# Absolutely the worst play to film adaptation ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589 "2005-11-24T15:57:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/21 "2005-11-26T17:38:09Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Come to think of it, the book and the movie were only similar in that they were both had the same title, were set in early colonial New England, featured characters who had the same names, and involved a woman who was ostracized for having an out-of-wedlock child. Except for the characters from other colonial-era literature who stopped by to visit. Why, look, it’s Tituba. How’re things going in _The Crucible,_ Tituba? Oh dear, well yes I suppose you can stay here for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/22 "2005-11-26T17:40:49Z")
The made-for-TV starring Kelsey Grammar “A Christmas Carol.” There’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/23 "2005-11-26T17:43:59Z")
Wow, 20+ posts and no mention of Grease? I’ve gotten the impression that the movie version sucked hot monkey nuts when compared to the original play. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/24 "2005-11-26T19:47:46Z")
I disagree. The stage version seems really clunky and has some downright terrible songs. The movie version is heads above the stage show. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/25 "2005-11-26T20:02:55Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Wow, 20+ posts and no mention of Grease? > > I’ve gotten the impression that the movie version sucked hot monkey nuts when compared to the original play. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the film, but the play had some really stupid songs that were taken out of the film, and replaced with new, better songs. _You’re the One That I Want_ is an improvement over the ridiculous _All Choked Up_. Not to mention the ridiculous _Mooning_, which is based on a dumb pun. Is this a play or an issue of _MAD_? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/26 "2005-11-26T21:01:40Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > It’s been a while since I’ve seen the film, but the play had some really stupid songs that were taken out of the film, and replaced with new, better songs. _You’re the One That I Want_ is an improvement over the ridiculous _All Choked Up_. Not to mention the ridiculous _Mooning_, which is based on a dumb pun. Is this a play or an issue of _MAD_? Well, this is interesting, indeed. There was a thread some time back in which numerous Dopers wished Grease into the cornfield (can’t recall exactly when the thread was - my serach-fu is off today). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/27 "2005-11-26T23:23:42Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Well, this is interesting, indeed. There was a thread some time back in which numerous Dopers wished Grease into the cornfield (can’t recall exactly when the thread was - my serach-fu is off today). IIRC, it had more to do with the cast being too old for playing high school students than anything else. Olivia Newton-John was 29! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/28 "2005-11-27T00:04:31Z")
What about _Little Shop Of horrors_? I’ve not seen the stage musical, but I’ve heard a song or two on the radio that wasn’t in the movie version. I’ve also heard they changed the plot. Anyone seen both, and can compare? (I _like_ the movie). ---
**Author:** ![marque\_elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@marque\_elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marque_elf)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/29 "2005-11-27T00:42:23Z")
My late wife was a high school English teacher and was forced to teach **The Scarlet Letter**. The students were warned when the book was assigned that you can’t watch the movie and use that and expect to pass this class. Needless to say, there were always 2 or 3 who watched the movie and flunked that part of her course. They would complain either that they should get credit for having watched the movie or that it wasn’t their fault the movie adaptation was so little like the book! Some would deny that she had ever warned the class not to depend on the movie. They were inevitably shouted down by their classmates. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/30 "2005-11-27T01:04:24Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > Except for the characters from other colonial-era literature who stopped by to visit. > > Why, look, it’s Tituba. How’re things going in _The Crucible,_ Tituba? Oh dear, well yes I suppose you can stay here for a while. OK, this is the first time that something I read online literally made me spit on my monitor. Well played, **saoirse**. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/31 "2005-11-27T01:36:15Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Well, this is interesting, indeed. There was a thread some time back in which numerous Dopers wished Grease into the cornfield (can’t recall exactly when the thread was - my serach-fu is off today). I wasn’t part of that thread. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/32 "2005-11-27T02:11:30Z")
Don’t forget the film adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play “The Children’s Hour” which is about two teachers who may or may not be lesbians who are beset by a whispering campaign among their students, to the effect that they are … lesbians. The film version dropped teh gay and had the rumors be about the teachers having adulterous affairs with men. Kinda changed things, yup. As for book to play, don’t forget the Godawful adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s “Damnation Alley” which completely soured Zelazny on Hollywood adaptations of his work, so there are no others. And the “Nine Princes In Amber” books SCREAM to be a TV series. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/33 "2005-11-27T02:15:10Z")
The second paragraph should read “book to movie” not “book to play.” Though Damnation Alley the Musical has its possibilities: “I’m Hell Tanner Not Bruce Banner A biker riding through Hell Mutant butterflies and Bad weather Will not my doom spell!” (That oughtta get a few RPMs out of Roger.) ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/34 "2005-11-27T05:12:12Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > _The Inspector General_ > > Nicholai Gogol’s biting social satire is transformed into zany musical comedy starring Danny Kaye. Absolutely horrible. Actually, it’s got some nice songs, its just that this is totally the wrong place to use them. Same thing with James Thurber’s wonderful short story _The Secret Life of Walter Mitty._ I suppose it might be possible to enjoy the Danny Kaye movie if you had never read the story. But UGH. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/35 "2005-11-27T05:17:13Z")
Sometimes it works the other way and the movie is better than the book although I only know of one example. In my opinion the movie _Maltese Falcon_ outdid Hammit’s story. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/36 "2005-11-27T06:29:24Z")
**Anything Goes** (1956) bears so little relation to the play of the same name, it makes me wonder why they didn’t just call it something else. It wasn’t awful, it just wasn’t **Anything Goes**. **Paint Your Wagon** : Not sure, but didn’t the movie actually come first? **Jesus Christ Superstar** (circa 1976) stuck pretty much to the script, but the movie was just shoddy and charmless, with a smirky and unearned “Aren’t we cool?” quality to it. There was a filmed-on-stage version on PBS a few years back that was much better (although the stylistic swipes from _Star Wars_ and _The Matrix_ were a little distracting). Interesting that there have been so many Andrew Lloyd Webber plays and so few fully-realized films based on them, but I attribute that to the fact that plays go directly to film a lot less frequently after around 1970 than before (I’m hard-pressed to think of a major stage musical from pre-1970 that hasn’t been adapted successfully to film, but they’ve gotten rarer in the intervening years). Trivia note: The film version of **Superstar** was Ron Jeremy’s first film credit ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/37 "2005-11-27T15:20:49Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Same thing with James Thurber’s wonderful short story _The Secret Life of Walter Mitty._ > > I suppose it might be possible to enjoy the Danny Kaye movie if you had never read the story. > > But UGH. Well, I saw the movie before I read the story. I liked the movie. Mind you, I was pretty young, and haven’t seen it in years. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/38 "2005-11-27T16:04:59Z")
[QUOTE=Krokodil] **Paint Your Wagon** : Not sure, but didn’t the movie actually come first?/QUOTE] [No.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064782/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPVBhaW50IFlvdXIgV2Fnb258bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGh0bWw9MQ__;fc=1;ft=16). > [@](#): > > This film version bears little resemblance to the Broadway musical on which it’s “based”. After the success of several musicals in the 1960s, especially The Sound of Music (1965), producers went looking for other projects to make, and “Paint Your Wagon” made the list. The plot (about an interethnic love story) was discarded, however, as too dated. The only elements retained from the original were the title, Gold Rush setting, and about half of the songs. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/39 "2005-11-27T18:28:15Z")
A Chorus Line. Better they had set up a camera in the 17th row and just filmed a Saturday matinee. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589/40 "2005-11-27T19:29:34Z")
> [@RobuSensei](#): > > _Bye Bye Birdie,_ which cut out the entire second half of the stage show. > I seem to recall reading somewhere about how _A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum_ was butchered on the way to the screen, but damned if I can remember how or why. Can anyone set me straight on that one? The film version of Forum had its moments and kept most of the Broadway cast (and among those they added was Buster Keaton, so who can complain?) but they added silly sideplots and slapstick. One sideplot was a chariot chase like DUKES OF HAZZARD BC. They filmed in Roman ruins in Spain, which might have worked except the play was set in vibrant Rome and the ruins looked like… well, ruins. Just a bit too done. I never saw the stage version of _Annie_ but it’s had two film adaptations and neither worked. The first one had good talent but was just too oversung, over choreographed and over hyped, though the scenes with Tim Curry, Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters singing together (_Easy Street_ and its reprise) and Carol Burnett’s rendition of _Little Girls_ were worth the price of admission- she brought a wonderful element of crazy drunk to the role). The second version, with Kathy Bates, was perhaps the most pointless remake in screen or stage history, with Victor Garber’s Daddy Warbucks going from indifference to love where Annie was concerned with such speed and inexplicability that HR would investigate. _Night of the Iguana_ was almost completely rewritten for the screen. It’s still set in a run down Mexican beach hotel but gone are the WW2 elements and much of the subtext from the play. _You Can’t Take It With You_ also didn’t make the crossing well or intact. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-the-worst-play-to-film-adaptation-ever/332589.md?page=3)