# Let's list some "stagey" movies. Also, why make stagey movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 5, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291 "2015-07-05T02:35:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/21 "2015-07-05T05:39:43Z")
The original [Sleuth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069281/?ref_=nv_sr_1) from 1972 was stagey. Some things that make a movie stagey to me include limited camera angles, little intercutting, long scenes, few locations, few characters. A stagey movie is one that looks like you’re watching a play. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/22 "2015-07-05T06:13:00Z")
> [@dofe](#): > > Dogville probably counts as “stagey,” but it’s done so very [deliberately](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogville#Staging). Likewise its follow-up, _Manderlay_. ---
**Author:** ![camille](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@camille](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/camille)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/23 "2015-07-05T06:29:14Z")
Based on the criteria for stagey mentioned so far, [12 Angry Men](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050083/?ref_=tttr_tr_tt) should qualify: All but 3 minutes set in one room, 12 characters, lots of dialogue, based on a teleplay and kept true to the original script. But the way Sidney Lumet shot the film was brilliant; he definitely took full advantage of his [medium](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050083/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv): > [@](#): > > At the beginning of the film, the cameras are all positioned above eye level and mounted with wide-angle lenses to give the appearance of greater distance between the subjects. As the film progresses the cameras slip down to eye level. By the end of the film, nearly all of it is shot below eye level, in close-up and with telephoto lenses to increase the encroaching sense of claustrophobia. So I’m not sure I would say it’s stagey, or that a stage production could match what the film version achieved. Does anyone disagree? ---
**Author:** ![TheInimitableMaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@TheInimitableMaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheInimitableMaven)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/24 "2015-07-05T06:31:58Z")
_1776_ definitely fits the (play)bill here…but like near everything else mentioned thus far, it was originally a stage play (a Broadway musical debuting in 1969 (which ran for 1,217 performances), to be exact). Between the historic theme and my digging a couple of the actors and their BRILLIANT casting (William Daniels as John Adams and Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin), I wish I liked it a lot more than I did and do… ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/25 "2015-07-05T12:18:18Z")
**August: Osage County** was very stagey. And also based on a play, so… ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/26 "2015-07-05T12:31:49Z")
_Arsenic and Old Lace_ was the first one I thought of; it was originally a play. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/27 "2015-07-05T13:17:21Z")
> [@camille](#): > > Based on the criteria for stagey mentioned so far, [12 Angry Men](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050083/?ref_=tttr_tr_tt) should qualify: All but 3 minutes set in one room, 12 characters, lots of dialogue, based on a teleplay and kept true to the original script. > > But the way Sidney Lumet shot the film was brilliant; he definitely took full advantage of his [medium](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050083/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv): > > > [@](#): > > > > At the beginning of the film, the cameras are all positioned above eye level and mounted with wide-angle lenses to give the appearance of greater distance between the subjects. As the film progresses the cameras slip down to eye level. By the end of the film, nearly all of it is shot below eye level, in close-up and with telephoto lenses to increase the encroaching sense of claustrophobia. > > So I’m not sure I would say it’s stagey, or that a stage production could match what the film version achieved. Does anyone disagree? I have to admit, that’s an interesting camera idea, and one which I did not note on first viewing. In my head, I do think of this as a stagey movie, but maybe if I re-watched, focusing on the camera work, I might think of it differently. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/28 "2015-07-05T13:23:17Z")
The recent film version of [Anna Karenina](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1781769/?ref_=nv_sr_2) was intended to be a location movie, but was [forced into being a stagey production by budgetary constraints](http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/sep/02/joe-wright-vision-anna-karenina): > [@](#): > > It may have been an ingenious creative and financial solution, but Joe Wright’s big idea on Anna Karenina – to stage most of the film inside a Russian theatre – posed a herculean challenge for his long-time production designer. Rather than shooting the film on location in Russia and England as planned, “We had to reconceive the whole thing and build this theatre from scratch in Shepperton with just 12 weeks to go till shooting and no extra budget.” ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/29 "2015-07-05T13:38:26Z")
_Come Back To the Five and Dime, Jimmie Dean Jimmie Dean_ ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/30 "2015-07-05T14:19:56Z")
> [@TheInimitableMaven](#): > > _1776_ definitely fits the (play)bill here…but like near everything else mentioned thus far, it was originally a stage play (a Broadway musical debuting in 1969 (which ran for 1,217 performances), to be exact). Between the historic theme and my digging a couple of the actors and their BRILLIANT casting (William Daniels as John Adams and Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin), I wish I liked it a lot more than I did and do… Yeah, much of the movie, and pretty much all of the songs, are kinda meh. But, the last twenty or thirty minutes, the actual vote on, and signing of, the Declaration, are brilliant. What you take away is that the Declaration, and independence in general, were by no means a given, as it appears in hindsight. In fact, it took all kinds of wheeler-dealing to get everyone on board. Fascinating. (Note that the dealmaking shown in the movie is highly fictionalized, but the actual negotiations were at least as complex.) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/31 "2015-07-05T14:47:00Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > _Noises Off!_ – which makes sense since it’s based on a stage play about putting on a stage play. I was going to mention this one. The movie was not “stagey” and failed as a result. To work, it HAS to be seen the way a live audience would see it. When you see it in the theater, in the first act you see a play being rehearsed- a silly farce set in an English country house. In the second act, the set is turned around and the live audience sees the BACK of the English country house set… you see what is going on literally “behind the scenes.” You see the issues among the cast, the romances, the feuds, and meanwhile, you hear the appropriate lines being spoken to the “audience” now hypothetically at the back of the stage looking at the front of the set. Side-splittingly funny. In the third act, the set is turned around the right way again, and the live audience sees the front of it, as it is meant to be seen, but now all kinds of things have happened and it is absolutely hilarious. I’ve seen it a couple of times and I’ve never laughed so much at a live production. I’ve always thought this would be a difficult play for actors to learn because they say the same lines in the farce-play-with-a-play in all three acts, but with different business inserted in acts two and three. No matter–it’s one of the funniest plays in the world. All of this was lost in the movie. The movie should have been filmed as though filming a stage play. The play only works if it is seen in a “stagey” way. _Chorus Line_ (the movie) would have worked better if filmed in a stagey way, too. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/32 "2015-07-05T14:51:49Z")
If you’re going to cite a stagy movie based on a Mamet play, the best (?) example is [Oleanna](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110722/). Two people, one very small set, all talk. ---
**Author:** ![splatterpunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@splatterpunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/splatterpunk)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/33 "2015-07-05T17:39:54Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > [Stalag 17](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_17) seems stagey on occasion, with so much of the dialogue and action taking place in the prisoner’s barracks. > > I wasn’t surprised to see that the movie was based on a Broadway play. I was surprised that the play was based on actual life in an Austrian prison camp. Great username/post combo. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/34 "2015-07-05T21:58:20Z")
Two I’ll bet no one remembers: _ **Mary, Mary** _ with Debbie Reynolds and Michael Rennie, and \*\*\*Hedda \*\*\*with Glenda Jackson and Patrick Stewart. I was watching the former on TCM some time ago, and was thinking the whole time “Real people do \*not \*talk like that!” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/35 "2015-07-05T23:33:20Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > I will not define stagey and further than to say watching the movie feels more like watching a play than watching a film. Perhaps y’all can help me out with some of the elements that make a movie feel that way. > > A lot of the movies that feel stagey were based on plays, so not too surprising, I guess. But it doesn’t have to be that way. _Driving Miss Daisy_ was based on a stage play, and it doesn’t feel “stagey” at all. > > And not all the stagey movies are based on plays. Maybe they come out stagey because either the writer or the director is more used to working on stage productions. Maybe the creators designed the movie to be stagey for artistic reasons. Maybe it’s a matter of budgetary constraints. > > What prompted the thread is the movie [Nightwatching](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446750/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), starring Martin Freeman as Rembrandt. Sounded potentially good to me, but I found it to be stagey in a most egregious way. (It is very self-consciously so. Most of the scenes are filmed in stage sets with the floorboards readily apparent, and scenery being wheeled in and out.) > > So what are some other stagey movies out there? Does it bother you to watch a movie like that? What elements make a movie feel stagey? And why make a movie stagey? Seems like you are not taking full advantage of your medium. “Mame” is quite stagy; for example, several scenes end with the actors freezing and the lighting changing to spotlight one or two characters, while everything else is unlit. It works for that movie. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/36 "2015-07-06T00:12:59Z")
Twelve Angry Men certainly qualifies, you don’t even need to change the set at all. I concur with the Dial M for Murder nomination as well as Rear Window. Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? also seems to fit. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/37 "2015-07-06T00:42:10Z")
_My Dinner with Andre_ would qualify, no? > [@Spoke](#): > > The recent film version of [Anna Karenina](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1781769/?ref_=nv_sr_2) was intended to be a location movie, but was [forced into being a stagey production by budgetary constraints](http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/sep/02/joe-wright-vision-anna-karenina): And I thought it was brilliantly done. There’s a great scene where a character leaves the theater through a back stage door and emerges into the vast Russian steppe in winter - simply breathtaking. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/38 "2015-07-06T01:25:35Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > “Mame” is quite stagy; for example, several scenes end with the actors freezing and the lighting changing to spotlight one or two characters, while everything else is unlit. It works for that movie. _Auntie Mame_ (the 1958 film) is terribly “stagey.” Everything about it screams that it was written to be a stage play. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/39 "2015-07-06T01:34:42Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > _Auntie Mame_ (the 1958 film) is terribly “stagey.” Everything about it screams that it was written to be a stage play. Yeah, that’s the one I meant. ---
**Author:** ![Dioptre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@Dioptre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dioptre)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291/40 "2015-07-06T02:39:36Z")
**A Few Good Men** - adapted from a stage play, and it shows. A very small number of locations, lots of dialog, and all the drama/conflict comes as dialog set-pieces. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-list-some-stagey-movies-also-why-make-stagey-movies/724291.md?page=3)