MacMurphy is not a bad example, though. In the novel he’s a tall, muscled redhead. The type who had many a barroom brawl.
Hasn’t McMurphy already suffered enough in correctional institutions?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest might itself qualify for this thread. I don’t think there are outright contradictions between the novel and the Milos Forman film, but the novel is narrated from the first-person perspective of Chief Bromden, who is a minor character in the film.
It didn’t seem to bother him enough to stop frequenting them.
Yes, the Kenneth Branagh version with Robert de Niro as the monster begins with the hunt in the Arctic, when Dr. Frankenstein is picked up by a ship and tells his story to the ship’s captain. It’s overall the most true adaption of the novel I’ve seen, for instance it also depicts the monster learning speech and reading by watching a family living in a hut in the woods.
So, all these are hokum too?
Dr. William Watson, M.D.:
1 Across. A simple source of citrus fruit, 1, 5, 4.
Arthur Sherlock Holmes:
A lemon tree, my dear Watson.
[Elsewhere in the hotel, Moriarty shoots Sam Spade]
Dr. William Watson, M.D.:
2 Down. Conservative pays ex-wife maintenance. 7, 5.
Arthur Sherlock Holmes:
Alimony…alimony Tory, my dear Watson.
Arthur Sherlock Holmes:
Never cease to astound me.
[Moriarty takes a sword to Hercule Poirot]
Dr. William Watson, M.D.:
2 Down. Southern California style. 1, 2, 8.
Arthur Sherlock Holmes:
A la Monterrey, my dear Watson.
Dr. William Watson, M.D.:
Really good, holmes.
Dr. William Watson, M.D.:
4 Down. Burglar’s entrance
Arthur Sherlock Holmes:
Alarm entry, my dear Watson
Dr. William Watson, M.D.:
That’s rather poor, isn’t it, Holmes? Right. One to go. A cowardly fish with a sting in its tail.
Arthur Sherlock Holmes:
Yellow manta ray, my dear Watson
Dr. William Watson, M.D.:
Brilliant, Holmes
You just can’t trust the internet any more
The “De Niro Frankenstein” was floating around my brain, reading the many comments on how supposedly no-one has made a faithful-to-the-source film adaption of the book, but you beat me to it.
The 2004 miniseries (titled, simply, “Frankenstein”) is considered by some reviewers to be even more faithful to the original novel than Kenneth Branagh’s movie.
There was a 1973 made-for-TV movie with James Mason and Jane Seymour. It took major liberties with the story, but it did end on a ship in the arctic.
Jane Seymour’s character’s name was “Abby Normal.” 
Have a look at David J. Skal’s book The Monster Show, his history of horror films (especially the Universal ones). He reproduces a set of eight sketches made by Universal artists attempting to come up with some new and original face for the FRankenstein monster. Many of these combine elements from robots as well as stitched-together corpses. One, in particular, stands out – it has that flat-topped head (because the robotic part of it has squared-off components) and the two electric contacts/bolts in the neck – again, because it’s a robot. This seems to me to be pretty clearly the source for those features of the FRankenstein Monster. Claiums I;ve come across that they looked at the way 19th century doctors would treat a head wound,.or that they made it “like a beef tin” (from the script for the film Gods and Monsters) aren’t convincing, and have no corroboration. The existence of this sketch provides contemporary evidence for this origin of the features.
Moreover, it served its purpose – it was a unique and original image of the Created Person, clearly different from anything preceding it, and made that stitched-together corpse more than the sum of its parts. And it was definitely iconic.
Regarding The Bridge over the River Kwai, I agree that the ending is changed, just as the ending is changed in The African Queen – in both cases the film would’ve been sorely disappointing if, after all they went through, the heroes didn’t succeed in their attempt to destroy the enemy’s work. But I don’t think in either of these cases it’s an iconic change where the movie changed the perception of the work as, for instance, with that different vision of the Frankenstein Monster. Nobody talks about the end of River Kwai or African Queen these days.
And I disagree with your disagreement about The Shining. So, I think, would Stephen King. Consider how radically different it is that Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers’ character) gets killed in the film. He’s one of the prime movers in the book, and rescues Wendy and Danny. In the film, after persistently and doggedly making his way to the Overlook he gets summarily offed by Jack with his axe (which he doesn’t even have in the book). I sort of suspect that Kubrick realized that he had woven an atmospheric psychological horror story and didn’t have anybody actually killed, or even physically hurt, and he had to do something to make it serious.
And the Overlook is still standing at the end!
I don’t have Mr. Skal’s book, but I did find this article which seems well-researched and essentially corroborates what you wrote:
Many thanks for the enlightenment.
Showing my age here, but I remember when Mr. Magoo made a sincere effort to stay true to the original Frankenstein. Full episode list
Mr. Magoo was reliable while I was out of funds for Classics Illustrated comics
They also muted Lugosi’s dialog, as it was odd seeing that voice coming out of the Monster’s mouth.
Note that Holmes and Watson, despite being considered close friends, never call it other by their Christian name, like close friends would back then- but hardly anyone else but family.
Of course in some of these examples the book was not that popular before the film.
Films have gone back and forth, sometimes depicting him as silent or monosyllabic, sometimes depicting him as eloquent.
More enduring has been the Tarzan Yell. In the books, Burroughs often referred to “the victory cry of the great bull ape,” but he never tried to describe exactly what it sounded like. In The New Adventures of Tarzan (which Burroughs helped produce), and the first radio serial (which starred Burroughs’ daughter and son-in-law), the actor shouts “Mangani” or “Tarmangani”. It starts as a low-pitched growl on the first syllable, and rises to a high-pitched scream on the last syllable.
Ever since Johnny Weissmüller’s movies, however, most movies have tried to mimic Weissmüller’s yodelling.
How about The Little Mermaid? People overwhelmingly think of the Disney version rather than the original Andersen short story and its ending.
Oops. Def not a Stephen King book. My bad. Def referring to McMurphy tho. They changed him for the film.
He still jumped (more or less) in the cartoons, but it was the radio show that made him fly. It also introduced kryptonite, Perry White and Jimmy Olsen among other elements.