From book to screen
Submitted by Jeff Fox on April 22, 2009 - 8:19am
It's spring, so my YouthFriends effort kicks into high gear. By the way, YouthFriends is a great program in our local schools. If you're not volunteering, stop reading this and go sign up.
The tradition is that I read "Charlotte's Web" to the third graders and "Where the Red Fern Grows" to the fifth graders. And I'd throw "Old Yeller" in the mix if there was time. What do these have in common? Well, at least two things. First, the spider or dog is going to croak. We know that. E.B. White hints at it early in "Charlotte's Web," and Fred Gipson says it flat out at the beginning of "Old Yeller." And yet when the moment comes, it's stunning and tearful for all involved, including students, teachers and, ahem, your faithful reader at the front of the room.
What else? Oh, yeah – movies.
"Old Yeller" was made into a dreadful Disney movie that even Tommy Kirk, Fess Parker (basically a cameo) and the wonderful Dorothy McGuire could not redeem. "Charlotte's Web" has been movie-fied several times. The most memorable seem to be with Debbie Reynolds as the voice of Charlotte and Paul Lynde as the voice of Templeton the rat. Where those even in the same movie?
So this week's question is several questions. What are some great books made into great movies? "To Kill a Mockingbird" comes to mind. What are some great books made into bad movies? "Dune," perhaps? What are some so-so books that made pretty good movies? I'm thinking of "The Hunt for Red October." And then what about bad books that they just should have left alone?
A trivia question: TCM's 15th anniversary was the other day, and it showed the first movie it aired. What is it?
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Would like to add the film "The Outsiders" was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and one of my favorite musicians Tom Waits plays the bit part of Buck Merrill.
Loved Ur Zamboni Cartoon...
I watched a good one its two disk's from Netflic's Rough riders, about teddy and it has every start U can think of, when they were about 40. Sam Elliot, every one ...
Here's one you haven't seen, yet you need to. In fact, I don't even think you realized this book existed until I said something about it.
S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders." Good book that was on many reading lists in school. Great movie with several future starts at the time. I mean, a cast that includes Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, all before they were stars. Great.
And the movie/book is a good story about cliques in the 1950s and the danger we all get into when we let our differences define and divide us instead of embracing them and each other.
Go on Jeff, you know you want to watch it. Do it for Johnny. (Watch it and you'll know what that means.)
Diane Lane, you say? Hmm. I'll take it under advisement. In the meantime, I'm spooling up "A Face in the Crowd," which one of our bloggers suggested the other day. Yes, the Mid-Continent Public Library had it. As in, free. As my 17-year-old gets tired of hearing me say, that's my favorite price.
Jeff Fox, opinion page editor, The Examiner, jeff.fox@examiner.net, 816-350-6313