# Cases Where the Movie Version Has Taken Over **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 17, 2024, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711 "2024-05-17T18:16:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/141 "2024-05-21T18:08:47Z")
In the book _Jaws_ Hooper is an egotistical rich guy who fucks Brody’s wife behind his back. Hooper getting eaten by the shark is part of the book’s happy ending. The book is mostly forgotten and the much more likable movie Hooper is who everyone remembers. The movie was much better than the book and this is only one example why. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/142 "2024-05-21T18:43:40Z")
The first two that came to mind for me were: 1 - Willy Wonka. The Gene Wilder characterization came across entirely differently than how the character is portrayed in the book, for the most part. 2 - Miss Hannigan in _Annie_. The stage version ends with her being dragged off to prison by the FBI; the movie version turns her into a hero (and into the arms of Daddy Warbucks’s bodyguard). I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if one of the reasons _Annie II_ (renamed _Annie Warbucks_ - if you don’t remember the show being on Broadway, that’s because it wasn’t, and there’s a bit of a story about that) was retooled to remove her as the villain was because too many people would wonder what she was doing in jail. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/143 "2024-05-21T19:09:50Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Willy Wonka. The Gene Wilder characterization came across entirely differently than how the character is portrayed in the book, for the most part. Dahl’s first choice for the role was Spike Milligan, who probably would have played Wonka more like the book’s version. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/144 "2024-05-21T19:30:28Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Moore explicitly acknowledges and justifies the discrepencies between his Hyde and the original - his Hyde remarks at one point that he used to be shorter than Jekyll (as he was in the book) but continued abuse of the drug that caused the split made Hyde bigger and stronger each time he took it, until he’s basically a Victorian Incredible Hulk. In another scene in Moore’s comic book, Hyde says it was from the split with Jekyll. “Without me, he has no strength. Without him, I have no limits.” Sort of like that _Star Trek_ episode. While looking up various stage and film adaptations of the story, I ran across this: From the Wikipedia page on [the third stage adaptation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde,_Or_a_Mis-Spent_Life): > Robert Louis Stevenson was not happy with any of the stage play adaptations, since he said they all added a sex angle to the story that was not in the original novel, which in fact featured no major female characters. He called the plays “ugly” and said, “Hyde (was) no more sexual than another, but (was) the essence of cruelty and malice and selfishness and cowardice, and these are the diabolic in man…not this great wish to have a woman, that they make such a cry about.” He also complained that Hyde was supposed to appear younger than Jekyll in the story and “not the other way around as it appeared in the (plays)”.[[17]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde,_Or_a_Mis-Spent_Life#cite_note-17) Also I learned that Stevenson intentionally titled the novella _Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ without any “The” at the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/145 "2024-05-21T19:57:05Z")
I would like to point out Marvel Comics had a Mr Hyde character with superhuman strength and durability that debuted in 1963–thirty years before Alan Moore created the League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Granted the Marvel character is only loosely based on the Stevenson character. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/146 "2024-05-21T20:19:08Z")
The book doesn’t say much of anything about how the creature was created, for the same reason _Mythbusters_ hides the labels when mixing blur with blur – Frankenstein did not want anyone else trying to emulate him. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/147 "2024-05-21T21:08:41Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Alan Moore, in _The League of Extraordinary Gentelmen_ comic, even gave him super senses, allowing him to see the Invisible Man. There’s no precedent in Stevenson for anything like that. He’s mean, conniving, and savage, but that’s it. Alan Moore steals from the best- then craps on it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2024, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/148 "2024-05-22T00:08:16Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > I would like to point out Marvel Comics had a Mr Hyde character with superhuman strength and durability that debuted in 1963–thirty years before Alan Moore created the League of Extraordinary Gentleman. Yeah, but he was of normal human stature (or slightly shorter). That’s still pretty consistent with Stevenson’s character, who showed pretty impressive stamina, if not strength, in beating Sir Danvers Carew to death with a walking stick. But Alan Moore’s Mr. Hyde is the first case I’m aware of where he’s literally larger than life. (Followed by the movie version and the one at the beginning of Van Helsing) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2024, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/149 "2024-05-22T00:21:48Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Showing my age here, but I remember when [Mr. Magoo](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nWlDZiYCH-U&pp=ygUYbXIgbWFnb28gZHIgZnJhbmtlbnN0ZWlu) made a sincere effort to stay true to the original Frankenstein. I liked that series. The Classics Illustrated version of **Frankenstein** is pretty faithful, too. Of the movie versions, Kenneth Braunagh’s version is probably the biggest budget one that tried to stay close to the original, but they veer off in a lot of ways (The Monster apparently retains memories of his brain’s past lives, the whole thing with Elizabeth at the end, etc). DeNiro gets high marks for his portrayal of a literate Creature. He apparently studied people recovering from strokes to shape his portrayal. More faithful was a version called **Victor Frankenstein** and **Terror of Frankenstein**. Although it sounds like a Hammer film, this was an independent version made in 1977 and starring Leon Vitali as Victor Frankenstein (he was Lord Bullingdon in Kubrick’s **Barry Lyndon** and the leader of the masked revels in Kubrick’s **Eyes Wide Shut** ) and almost-unknown Swedish actor Per Oscarsson as the Monster. It’s very faithful, but my major complaint is that it’s frequently slow-moving and boring. The Hallmark TV version from 2004 is pretty good, and has star power in it – William Hurt plays Professor Waldman, and Donald Sutherland is completely miscast as Captain Walton. It’s a little too long and has boring stretches in it, too (the one thing a Frankenstein movie shouldn’t be is boring). And the Monster looks Too Damned Handsome. He’s the prettiest Frankenstein monster since MIchael Sarrazin played him in _Frankenstein: The True Story_ (The title is a lie). ---
**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:** [May 22, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/150 "2024-05-22T18:37:16Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > A weirder example of something overtaking the film version, but I’ve seen people legitimately think online Oddjob in Goldfinger (1964) was a short but stout guy, when in reality he was about 6 feet tall (he was a professional wrestler prior to his film role). > > This entire misunderstanding in current pop culture resides entirely on people who played GoldenEye 007 on N64 (1998) where Oddjob is indeed portrayed as a short guy. According to his [IMDB profile](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0757138/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm) he was 5ft 8 and a quarter. He’s visibly shorter than either Bond or Goldfinger. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/jL9kNvtdrNM/maxresdefault.jpg "James Bond | Goldfinger 1964 - Oddjob's Hat ---- HD 1080p") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL9kNvtdrNM) ---
**Author:** ![MarkF2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5ac83/32.png) [@MarkF2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarkF2004)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2024, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/151 "2024-05-22T23:08:02Z")
This was indeed a tv movie about Jack the Ripper. Armande Assante played an American actor performing in “The Strange Case of Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde” and was considered a suspect in the murders. The transition is pretty good for the time, so have a look if you get the chance. Like all of the adaptations, this version has its share of inaccuracies… > **[Jack the Ripper (TV Mini Series 1988) ⭐ 7.5 | Crime, Drama, Mystery](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095388/)** > > 1h 31m | TV-PG ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/152 "2024-05-23T01:33:54Z")
Ahh the source I was using listed him at six foot but then again he was a wrestler so they might have been exaggerating his height. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/153 "2024-05-23T02:18:57Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The Classics Illustrated version of **Frankenstein** is pretty faithful, too. If you haven’t tried the Junji Ito version, you should. > **[Junji Ito's Frankenstein MANGA REVIEW](https://booksandbao.com/review-junji-itos-frankenstein/)** > > When it comes to adaptation, book-lovers often feel divided. Some welcome film adaptations; others don’t see the point. Some spend hours debating which is better. I am of the opinion that a book and a ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/154 "2024-05-23T07:06:20Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > The movie was much better than the book and this is only one example why. Absof\*ckinglutely correct. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/155 "2024-05-23T15:53:54Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > The Godfather… the movie is only about 60 percent of the book … But what is there is pretty much identical to the book, since Puzo wrote the screenplay as well. There’s nothing significant in the movie where you can shout “That never happened in book!” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/156 "2024-05-23T17:35:46Z")
This one probably isn’t obvious, and I’m interested if anyone can contradict it but – Vampires with enlarged canine “fangs”. It’s certainly hinted at in Bram Stoker’s novel **Dracula** , where Van Helsing describes the two small red marks on first Lucy’s throat, then on many others. So if Dracula is sucking the blood out through two small holes, they must be made by two teeth, right? But the Draculas onstage in Hamilton Deane’s play and the later Deane/Balderstone play did _not_ wear prominent fangs. Nor did Bela Lugosi in the 1931 film, or IIRC in any of his roles on film as a vampire. Nor did Gloria Holden in **Dracula’s Daughter** or Lon Chaney Jr. in **Son of Dracula** , nor John Carradine as Dracula in the 1940s movies. Max Shreck has two very prominent incisors, like rat’s teeth, but not the far-apart canine “fangs” we associate with the role. The first screen vampire I can recall having such teeth is Christopher Lee in his many Hammer films as Dracula, starting with **Horror of Dracula** (called simply “Dracula” in the UK) in 1958. But since then, every damned vampire seems to have them. They’re in all the vampire movies, and in TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and True Blood. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/157 "2024-05-23T17:47:48Z")
Speaking of visual depictions --aren’t the traditional folklore depictions of werewolves of humans transforming _entirely_ into a wolf? If i remember correctly the bipedal “wolfman” form is entirely a Hollywood creation. Can someone correct me if I a wrong? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/158 "2024-05-23T17:52:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’s certainly hinted at in Bram Stoker’s novel **Dracula** , where Van Helsing describes the two small red marks on first Lucy’s throat, then on many others. So if Dracula is sucking the blood out through two small holes, they must be made by two teeth, right? Which is stupid on the face of it anyway. Fangs would have to be much longer than portrayed to puncture either the carotid or jugular without the other teeth leaving distinguishing marks themselves. Do vampires inject a clotting liquid, because you never see someone who is bitten in these productions spouting blood from a punctured vessel after the vamp feeds. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/159 "2024-05-23T18:18:27Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Fangs would have to be much longer than portrayed to puncture either the carotid or jugular without the other teeth leaving distinguishing marks themselves. The other teeth fold away, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711/160 "2024-05-23T18:23:13Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Speaking of visual depictions --aren’t the traditional folklore depictions of werewolves of humans transforming _entirely_ into a wolf? > > If i remember correctly the bipedal “wolfman” form is entirely a Hollywood creation Can someone correct me if I a wrong? AFAIK you are correct. Re. vampire fangs: Stoker mentions the canines but describes all of Dracula’s teeth as being sharp: - the lamplight fell on a hard-looking mouth, with very red lips and sharp-looking teeth, as white as ivory. - I had now an opportunity of observing him, and found him of a very marked physiognomy. His face was a strong—a very strong—aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor. Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine; but seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse—broad, with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point. - The Count smiled, and as his lips ran back over his gums, the long, sharp, canine teeth showed out strangely - and noticing his quiet smile, with the sharp, canine teeth lying over the red underlip, So while Dracula’s teeth and canines were atypical enough to be noticeable, they weren’t inhumanely enlarged. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-movie-version-has-taken-over/1001711.md?page=9)