I thought you were referring to this British one, which turns out to be from 1986. I didn’t remember it being that bad (wikipedia claims it is one of the most faithful versions), hence my confusion. I didn’t realize there was such a glut of of filmed versions, even within a decade of each other! There were also apparently multiple anime versions. I think the British series is the only one I’ve ever watched and I only remember that because it was the same child actress that played Alice in the slightly odd and slightly disturbing Dreamchild with Iam Holm as Lewis Carroll who is (innocently?) obsessed with her.
Many, many times. And, again- not bad at all. I also saw the BBC adaptations- more true to the books, sure, but the cast (with one great exception*) , special effects, and what not was sub par.
- Tom Baker as Puddleglum.
There vwere two of them, both TV movies for the science fiction channel/Syfy. The first one got it so wrong that they made the hero an American astronaut, aparently figuring that Americans woudn’t take to a British hero like Richard F. Burton. The second one had Burton in it, at least, but he was sort of a villain.
To me, neither is even close to faithful, or satisfactory.
It is a series that will be hard to adapt.
I’m late to this thread, but I wanted to wholly endorse this post. Everything in this entire post (which I did not quote) is true, especially the redirection/repurposing of the song “What I Did for Love.” And Michael Douglas was 100% wrong for the part of the director.
On top of that, in the movie, you never get to see the chorus line perform “One” in its entirety from a fixed point of view. They’ve spent the whole show learning to perform and rehearsing this number and it is never shown in its finished form so you can appreciate it! This seems to be a tendency in movies about dance and even shows about dance in general. (I’m lookin’ at you “Lord of the Dance.” 
) There are cuts from one camera to another every couple of seconds, jumping from faces to feet to hands to up close and back far away, and it is infuriating! If you want to see the whole dance number from Chorus Line, you have to do a google search, and you may come up with a bootleg copy-- or just an old/bad video-- of the original cast performing it at the Tony awards or something.
I wish I could find the letter to an online SF magazine complaining that their review of the movie credited PK Dick with the original story, when “Total Recall” had been written by Piers Anthony. It was outrageous to steal Piers’ credit! (Yes, Piers Anthony wrote the novelization of the movie, but the letter writer didn’t understand that).
P.S. Has anyone mentioned the movie adaption of “The Story of Mankind” - an adaptation of a children’s book of history turned into a “trial of mankind” by angels, with incidents of history shown as brief sketches (you haven’t lived until you’ve seen Harpo Marx as Isaac Newton).
Never heard of that, neither the book nor the movie, but it sounds intriguingly interesting.
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Written and directed by none other than Irwin Allen.
What do you mean by “original”, though? The books are the original, is my point.
Tamerlane, no, I have no issue with the 1980s BBC versions of ALP and TSG. They’re very faithful, in story and tone, and any additions are to the good. And of course, they’re both miniseries, so there’s time for the story to progress. But I just can’t with the ALPs that have Captain Crewe turn up alive, nor with versions of TSG that have Mary and Colin not even cousins, so he can propose in the garden. No, not even if adult Colin is Colin Firth! The original books were about inner strength and self-improvement, not last-minute saves and glurgey endings.
Not in this thread, but I’ve mentioned it often on this Board. It has one of the weirdest casts ever. Besides Harpo Marx as Isaac Newton, Groucho plays Peter Minuit, conning the Indians out of Manhattan Island. Chico plays a monk who talks with Columbus (It’s the only Marx brothers movie I know of were they don’t share a scene together). Vincent Price plays “Mr. Scratch” (the Devil) and Ronald Colman is “THe Spirit of Mankind”.
Peter Lorre is the Emperor Nero, Agnes Moorhead is Queen Elizabeth I, and lots of other stars get weird cameo roles. Jim Ameche, brother of Don Ameche, plays Alexander Graham Bell (whom Don had played in the biopic a few years earlier). Maybe they couldn’t afford to get Don.
It’s a very weird flick. It’s not clear to me who the intended audience was, or how serious it was trying to be. Probably a great film to watch if drunk or stoned.
I saw that film a couple of times on the local independent station on Sundays when they would show old movies.
I found the movie on Youtube and watched it last night, and indeed it’s a very strange film, but not the worst I ever saw- The worst part about it is the extensive stock footage for mass scenes which stands out like a sore. As for the intended audience, it’s very Christian and America-centric, but it also points out low points of American history like slavery and the exploitation of the Native Americans, which at least is remarkable for a 1957 film. OTOH, in the Manhattan episode with Groucho Marx as Peter Minuit, the Indian chief is portraited as a gullible fool which was typical for the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood movies of the time.
And although it had a short sequence about Hitler and the nazis, there was not a peep about the Holocaust.
My nomination for this category is Flowers for Algernon. What was a poignant story became a bloated movie – Charly. I was very disappointed after loving the short story.
Turns out, he was kinda conned himself- the natives who sold him (they thought it was hunting rights not land) didnt actually have the rights to that island.
Short stories do not lend themselves to full length films. But yep, not good.
The short story was expanded into a novel (of the same name) by its author (Daniel Keyes) before the movie was made.
But the novel also was not as good as the short story. I forgot I’d read it way back when. Its “punch” was lost in the longer format.
I disagree. Despite the badly padded films I list above, you’ll notice that I also list some short stories that were expanded into GOOD films, like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Day the Earth Stood Still. I think that it’s probably better to take a science fiction or fantasy short story and do it as a full-length feature, giving you time to develop the background and explain things, rather than cutting out a lot of stuff and rushing events for a novel-length work in the interests of keeping within the time limits.
Of course, for every 2001 there’s a Mimic
.
Brokeback Mountain was another movie based on a short story and, consulting Wikipedia, so were The Absent-Minded Professor, 3:10 to Yuma, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and others.
And The Quiet Man