Adaptations, arrangements and reinterpretations

[Richard Tarleton]

A couple of my favourite film adaptations are both early B&W efforts. One is of Jules Verne's "Michael Strogoff" with Anton Walbrook, a sweeping tale set on the steppes of central Russia in the 1870s. I did read the book at some point. The great screen baddie Akim Tamiroff plays the Tartar villain. The other is the 1937 B&W version of The Prisoner of Zenda, with Ronald Coleman, David Niven et al. There was a frame-for-frame colour remake with Stewart Grainger in 1952 which was feeble by comparison. Film brought a new dimension to the creaky Anthony Hope novels which I read at school.

Jeremy Brett as Holmes for me. And Peter Guillam gay? Why? Caliban you've seen the film is this true?

[Nick Armstrong]

Jeremy Brett as Holmes for me. And Peter Guillam gay? Why? Caliban you've seen the film is this true?

I have the complete Brett DVD box-set and agree he is quite brilliant and convincing and hypnotic in the role. But I can handle Downey Jnr. and Cumberbatch in the role too.

And here is the latter confirming (last para) that his character in TTSS is indeed gay: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mosl...ing-dream.html

[Richard Tarleton]

I have the complete Brett DVD box-set and agree he is quite brilliant and convincing and hypnotic in the role. But I can handle Downey Jnr. and Cumberbatch in the role too.

And here is the latter confirming (last para) that his character in TTSS is indeed gay: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mosl...ing-dream.html

Hmm. Yes, but in quite a nuanced, public school sort of way - he is also quite energetically heterosexual in the second of the trilogy (after Molly Meakin surprises him with a joyous but refined carnality ), but is in a rather sad marriage with a much younger wife by the time of Smiley's People.....

[Anna]

Hmm. Yes, but in quite a nuanced, public school sort of way

I thought all public schoolboys were gay, there wasn't an option, like dropping physics and chemistry for GCSE?

[Nick Armstrong]

I thought all public schoolboys were gay, there wasn't an option, like dropping physics and chemistry for GCSE?

The obvious retort would involve Welshman and sheep, but it's of course not one I would make!

[Richard Tarleton]

I thought all public schoolboys were gay, there wasn't an option, like dropping physics and chemistry for GCSE?

Anna this is a typical misunderstanding. It's an optional extra, like carpentry or music.

[Norfolk Born]

As an ex-grammar school boy, I'm happy to admit that I was, and remain, totally useless at being gay, at carpentry and at music. (I did drop Physics and Chemistry, but only to concentrate on modern languages - and, to my great surprise, I did get a very respectable grade at 'O' level Biology).

[french frank]

Surely it would have to be Herlock Sholmes

Et voilà!

[salymap]

I still prefer the old B/W films with Basil Rathbone. Pity his Watson, [well-known actor, whose name escapes me at this early hour], is such a bumbling idiot.

[mercia]

his Watson

Nigel Bruce, who (according to wikipedia) was born in Mexico and received 11 bullets in the leg at the Battle of Cambrai

[antongould]

I still prefer the old B/W films with Basil Rathbone. Pity his Watson, [well-known actor, whose name escapes me at this early hour], is such a bumbling idiot.

But is that not how the black and white era imagined its Watson in the sixties we seemed to move on to worthy if a little dim!

[amateur51]

I still prefer the old B/W films with Basil Rathbone. Pity his Watson, [well-known actor, whose name escapes me at this early hour], is such a bumbling idiot.

I agree with you on both counts, salymap.

One of the major attractions of the current 'modern' series is that they get the sources of Holmes' anti-social nature nearer the mark than usual and that Martin Freeman plays Watson as far brighter than usual. Holmes may be superhuman but it does the stories no favours if Watson is portrayed as a nidiot!

But Basil Rathbone is near-perfect to look at

[Flosshilde]

I thought all public schoolboys were gay, there wasn't an option, like dropping physics and chemistry for GCSE?

It depends - if you were an Aesthete you had to be even if you weren't; if you were a Hearty you couldn't be even if you were.

As an ex-grammar school boy, I'm happy to admit that I was, and remain, totally useless at being gay,

Hmm - do you mean that you tried?

[Flosshilde]

I don’t mind reworking of films (The 39 Steps for example)

And now for a serious comment.

How do we react if we first become familiar with a story through a film version, & then discover that the original novel is completely different - indeed, might not have some of the most effective scenes in the film? Is it a similar 'violation' as a not very faithful film adaptation of a book we know & love? I recently read a description of Buchann's novel & was surprised that it was almost a different story.

[Norfolk Born]

Hmm - do you mean that you tried?

Not that I'm aware.