Bad movie versions of good PLAYS (not musicals)

... since bad musical adaptations have already been discussed to death.

For example, "Boeing Boeing" and Gore Vidal's "Visit to a Small Planet" were both turned into lousy star vehicles for Jerry Lewis. Likewise, "Room Service" was turned into a third rate Marx Brothers movie.

Then there's the recent re-make of "Sleuth"...

Of course, some older plays fell victim to the Hays censorship code. The classic melodrama "The Shanghai Gesture", about a whorehouse madame named "Mother God-Damn", became the story of a "Madame Gin Sling" who ran a bar.

I found Proof to be as interesting as watching paint dry on screen, but I liked the stage version.

An under-appreciated Tennessee Williams play, "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore," became a travesty of a movie entitled, "Boom," starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, both miscast. Noel Coward played a role previously played by a woman, and he livened things up a bit.

Neil Simon's "The Star-Spangled Girl" was funny on the stage, but it was a botch on film.

I didn't mind "Noises Off". It is definitely meant for the stage, but the movie was okay.

"Fool For Love" was dynamic on stage but is a dud on film. "Reckless" is a terrible movie, though I loved the original off-broadway production. "The Substance of Fire" lost a lot in translation, too. "Oh Dad, Poor Dad" was supposed to have been great on stage but the movie is abominably bad. Ditto "Luv".

The film version of Doubt was not really a BAD movie, but it sort of lost its vital intensity by opening it up to more than just the four main cast members and showing scenes in multiple locations. It just deflated on screen. If I didn't read the play first, I would've thought it was a better movie, but it just was not as good as the dynamite stage version. I think the reviews reflected this.

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The Doubt film SUUUUUCKED. As a movie at least; can't compare as an adaptation.

And @LizzieCurry, I actually find Cronenberg's M. Butterfly wildly underrated.

Death and the Maiden. Great cast but none of the intensity of the play. Some things are just better on stage.

Going back a bit:

Mourning Becomes Electra
Desire Under the Elms
The Hairy Ape
The Emperor Jones

No wonder, when asked by one of the movie studios if he'd like to write a screenplay and requested that the answer be 50 words or less, he answered: NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.

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I agree with anyone who thinks Doubt stinks. I hated it.

Almost all of Tennessee Williams plays were ruined in the 50s and 60s.
The original film version of Glass Menagerie and Sweet Bird of Youth tacked on "Happy" endings and thereby ruined the films.
The censors alsom ruined Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

I beg to disagree. Streetcar and Cat, in spite of their edits, are wonderful films. You'd be hard pressed to find better productions of either on stage anywhere. Cat is a much movie than play, in fact. It makes a lot more sense. Sweet Bird does suffer from its completely inappropriate ending, but until that point it is actually quite good and is too well acted to dismiss. Suddenly Last Summer, though not nearly as good a play, was well cast and filmed as well. Ditto Night of the Iguana, The Rose Tattoo and Period of Adjustment. The Fugitive Kind is not great, but neither is the play it is based on.

Hollywood has actually been consistently kind to Williams. The faithful but static Summer and Smoke and the unfortunate rewrite of The Glass Menagerie, along with the aforementioned bomb aptly titled Boom!, are the exceptions, not the rule.

I loved Streetcar (I only saw the reworked that added scenes censored in the original release), Cat, and Suddenly. Good acting always wins and I think it was easy to know what was going on despite the some of the censorship. I thought it was clear Sebastian was using Catherine to lure lovers. I cannot defend Glass Menagerie with Kirk Douglas and Jane Wyman though I did like the Paul Newman directed film with Woodward, Malkovich, and Karen Allen.

Add me to the list who did not like Doubt. I thought PSH was all wrong for the role of Father Flynn, Meryl was chewing the scenery as Sister Aloysius, and the scene settings seemed so out of place compared to the play. Case in point Viola Davis and Meryl meeting, a truly gripping scene, and it is set outdoors. What?

Did not really think too highly of The Crucible with Daniel Day-Lewis. Really odd camera work, incredibly anti-climatic considering what was at stake, and some of the events that was never shown on stage that is shown in the film just did not strike a real chord.

An edited or censored film version doesn't (or didn't) necessarily result in a "bad" film.

I love the film adaptations of Streetcar and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In some cases, what is left to the mind or insinuated is more powerful than the literal. I can think of one case in particular ... the original movie adaptation of Lillian Hellmann's "The Children's Hour," called "These Three," with Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, and Bonita Granville. Not only is the affair insinuated, the scandal wasn't a lesbian relationship (solely), but a ménage à trois with the two ladies and Joel McRae. Instead of being "watered down," it's a FAR more powerful film than the later adaptation, called "The Children's Hour," with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. They had the lesbian scandal and everything. But the movie wasn't nearly as effective (or good).

I saw the stage and screen adaptation of "Doubt," and while the movie wasn't quite as good as the play, it still worked well. I certainly wouldn't call it "bad."

One play I saw on Broadway that really disappointed me as a film was "Agnes of God." It didn't come close to the intensity or power on stage. Such a shame. Yeah, comparatively, the film was BAD.

I didn't think Crimes of the Heart, 'Night Mother, or Torch Song Trilogy were good films. With Torch Song, they took a 3 1/2 hour play and cut 90 minutes of it! An hour and a half. We were left with a watered-down, sanitized, Hallmark Hall of Fame version of one of the best Broadway plays I've ever seen.

One film that (IMO) improved on the stage play was Amadeus. On Golden Pond was an improvement as well.

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Updated On: 3/17/10 at 03:22 PM