From Stage to Screen: Plays- Page 2

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 1/21/14 at 11:11pm

The Beckett On Film project from 2001 was pretty great - all nineteen of his plays, from the full-length ones like Waiting For Godot to Breath which is only 45 seconds long. Featuring actors like Michael Gambon, John Hurt, Julianne Moore, John Gielgud, Kristin Scott Thomas, Penelope Wilton and directors like Neil Jordan, Harold Pinter, David Mamet and Conor McPherson - they're definitely worth a look, even if they're probably an aquired taste. All up on youtube, I think.

Eric, what did you think of Katherine Hepburn's Glass Menagerie?

[Demitri2]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 12:07am

Eric, thought I'd share this. I got to see ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE at its world premiere at the Mineola Playhouse on Long Island back in the mid sixties. It starred Kim Hunter as Alma and Matthew's father, James Broderick. It was opening night and the highlight of the evening for me was getting to shake Tennessee Williams hand and chat with him briefly during intermission. For a fifteen year old I was in theatre heaven. Years later I saw a production of the play in Long Beach, CA starring Sandy Dennis and Perry King. The role of Alma suited Dennis' quirky quality and King certainly had the sexual appeal necessary for her young doctor. Footnote: Back in the eighties I saw a production at Long Island University at C.W. Post of SUMMER AND SMOKE THE OPERA composed by Lee Hoilby. So for a lesser Tennessee Williams' work, there sure have been a multitude of variations on the original play. Who knows, maybe a ballet is forthcoming...:)

I enjoyed reading your background too on the original play version of SUMMER AND SMOKE. As a child my Mom had mentioned that she had a friend in high school that later became an actress. She pointed her out to me in her yearbook and her name was Margaret Phillips. Yes, the same actress I learned years later originated the role of Alma in the failed Broadway production. Interestingly enough, when my Mom took me to see BLACK COMEDY on Broadway (at my insistence) she pointed out in the Playbill that Geraldine Page's understudy in the brief one act opener WHITE LIES was none other than Margaret Phillips. Strange how things play out.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 12:30am

As far as movies that are far better than the plays they are based on, The Lion in Winter is the gold standard.

[bobs3]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 3:59am

Agree that MISS FIRECRACKER is better than the play. They opened up the play from a single set but the best thing (besides Holly Hunter performance) is what they did to the character of Elain (played in the film by Mary Steenburgen) from the sweet cousin visiting from Jackson into a self-absorbed, unhappy, former beauty queen whose glory days have passed (she loves her collection of expensive porcelain clocks more than her children) and she displays a mean streak that the character didn't have in the original play.

[The Other One]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 8:50am

"I know people who actively disliked it, but I liked the film adaptation of Craig Lucas' The Dying Gaul."

Count me among the fans. Lucas adapted his work beautifully for the screen. (The film version of his earlier "Reckless" was an unfortunate disaster.)

A couple I'd like to put a good word in for that I don't think anyone else mentioned are Jack Goes Boating, Frost/Nixon, Marvin's Room, Betrayal, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Lenny, Play It Again, Sam, A Hatful of Rain and the underrated 1931 version of The Front Page.

Death of a Salesman rivals A Streetcar Named Desire and Long Day's Journey Into Night as the greatest American drama of the 20th century but its film version remains surprisingly obscure. Miller was apparently disappointed in it for its emphasis on Willy's own role (as opposed to capitalist society's) in his downfall, but the material stands up to this interpretation quite well (even if Fredric March's performance is a bit over-the-top).

A couple I found terribly disappointing are Fool For Love and The Substance of Fire.

PS: Henrikegerman, you've chosen a great movie but its title is TWELVE Angry Men, not Ten. Ten Angry Men sounds like the cheaper stock version.

Updated On: 1/22/14 at 08:50 AM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 8:55am

OMG, other one, did I really say that? Yikes. I'll correct.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 9:01am

The censors getting involved with some of these 1930s - 1950s adaptations doesn't bother me that much. In some cases, I think the story is just as powerful if not more so with the implication rather than the literal statement.

For example, "These Three," the 1930s adaptation of "The Children's Hour," with Oberon and Hopkins, which softens and mostly implies the "scandal" is FAR more powerful a dramatic film than the 1960s remake with MacLaine and Hepburn.

Same thing with "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof." I think the film is just as powerful as the stage play, having seen many productions of the latter. The spelling-out of the implications and assumptions doesn't make it any more dramatic or powerful. The film works just fine as is.

My favorite plays adapted to the screen:

Driving Miss Daisy
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
Picnic
Amadeus
The Lion In Winter
The Trip to Bountiful
The Women
Auntie Mame
The Seven Year Itch
Born Yesterday
A Man For All Seasons
You Can't Take It With You
Grand Hotel
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet

Least favorite:

Torch Song Trilogy (they gutted it)
Agnes of God (they sanitized it, and Jane Fonda walked through the role)

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 9:13am

best12, I agree with you wholeheartedly about These Three and Cat, although I'm in the minority of people who like the Maclaine/Hepburn Children's Hour. In fact I like it very much and find Shirley particularly moving in it.

The movie of Cat has great performances (movie star casting but the right movie star casting!) and the positive feeling one gets at the end seems a completely legitimate interpretation of the play (I have much greater problems with the bathetically censored ending of the Streetcar movie which is so off kilter with the play's view of the world). The movie brings out all the themes of the play beautifully and convincingly.

Grand Hotel is a great addition.

I'm tempted to offer Marvin's Room, not because I think it's a great movie, but because I love Diane Keaton in it, as well as Gwen Verdon, in one of her few movie roles.

And I agree with Eric and others that The Dying Gaul is a very good movie. Emotionally brutal, very tough to watch but compelling and well done.
Updated On: 1/22/14 at 09:13 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 9:17am

Diane and Gwen were fine, but the stage play (I saw it in Los Angeles with Mary Steenbergen and Jean Smart) blows the film away. They're not even in the same league. I was hugely disappointed in the film after seeing what was possible on stage.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 9:20am

If I had one "in the minority" choice, I think it would be "Our Town."

I love the movie, despite the changed ending (which is drastic, admittedly). The cast is first-rate across the board, and the score by Aaron Copland is one of my all-time favorites. I actually think some of the cuts to tighten the pace work really well, too. And the ending works even if it's nowhere near as powerful as the stage play.

Overall, it still ranks as one of my favorites, due to the cast and music.

EDIT: "Our Town" (1940) received six Oscar nominations, too.

Best Picture
Best Actress - Martha Scott (reprising her original Broadway role)
Best Art Direction
Best Sound
Best Music, Score - Aaron Copland
Best Music, Orignal Score - Aaron Copland

(... and your guess is as good as mine as to the difference between those two music categories, but there you are.)

Updated On: 1/22/14 at 09:20 AM

[The Other One]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 9:33am

I am adding I Never Sang For My Father to my list of good adaptations above. I tried not to mention anything anyone else had covered.

I love the film of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. I have never seen a stage production to rival it. It feels less a bowdlerization than an adaptation, and a very successful one at that. The film version of Sweet Bird of Youth is an almost tragic disappointment, because the many elements it has going for it are torpedoed by that absurd ending. Somehow I have never seen These Three.

I can't comment on Marvin's Room on stage. I had read the play but never seen it. Keaton is the main reason I remember the film version so fondly.

Torch Song Trilogy, so moving and funny on stage, was indeed a flat tire on screen.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 9:45am

I love Marvin's Room on stage and I was lucky enough to once be in a very good showcase production. The movie isn't an ace adaptation but Keaton is a radiant and lovable Bessie, one of her very best performances. As I recall Streep was once asked if she could single out her most memorable acting partnership on screen, I was surprised she didn't politically dodge the question. Rather she cited her work with Keaton in Marvin's Room and glowingly praised Diane's performance.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 10:36am

There are some very good mentions here: Our Town and Driving Miss Daisy being two. Thanks besty for reminding me of those.

Three stage to screen adaptations I have yet to see but plan to in the very near future:

Blue Denim
Toys in the Attic
The Moon is Blue

If anyone has seen them or has read the play or saw a stage production please comment!

Updated On: 1/22/14 at 10:36 AM

[The Other One]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 11:05am

George Seaton's film version of "The Country Girl" is quite good as well.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 11:19am

I like The Country Girl quite a bit, but it always starts a war around here because of the "Oscar robbing" of Judy Garland in A Star Is Born.

I think Grace is very good in the film, but it's really Bing Crosby's picture, and even though he didn't win for Best Actor that year, I think it's his best screen performance. Raw and heartbreaking.

[The Other One]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 11:33am

Grace is very good in the film, but I agree completely about Crosby. He's magnificent. Regarding Oscars, what can you say? It was a tough year. Dandridge was extraordinary, too, and Crosby lost to Brando in On The Waterfront.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 12:55pm

Best, I do agree that These Three is a better film, for myself, than the 1960s film of Children's Hour (though having read the play--but never had a chance to see it staged, I think the 60's film changed the focus itself.)

In regards to Cat you said: "Same thing with "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof." I think the film is just as powerful as the stage play, having seen many productions of the latter. The spelling-out of the implications and assumptions doesn't make it any more dramatic or powerful. The film works just fine as is."

Unlike Brooks' Sweet Bird, I will agree that Cat works n film very well as a strong 1950s Hollywood melodrama. But, while I think directors of the revivals often do try to make things more "spelled out" (ie Ghost Skippers literally haunting Brick) the original play doesn't remotely. The film spells things out far more--and completely changes the "problem" into one of Brick suffering from being stuck in a delayed adolescence, and finally coming out of that by the end. The almost completely newly written scene with Big Daddy and Brick, for example, is awfully heavy handed. It turns the play's themes into a *domestic* melodrama.

It's hard to compare as well since there are three main versions of Williams' script (the one with his own third act, the Elia Kazan influenced re-written third act -- both of which are usually published together -- and the 1970s re-write he did which sorta mixes the two versions and adds other stuff which I believe is the version Broadway usually has revived.) Speaking of filmed versions, the Jessica Lange/Tommy Lee Jones televised (for Showtime's brief lived Broadway series and later PBS American Playhouse) is the 1970s script as well -- and is worth watching though the casting and directing are not completely successful.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree -- but I do think it works on its own terms as a movie. I just don't see whatsoever that the vagueness of the playscript (and the fact that Williams' clearly doesn't want Brick to have a moment of catharsis by the end to give the audience a more comfortable experience -- the domestic order is restored at the end of the film.) But it's not that they just leave out the homosexuality (which Williams' always argued -- not completely successfully for me -- was not meant to be say in the play if he did have a gay sexual relationship or not,) they change the entire theme.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 1:19pm

THE MAIDS flattens the stage play, but it's still worth seeing to watch Glenda Jackson and the underrated Susannah York ham it up marvelously.

How could we forget the Anthony Asquith THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST?? With Dame Edith Evans doing the definitive Lady Bracknell.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 1:37pm

Stage to film adaptations that didn't work:

'NIGHT MOTHER--Good casting, but felt entirely fake on film.

EXTREMITIES--Was this B-movie story actually believable on stage?

DUET FOR ONE--Julie Andrews' big Oscar bid. Hea-vy han-ded. Alan Bates looks so awful, you're more concerned for him than Andrews.

FRANKIE AND JOHNNY--I can really appreciate what they were trying to do: Open up the play, add new characters, and create a kind of melancholy comedy for grown-ups. Unfortunately, McNally writes the kind of on-the-nose dialogue that just does not fly on film.

PRELUDE TO A KISS--I remember reading an interview with Craig Lucas saying he would have changed the screenplay a lot if he had a second chance. Meg Ryan was no Mary-Louise Parker (How the American public stomached her for so long is a mystery to me). It has Alec Baldwin's warmest, most sensitive performance, though.

BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS--Something is just totally flat about this and it isn't the fact that a game Judith Ivey and Blythe Danner are not convincing as Brooklyn Jews. I'm actually inclined to think the problem is the play itself.

FOOL FOR LOVE--Great play. Perfect cast. Perfect director. What happened??

BEYOND THERAPY--Possibly the worst adaptation of any show ever and that's including A CHORUS LINE.

OLD TIMES--A justly forgotten cable adaptation that was made for A&E with John Malkovich, Kate Nelligan, and Miranda Richardson. They were all acting in different worlds.

To add to the best: SECRET HONOR.

Updated On: 1/22/14 at 01:37 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 8:30pm

Jay-Lerner, I missed your message. I've seen a lot of the Beckett on Film project productions--mainly because shortly after they were made I took an all Beckett class (something I'm not sure I'd be able to handle again...) They were largely terrific, especially the short ones like Play (then again, I think I prefer Beckett in short doses though I do find all of his plays interesting--the downfall for me in the class was having to read through his stream of consciousness trilogy of novels Malroy, The Unnamable etc.)

As for Kat Hepburn's TV version of Glass Menagerie. I like it overall -- I like her in it, Sam Weston (I think?) is alright, the direction is decent. I'm not sure any filmed Glass Menagerie is ideal -- but that was the one we watched clips from when we studied the play in grade 10 so the first performances I had seen (I *think*--I became obsessed with Williams slightly earlier and I may have rented and seen the Paul Newman directed one with his wife, Woodward and John Malkovich which has flaws but good aspects too.) Of course the awful one is the original film which you can find on youtube (I don't think, like the B&W Great Gatsby, it has ever had a home video format release.) Way too realistically done, too many changes, and of course the infamous "happier" ending with the implied new Gentleman Caller (Williams was incredibly depressed by it and it was reportedly a huge flop, one reason he only gave in to a Streetcar movie with Kazan--although just a few years later he seemed to be happy to ignore his movies and just rake in all of the money from them.) I can't remember the specifics, but originally it was meant to have an even happier ending (Laura getting married in an epilogue?) that was thankfully cut--still kinda interesting to see if you love the play.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 8:35pm

And yes, Beyond Therapy *is* awful. (I've never seen the play but I do have the sorta cast album recording that was made of it.) Altman is often brilliant but it was a poor match of material for him anyway, IMHO, and then the decisions made...

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 10:33pm

Thanks Eric - that version of Menagerie has been sitting on my shelf unwatched for a while. Time to give it a go. I could do with that Beckett course myself - I love the plays, but most of the time I really have no clue as to what it all means...does anybody? :)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/23/14 at 1:20am

I doubt it :P But don't even try his novels--it's hard to get through 150 pages (each) of extremely dense prose with no sense of what's going on.

Yes, the Hep Menagerie is certainly worth checking out! Let me know what you think.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/23/14 at 8:19am

I remember being SO disappointed with Brighton Beach Memoirs. It was D.O.A. completely. Nothing worked.

I agree about the miscasting of Danner and Ivey, but I didn't think anybody really was successful in their roles.

All you have to do is watch "Radio Days" to see what might have been.

[The Other One]

Posted: 1/23/14 at 10:34am

I saw "Radio Days" at the Loew's 84th St. Multiplex when it was first released, and by coincidence found myself seated next to Adolph Green and Phyllis Newman. They said exactly what you said, Best12. "Radio Days" captured the tone. "Brighton Beach Memoirs" needed.