations has outnumbered the original films in each decade, with the Fifties having just three original works, two of those being demos.
The Seventies was the New Hollywood era of the auteur director. Studios gave the directors a greater leeway in creativity, thanks to the success of the early films of the era in the previous decade like The Graduate. The results often outweighed the risks, though studios did get nervous at times. Elsewhere, American troops were pulled from Vietnam by President Richard Nixon in 1973. The Watergate scandal broke in 1974, showing the dirty tricks Nixon used against opponents culminating in the break-in at the Watergate Hotel. The scandal led to the impeachment of and the resignation of Nixon from the presidency and the arrest and conviction of several highly placed government officials. Adding to the misery, a series of energy crises struck as oil prices spiked, notably in 1973 and in 1979. In 1973, OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, limited oil sales to the US due to the country’s support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. In 1979, revolutionaries overthrew the Shah of Iran, leading to a lower oil production in the country and causing a panic in oil prices.
A few genres of movies became popular during the Seventies. The disaster film featured an all-star cast trapped in a dangerous situation, such as a plane crash or a burning building. The car chase movie evolved, with the muscle cars of the decade almost built for the roles. While movies like 1968’s Bulitt and James Bond movies after Goldfinger integrated a car chase into the story, films like Smokey and the Bandit elevated the chase as the main plot. Soundtracks are still important, just as the previous decade, providing another means of conveying the mood of the film. The Hong Kong action movie, long a staple in Asia, gained in popularity in North America, with stars like Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung becoming known to a new audience. Blaxploitation took the Hong Kong action flick and Americanized it, with a black cast and music to groove on while mowing down mooks; Shaft may be the quitessential example and Pam Grier the genre’s kickass leading lady.
The popular movies of the decade:
1970
Love Story – original. Erich Sagal would adapt the screenplay into a novel released before the movieès debut.
Airport – adapted from the 1968 novel of the same name written by Arthur Hailey. Airport would have three sequels in the Seventies; Airport 1975, Airport ’77, and The Concorde … Airport ’79. Hailey also wrote the script for the 1956 CBC TV movie, Flight into Danger*, which was remade in 1957 by Paramount as Zero Hour!**, which would then be used as the base of the 1980 parody, Airplane!. Hailey essentially sowed the seeds that would kill the airplane disaster film as a genre.
1971
Billy Jack – sequel. The first film of the series of four was the 1967 movie, The Born Losers. Distribution was a problem for the film in 1971; Warner Bros. picked up the film and re-released it in 1973, where it had a far better run in theatres.
Diamonds Are Forever – a loose adaptation of the Ian Fleming 007 novel of the same name. Sean Connery returned to play Bond one more time after George Lazenby took the role in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
1972
The Godfather – adapted from the 1969 novel, also titled The Godfather, by Mario Puzo.
1973
The Exorcist – adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, who was also the movie’s scriptwriter. The book was based on a case of demonic possession and subsequent exorcism in 1949.
The Sting – original. The plot was inspired by an actual grift known as “The Wire“, which has also appeared in the Leverage episode, “The Bottle Job”. The movie used the ragtime music of Scott Joplin.
American Grafitti – original, based on the events of George Lucas’ youth.
1974
Blazing Saddles – original. Mel Brooks parodied Westerns and their tropes while making statements about racism. Mel Brooks co-wrote the script along with Andrew Bergman, Norman Steinberg, Al Uger, and Richard Pryor. Pryor was Brooks’ choice as Bart, but Warner Bros. overrode him, leading to Cleavon Little in the lead role.
The Towering Inferno – adaptation of two novels, The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. Irwin Allen produced the star-studded movie.
1975
Jaws – adapted from the 1974 novel by Peter Bentley. Steven Spielberg used what he learned filming the TV movie Duel and applied it here. The movie is celebrating its fortieth anniversary with re-releases to repertory theatres and was the reason many people stayed out of the water at the beach. Jaws briefly enjoyed holding the record for highest grossing film in history.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show – adaptation of the stage musical, The Rocky Horror Show. The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been in a limited first run since its release and can still play to packed theatres. The movie is a textbook case of a cult film, with fans participating as they watch.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – adapted from the 1962 Ken Kesey novel of the same name,
1976
Rocky – original. Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in the movie.
1977
Star Wars – original, inspired by pulp films and serials of the Fifties as well as The Dam Busters and the Akira Kurosawa film, The Hidden Fortress. The top grossing movie of the decade, grossing more than the next three movies below combined, and why Jaws held the record briefly.
Saturday Night Fever – adapted from “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, an article in New York Magazine in 1976. The movie popularized both disco and John Travolta, previously known from the TV series, Welcome Back, Kotter.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind – original. Steven Spielberg explored the idea of first contact with aliens through music.
Smokey and the Bandit. The movie was based on events and laws in existence at the time, including the legality, or lack there of, of shipping Coors beer from Texas to Georgia. The would be two sequels and a short-lived TV series.
1978
Grease – adaptation of the 1971 Broadway musical, Grease. The movie’s soundtrack finished the year second only to Saturday Night Fever‘s in sales.
National Lampoon’s Animal House – adapted from stories written by Chris Miller in National Lampoon magazine. Miller’s stories were about his experiences at college. Harold Ramis, one of the movie’s scriptwriters, and Ivan Reitman, the producer, added their own experiences to the film.
Superman – adapted from the titles published by DC comics. Superman is the first comic book movie to appear in the list of popular movies and still stands as the movie about the character. Star Christopher Reeve showed how removing a pair of glasses could change Clark Kent into Superman.
1979
Kramer vs. Kramer – adapted from the 1977 novel of the same name by Avery Corman.
Links on the titles in the above list lead to key songs in the movie’s soundtrack. I’ve left out the two musicals on purpose; the soundtrack is the draw, at least initially. American Grafitti used songs popular in the Fifties for its soundtrack. Kramer vs Kramer used music from the Baroque period.
Of the twenty-two movies listed above, thirteen are adaptations. The rest are eight original films and one sequel, which continues the story about the character. About 3/5 of the popular movies of the Seventies are adaptations, a huge shift over the previous decades. Two of the adaptations are from musicals, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Grease. Two more came from magazine articles, Saturday Night Fever and National Lampoon’s Animal House. The first comic book character appears with Superman. The remainder of the adaptations came from novels.
Superman was the oldest work adapted, with the character appearing in Action Comics #1 in 1938. The next oldest was Diamonds Are Forever, published in 1956. The rest were made in a few years of the publication of the novels or articles and a few years after the stage productions. In the prior decades, it wasn’t unusual to see a work dating from the 19th Century or earlier. Here, though, there is nothing from before the 20th Century, nothing over fifty years old. Biblical epics, popular in the Fifties, faded in the Sixties and are non-existent in the Seventies.
Star Wars deserves some extra mention. The film did far better than the studio, 20th Century-Fox, expected and remained in theatres for over a year. The price of a ticket, especially a matinee, was such that a weekly allowance could be spent seeing the movie a couple of times in a week, three times while foregoing the popcorn and drink. The success of the movie paved the way for more A-list science fiction, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Science fiction was no longer relegated to B-movies and television. Star Wars also represented a huge leap in special effects, especially done on a tight budget.
The soundtrack became a key part of promoting Saturday Night Fever. The movie and the soundtrack promoted each other, allowing the Bee Gees to become a popular band in the Disco Era. Grease took the lessons offered; the movie’s soundtrack was second only to Saturday Night Fever‘s, leading to more cross-promotion. The result of the cross-promotion will appear in the Eighties.
The number of popular adaptations in the Seventies still outnumbers the popular original films, but the ratio has shifted towards parity. The choice of work adapted comes from works popular in the decade; Superman was celebrating his fortieth anniversary and Diamonds Are Forever had a popular actor returning to the role of Bond, while the remainder used popular works. The exception, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, stands out because of its cult status. Overall, the Seventies had the best showing for original films so far and is a great improvement from the Fifties, but adaptations are still popular.
* Starring James Doohan as the shell-shocked Spitfire pilot who has to land a commercial airliner after the pilot and co-pilot suffer from food poisoning.
** Starring Dana Andrews as Ted Stryker, taking on the Doohan role.
The History of Adaptations
Twenties
Thirties
Forties
Fifties
Welcome to the history of adaptations. I’ve been looking at the top movies of each decade, analyzing them to see which ones were original and which ones were adaptations, and of the adaptations, what the source material was. I’m using the compiled list at Filmsite.org as a base. Last time, there was an unexpected twist. Turned out, the Fifties had the worst adaptation-to-original ratio so far, with just three movies being original and two of those being Cinerama demos. Prior, the ratio was about 2:1, remaining roughly constant from the dawn of the film industry.
The Sixties were a time of change and upheaval. The Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, anti-war protests, Beatlemania, John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the growing role of television, and that’s the short list. New Hollywood got its start during this decade; young filmmakers made their mark on the industry, affecting how studios produced movies. Colour was the default film process unless the director chose black-and-white for artistic purposes.
The popular movies of the era:
1960
Swiss Family Robinson – a Disney live-action adaptation of the 1812 novel, Der Schweizerische Robinson by Johann David Wyss.
1961
One Hundred and One Dalmatians – a Disney animated film adapting the book, The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith.
1962
Dr. No – adapted from the James Bond novel of the same name by Ian Fleming.
The Longest Day – adapted from the book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan about the D-Day landings in 1944.
1963
Cleopatra – adapted from the book, The Life and Times of Cleopatra by CM Franzero. Running over four hours, Cleopatra almost bankrupted 20 Century-Fox due to cost overruns and signalled the end of sprawling epics.
1964
Mary Poppins – adapted from the novel of the same name by PL Travers, Disney used a mix of live action and animation in the production.
My Fair Lady – musical adapted from the play, Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw
Goldfinger – the third James Bond novel to be adapted and the one to set the standard for all other 007 movies to follow. The second novel adapted, From Russia With Love was released in 1963.
1965
The Sound of Music – adaptation based on the play of the same name, which itself was adapted from a 1956 film from Germany, Die Trapp-Familie and the autobiography, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp.
Doctor Zhivago – adapted from the novel of the same name by Boris Pasternak.
Thunderball – the fourth James Bond movie, though not an adaptation. Fleming worked with producer Kevin McClory prior to Dr. No to create Thunderball, which would lead to legal issues that would see elements from the movie be unavailable to United Artists and, later, MGM, including SPECTRE. McClory would remake Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery as Bond in 1983. SPECTRE returned to the main film franchise in 2015 in SPECTRE with Daniel Craig.
1966
The Bible: In the Beginning – adapted from The Book of Genesis in The Bible.
Hawaii – adapted from the novel of the same name by James A. Michener.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – original. The epic spaghetti Western by Sergio Leone with music by Ennio Morricone and considered the third movie in the Dollars trilogy, following A Fist Full of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.
1967
The Jungle Book – adapted from the book by Rudyard Kipling. This will be the last Disney animated movie to appear until the Nineties.
The Graduate – based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – original. The movie’s release came six months after the Loving v. Virgina ruling that struck down restrictions on mixed-race marriage in the United States.
1968
Funny Girl – based on the 1964 stage musical of the same name, which itself was based on the life of actor, singer, and comedian Fanny Brice. Barbra Streisand starred in both the musical and the movie as Brice.
2001: A Space Odyssey – original. Arthur C. Clarke worked with Stanley Kubrick on the story for the movie before writing the book. Clarke’s follow-up novel, 2010: Odyssey Two took into account changes made in the movie after Clarke had finished writing his novel.
1969
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – original but based loosely on outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh, aka the title characters.
Soundtracks became notable in films, and not just for musicals. While music did play a role in films prior to the Sixties, the advent of rock-and-roll meant that a memorable, popular song could be played on the radio as part of the Top 40. 2001: A Space Odyssey married science fiction and classical music, including The Blue Danube Waltz in synchronization with the docking of a Pan-Am space place to an orbital station. Cross-pollination is just beginning in this era, with the fruits to be seen in later decades. Links in the list of popular films above go to songs best remembered from the work.
Of the twenty movies listed above, fifteen are adaptations. It is not until 1965, though, that an original work appears, and even that film, Thunderball, is part of a franchise. Also of note, two movies were made in conjunction with a novelist; Thunderball and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Of the adaptations, three – My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and Funny Girl – were based on stage works with the remaining dozen adapting literature. Movies have taken over the niche that theatre once held. Broadway is still key, but film and television have filled the gap that was once vaudeville.
The ratio of adaptation-to-original is now 3:1, worse than the early decades but an improvement over the previous. Stage plays are still being adapted, but not to the degree as in the early years. Adaptations remain popular, though, even over fifty years after the film industry began. The rise of the auteur director could change things into the Seventies.
The History of Adaptations
Twenties
Thirties
Forties
Welcome to the history of adaptations. I’ve been looking at the top movies of each decade, analysing them to see which ones were original and which ones were adaptations, and of the adaptations, what the source material was. I’m using the compiled list at Filmsite.org as a base. Last time, I looked at the early years of Hollywood, which had about two-thirds of the popular films of the era be adaptations. That ratio has held steady through to the Forties. The Fifties, though, has an astonishing twist.
The 1950s were a boom era. With the Great Depression a memory and industrial capacity expanded, people, mainly men, were working and had money to spend. The automobile became central to lives, leading to the heyday of the drive-in theatre. Television made in-roads into homes; the technology became affordable as people worked. Colour in film became the draw; the typical television was black and white, with a limited choice of what was on. Bigger cities may have as many as six channels available. However, the economic boom allowed people to own both a television and go out to the movies. In movie theatres and at drive-ins, epics had a resurgence. Without a war to pay for, money could be used to create a spectacle.
The popular movies of the era:
1950
Cinderella – an animated Disney film adapted from the folk tale.
King Solomon’s Mines – adapted from the 1885 novel of the same name by H. Rider Haggard 1885 novel. This is the second film of five to adapt the novel, featuring Allan Quatermain.
1951
Quo Vadis – adapted from the 1895 novel of the same name by Henryk Sienkiewicz.
1952
This is Cinerama – original. The film was a demo of the Cinerama widescreen process, a new way of presenting movies. Cinerama presentations required three synchronized 35mm projectors. Seeing a Cinerama film was similar to seeing a play, where the audience would need to purchase tickets in advance.
The Greatest Show on Earth – original. Cecil B. De Mille based the movie on the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus, both of which also appeared in the movie.
1953
Peter Pan – another Disney animated adaptation, based on the play by JM Barrie.
The Robe – adapted from the book of the same name by Lloyd C. Douglas.
1954
Rear Window – Alfred Hitchcock directed this adaptation of the short story, “It Had to Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich.
Demetrius and the Gladiators – sequel to an adaptation. This movie was a sequel to The Robe, above.
1955
Lady and the Tramp – the third Disney animated adaptation from the decade, based on Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog by Ward Greene.
1956
The Ten Commandments – both an adaptation and a partial remake. Cecil B. De Mille remade his 1923 epic, The Ten Commandments.
Around the World in 80 Days – adapted from the Jules Verne novel.
Seven Wonders of the World – original. The movie was another demo of Cinerama.
1957
Bridge on the River Kwai – adapted from the novel La pont de la riviere Kwai by Pierre Boulle. The novel and the movie used the building of the Burma Railway during World War II as the backdrop. Boulle also wrote the novel La planète des singes, which would get adapted as the movie, Planet of the Apes.
1958
Hercules – adapted from the Greek myth and dubbed from the original Italian.
South Pacific – adapted from the Rodgers & Hammerstein stage musical and from James A. Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific.
1959
Ben Hur – remake of an adaptation, specifically, the 1925 film Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ which was in turn adapted from the novel of the same name by Lew Wallace.
Sleeping Beauty – adapted from multiple sources. Sleeping Beauty will be the last time Disney adapts a fairy tale until 1989’s The Little Mermaid.
Of the eighteen films listed above, fourteen are adaptations, with only three original films and one film that necessitated the creation of a new category, the sequel of an adaptation. Adding to the fun, the three original movies include both Cinerama demos. After three-plus decades of seeing a two-to-one ratio of adaptations to original, the sudden spike in adaptations was unexpected. Removing the Cinerama demos, and the Fifties start to look very much like now in terms of the adaptation glut.
The Ten Commandments is an interesting case. De Mille remade his 1923 silent film with sound, colour, and widescreen, all now available to him. The same thing happened with Ben Hur; the technology caught up to the scale needed for the film. Those are the only two remakes to make the list. The remainder of the adaptations are mostly literary, drawing from novels, short stories, and plays. Even Disney adapted from a story, with Lady and the Tramp and Peter Pan. The other two Disney animated features, though, come from folk tales.
Demetrius and the Gladiator was the first sequel of an adaptation encountered in this series. The film draws from The Robe, though did not have a work of its own to be based on. It’s not original in and of itself, but neither is it an adaptation. Sequels are tricky when it comes to deciding if it’s a continuation or a reboot; a lot of it depends on context and time. With Demetrius and the Gladiator, the decision was to call it a continuation, seeing that it came out only a year after The Robe, thus adding to the complexity and leading to the new category. The category will become useful in later decades.
Once again, the limitations of using just the popular films appears. Missing from the lists are the Westerns and the B-movies. Westerns were a staple, but no one Western breaks away from the pack. B-movies were never meant to be the draw. They appeared before the main feature, especially at drive-ins, so the movies may not appear on the popular film lists. The serial disappears during the Fifties; television series took over that role.
The Fifties give a glimpse of today. Popular films were mostly adaptations, with Disney animated features being a huge draw for audiences. The decade is acting as foreshadowing of today’s film industry output.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The one thing that 2016 is guaranteed to have is more adaptations. The current cycle may be reaching a peak, but there are a number of adaptations in the pipelines still to be released. But if the peak is near, the two things that will mark getting past the apex is quality and audience reception.
Quality is tough to quantify, but, overall, adaptations today are far more faithful now than ever before. Studios have learned that the in-name-only adaptation is doomed to failure from the outset. Word of mouth is far faster today thanks to social media. Audiences can warn others about a movie’s flaws during a screening. At the same time, a movie that hits the heart of a work will also get audiences telling others about it. Social media is a double-edged sword for studios.
Audience reception is easier to measure. Box office returns, while not the best method, is still what studios look at as a measure of a film’s success. The dollar amount isn’t the only part looked at; the amount brought in compared to a film’s budget is key. An expensive film that brings in over a billion dollars, such as Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, isn’t the only success; a lower budget movie that still brings in ten times what it was made is also successful. As long as audiences keep going to adaptations, they will be made. One flop isn’t going to kill the current trend. It will take a number of failures over a short period to convince a studio to try something different. Thus, Universal’s failure with Jem and the Holograms isn’t going to dissuade the studio from continuing with the Fifty Shades of Grey series*.
Adaptations have always been a part of Hollywood. The coming year is will be no different. A backlash against the number of adaptations may be beginning, but it’ll take a few years before it gets felt. Studios have adaptations in various stages of production; cancelling will cost money, and there’s no indication now that audiences will stay away in droves in the hope for something original. Even then, the superhero movie is becoming a mainstay. Where the Western and the rogue cop films have far too much baggage to them to be regular features, the superhero can take the appeal of the other two genres without their drawbacks.
Even television isn’t immune to adaptations. Many series, including The Librarians, The Expanse, Dark Matter, and The Last Ship, are all adapted from other works. Expect more works to be adapted as television series; the format allows for a greater depth at the expense of the fickleness of ratings. Even the fickleness can be avoided; the 500-channel universe means that a work will find its audience. A Game of Thrones has proven to be a hit for HBO, bringing in subscribers tuning in for that one series.
As mentioned above, quality is the key. If the adaptation makes an effort to be faithful to the original work, audiences will watch. Studios are learning this; the failure of Jem and the Holograms is noteworthy because it failed to meet fan expectations. Fifty Shades of Grey met fan expectations, despite the casting choices. The lesson is there to be learned.
* Issues between director and author might cause delays, though.
