# Why hasn't there been a Hollywood film about Typhoid Mary? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 21, 2016, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-there-been-a-hollywood-film-about-typhoid-mary/749726 "2016-03-21T03:07:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [March 21, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-there-been-a-hollywood-film-about-typhoid-mary/749726/21 "2016-03-21T19:00:33Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > [Panic in the Streets.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_in_the_Streets_(film)) Dick Widmark, Jack Palance, Zero Mostel, Barbara Bel Geddes. Pretty good movie. Dick is the heroic health inspector. A generally similar type of movie could be made about Typhoid Mary: 2nd tier (at the time) stars and a limited budget. Nothing in the Typhoid Mary story requires any expensive special effects. Doing it as a period piece would require appropriate costumes and sets, of course. “So this chick is running through the streets and everyone she meets dies? It’s a race against the clock?” “Not exactly. She doesn’t wash her hands after taking a dump and people get a fever and shit themselves for a couple of weeks. About 15% die.” “Make them turn into zombies and we have a deal.” ---
**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:** [March 21, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-there-been-a-hollywood-film-about-typhoid-mary/749726/22 "2016-03-21T21:03:11Z")
Hollywood doesn’t like to do historical dramas based on actual people from that time period all that much. Very few films based on “regular” people from that era get made. If someone wrote a script for Typhoid Mary, it would soon end up being re-written and re-written until it’s another _Outbreak_ or _Contagion_ type film. “You see, it’ll sell more tickets. No one cares about some sick old lady from like a hundred years ago, but if you make it Ebola and set in LA, you might have something.” (I’d love to see a really good new movie made about Nellie Bly. But it probably won’t happen. “No one cares about some … .”) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-there-been-a-hollywood-film-about-typhoid-mary/749726/23 "2016-03-21T22:09:24Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > A rather fictionalized version of her forms a minor subplot in the first season of HBO’s _The Knick_. I’m guessing a big-screen treatment isn’t likely because the real Mallon was kind of a bitch, undercutting any sympathy for her an audience might feel. The portrayal in The Knick was interesting. The public health inspector and a crusading socialite were trying to get her locked up as a public health hazard, but the judge didn’t understand how she could be dangerous, given that she was asymptomatic. ---
**Author:** ![HarryTheHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@HarryTheHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HarryTheHat)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-there-been-a-hollywood-film-about-typhoid-mary/749726/24 "2016-03-23T03:38:11Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > I’m with Harry: this thing ought to write itself. It’s got mystery, tension, human drama, politics, sexuality – what more do you want? > > New York, 1906: families are dying, and the authorities are at a loss. In desperation, one family hires rogue typhoid specialist George Soper to track down the source of infection. With lives on the line, can he identify the elusive vector in time? Does the talented but mysterious Dr Sara Baker hold the key where the law is powerless? > > “Baker, meet your new partner” > > “I work alone, Chief, you know that!” > > “Not this time, Sara – this is big, and we’re running out of time.” > > “Soper’s a loose cannon!” > > “He’s the best chance we’ve got to find this woman – but we need you to bring her in.” Yes! And with a Don LaFontaine “In a world…” trailer: “In a world where cooks were many and clean hands were few enters a man …” ---
**Author:** ![HarryTheHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@HarryTheHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HarryTheHat)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-there-been-a-hollywood-film-about-typhoid-mary/749726/25 "2016-03-23T03:42:31Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Hollywood doesn’t like to do historical dramas based on actual people from that time period all that much. Very few films based on “regular” people from that era get made. > > If someone wrote a script for Typhoid Mary, it would soon end up being re-written and re-written until it’s another _Outbreak_ or _Contagion_ type film. > > “You see, it’ll sell more tickets. No one cares about some sick old lady from like a hundred years ago, but if you make it Ebola and set in LA, you might have something.” > > (I’d love to see a really good new movie made about Nellie Bly. But it probably won’t happen. “No one cares about some … .”) You may have something there: the last I recall was _Gangs of New York_. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-there-been-a-hollywood-film-about-typhoid-mary/749726/26 "2016-03-23T04:25:18Z")
Yeah, period films tend to be more expensive and difficult to shoot than contemporary ones, and period dialogue and behavior are a research-intensive PITA for scriptwriters. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-there-been-a-hollywood-film-about-typhoid-mary/749726/28 "2016-03-23T12:31:05Z")
> [@HarryTheHat](#): > > Why hasn’t there been a Hollywood film about Mary Mallon a.k.a Typhoid Mary? I know there was a well-received dramatised doco about her in 1993, but to me the story cries out for a compelling, intelligent historical drama? I mean, plot-wise, it has the works, intersecting with class, gender, race, public health, you name it. I’m surprised no-one has had a full-on crack at it. > [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > Not _American Experience_, [\*\*_Nova_](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/typhoid/). I knew I saw a very good PBS docu about it, but I didn’t think it was back in '93\*!\* [The 2004 episode of NOVA, _The Most Dangerous Woman in America_,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUUqVCwiSZ4) is the closest thing you’ll get to a bio-film, and like I said it’s really good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-there-been-a-hollywood-film-about-typhoid-mary/749726.md?page=1)