My wife and I were watching Freaky Friday* yesterday and I mentioned to her that it’s basically a remake of several dozen movies. Unfortunately I couldn’t think of any examples. So I come crawling to you fellow Dopers, help me compile a list.
*In case you haven’t seen it a mother and child get to live in each others bodies to see how thihngs are from the other point of view.
Well, we had a pair of them released nearly at the same time back in 1987 – Vice Versa and Like Father Like Son.
And of course, the 2003 Freaky Friday was a remake of the 1976 Freaky Friday.
Since Hal took mine, I’ll post a link to the IMDb’s body-swap page.
Going back a bit, there’s the 1940 Hal Roach comedy Turnabout, staring Adolphe Menjou, Carole Landis, and John Hubbard, about a bickering young married couple who wake up one morning in each other’s bodies. Based on the 1931 Thorne Smith novel.
And Vice Versa, of course, was at least inspired by F. Anstey’s novel of the same name (and theme), published in 1882.
I have a vague feeling P.G. Wodehouse did a body-swap novel, too … Laughing Gas? Anyone better versed than me in the Wodehouse canon?
Thanks, I knew I could count on Dopers.
There was also “18 Again” where Grandpa George Burns switches bodies with his 18 y.o grandson.
Hmm, the “Trivia” section for that mentions other “body swap” movies from the same year that includes “Big” (along with “Vice Versa” and “Like Father Like Son”). I never considered that a “swap”, the kid just grew into Tom Hanks.
Another one dredged from my memory is “All of Me”, but that has Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin sharing the same body, so it might not count.
I’m sure there’s been more. The idea of “walking in another person’s shoes” is pretty common in storytelling, and actually swapping bodies works well for it.
Gah, sorry about the link screw up.
::bangs head against desk:: Preview, preview, preview!!!
Switch, where a man comes back as a woman, so it’s sort of one way.
There also was the classic '70s TV series Turnabout. In which a magic statue swaps a husband and wife, played by John Shuck (of the other classic, Holmes and Yoyo) and Sharon Gless (of Revenge of the Stepford Wives)into each others bodies. Of course, hilarity ensues… 
Are you sure?
I assumed that it was two different films both based on the same novel. But you mi9ght be right.
And of course the last episode of the original Star Trek.
Prelude to a Kiss, where the newly married bride switches with the old man.
There’s an episode of the The Avengers where two foreign agents swap bodies with Steed and Mrs. Peel. I imagine it was great fun for Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg to slouch around while playing their alternate selves.
Does ‘Face Off’ (by John Woo) count?
Definitely a remake.
When i was a kid my dad took me to see the original Freaky Friday in the theatre and when they switched bodies it bothered me so much we had to leave.
–Cliffy
So, was Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V a remake of Laurence Olivier’s Henry V then?
What distinguishes a remake from a new film based on the same source material?
Not sure if this qualifies, but Oh, Heavenly Dog! has Chevy Chase(!) playing a detective who gets killed, then returns to Earth in the body of Benji(!!) to solve his own murder.
(I can’t remember why I found the movie appealing when I was seven. Go fig.)
And along the same lines, there was an episode of The Prisoner where No. 6 swapped bodies with a still-active secret agent and went on a mission as him, then was swapped back at the end.
ISTR the episode was done because Patrick McGoohan had to temporarily leave the show to make Ice Station Zebra, but I don’t remember and am too lazy to look it up now.
Didn’t Gilligan’s Island do a body switch episode?