Best Play to Film Adaptations
Best Play to Film Adaptations
Best Play to Film Adaptations#1
Posted: 8/30/13 at 3:02am
I would include:
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Amadeus
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Philadelphia Story
Best Play to Film Adaptations#2
Posted: 8/30/13 at 5:52am
On Golden Pond.
The diary of Anne Frank.
The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.
The Woman in Black (Not sure this one counts as it is based on the book that then became the play...I think!)
Updated On: 8/30/13 at 05:52 AM
Best Play to Film Adaptations#2
Posted: 8/30/13 at 5:59am
The Matchmaker
Come Back Little Sheba
Picnic
The Rose Tattoo
The Time of the Cuckoo, released in the US as Summertime and as Summer Madness in the UK
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
Born Yesterday
The Elephant Man isn't based on the play but on the same source material as the play. I hadn't seen it in years but I saw it last month and it's such a fine film.
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Lion in Winter
Blithe Spirit
A Man for All Seasons
Becket
The Little Foxes
A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1935 (Warner Bros.)
Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet by Olivier and by Branagh
Polanski's Macbeth
Olivier's Henry V
Barefoot in the Park - guilty pleasure
Updated On: 8/30/13 at 05:59 AM
Best Play to Film Adaptations#3
Posted: 8/30/13 at 6:29am
In addition to the ones mentioned:
Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
You Can't Take It With You
The King's Speech
Driving Miss Daisy
Gaslight (Angel Street)
Idiot's Delight
Casablanca
The Trip to Bountiful
His Girl Friday (The Front Page)
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Best Play to Film Adaptations#4
Posted: 8/30/13 at 6:45am
Putting in a word for:
A Hatful of Rain
The History Boys
The Odd Couple
The Great White Hope
The Best Man
Play It Again, Sam
Marvin's Room
Mister Roberts
Wait Until Dark
Dial 'M' For Murder
The Country Girl
Six Degrees of Separation
Glengarry Glen Ross
Middle of the Night
A Raisin In The Sun
Separate Tables
The Winslow Boy
An Ideal Husband
Pygmalion
Major Barbara
The Prisoner of Second Avenue
The Night of the Iguana
The Killing of Sister George
Updated On: 9/1/13 at 06:45 AM
Best Play to Film Adaptations#5
Posted: 8/30/13 at 7:10am
~ i love the film versions of:
~ steel magnolias
~ crimes of the heart
~ a thousand clowns
~ the moon is blue
~ the prime of miss jean brodie
~ dinner at eight
~ same time, next year
and
~ cactus flower
Updated On: 8/30/13 at 07:10 AM
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
Best Play to Film Adaptations#6
Posted: 8/30/13 at 7:37am
La Cage aux Folles
Le Dîner de Cons
The Matchmaker
Best Play to Film Adaptations#7
Posted: 8/30/13 at 8:03amHopefully we can add August Osage County to the list soon!!
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
Best Play to Film Adaptations#8
Posted: 8/30/13 at 8:10am
Gaslight
Rashomon
His Girl Friday
Summertime
The Member of the Wedding
Dangerous Liaisons (counting this as from the play in addition to from the novel)
The Winslow Boy (Mamet)
The Dresser
Brief Encounter
The Little Foxes
Dinner at Eight
The Philadelphia Story
You Can't Take It With You
The Sunshine Boys
Becket
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Pygmalion
La Cage aux Folles
The Public Eye
Henry V (Branagh)
Henry V (Olivier)
Richard III (Olivier)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Reinhardt)
Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli)
The Children's Hour
Stage Door
The Women
hon. mention:
The Rose Tattoo and Marvin's Room (because Magnani and Keaton, respectively, give two of the most perfect performances one could ever hope to see on screen)
The Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey's direction and a stellar cast somehow miraculously made a great film out of a mediocre play)
The Old Maid and Old Acquaintance (Davis and Hopkins together x 2)
Dial M for Murder and Rope (because second rate Hitchcock is better than first rate just about anyone else)
These Three (the most artful bowdlerization (a delesbianization of the Children's Hour) ever made)
Updated On: 8/31/13 at 08:10 AM
Best Play to Film Adaptations#9
Posted: 8/30/13 at 8:13am
And while i wouldn't call them entirely successful, I have a great fondness for:
Arsenic and Old Lace
Our Town (the performances and the score)
Only When I Laugh (The Gingerbread Lady)
The Odd Couple
Miss Firecracker
A Member of the Wedding
Shirley Valentine
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Best Play to Film Adaptations#10
Posted: 8/30/13 at 8:23am
Not to turn this thread "bitchy," but the worst play to film adaptations:
Agnes of God
Torch Song Trilogy
Brighton Beach Memoirs
The Corn Is Green
The Front Page
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/24/09
Best Play to Film Adaptations#11
Posted: 8/30/13 at 8:26am
The Miracle Worker is atop my list
(most of the others have been mentioned)
Best Play to Film Adaptations#12
Posted: 8/30/13 at 8:40am
I'm so sick of people turning plays into movies! 
Best Play to Film Adaptations#13
Posted: 8/30/13 at 8:41am
~ well, since besty did start it i would add:
'star spangled girl' - - - unwatchable - - - ugh.
Best Play to Film Adaptations#14
Posted: 8/30/13 at 8:51am
^ I was given a copy of the DVD, and I've never opened it.
I remember seeing the movie as a kid (in the theatre) and thinking it was "dumb" back then.
And I even loved "Lost Horizon" back then. LOL
EDIT: There are a lot of really great ones listed here. I think I need to have a play-to-movie marathon this weekend.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Best Play to Film Adaptations#15
Posted: 8/30/13 at 9:02am
~ how could i have forgotten!
~ one of my all-time favorites: butterflies are free!!!
Best Play to Film Adaptations#16
Posted: 8/30/13 at 9:08am
Having recently watched "Butterflies Are Free," I concur!
Great performances by Hawn, Albert, and especially Eileen Heckart's Oscar-winning turn.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Best Play to Film Adaptations#17
Posted: 8/30/13 at 9:20amI thought that the HBO adaptation of Angels in America was pretty good, even if they did cut out/alter two scenes that I love.
Best Play to Film Adaptations#18
Posted: 8/30/13 at 9:39am
I Am a Camera and The Member of the Wedding are good ones no one mentioned. Odd, you'd think we'd have Julie Harris on our minds right now! IAaC seems awfully hard to come by these days, maybe people aren't familiar with it.
Best Play to Film Adaptations#19
Posted: 8/30/13 at 9:45am
One I forgot is the underrated film version of Craig Lucas's The Dying Gaul.
One that might have made a "worst adaptations" list is the film version of Craig Lucas's Reckless. Awful! And the original production at Circle Rep was such a gem.
Best Play to Film Adaptations#20
Posted: 8/30/13 at 9:53am
No one has mentioned 'Sleuth'. Great performances with a great production design.
The 1953 version of 'Julius Caesar' with James Mason and Marlon Brando hasn't been mentioned. Sometimes Shakespeare doesn't always play well on screen (particularly with Hollywood actors way out of their depth) but that production was extremely entertaining and accessible. Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet was also top-notch.
I'm really looking forward to August: Osage County. I hope it lives up to the play.
Updated On: 8/30/13 at 09:53 AM
Best Play to Film Adaptations#21
Posted: 8/30/13 at 10:00amAnd Frost/Nixon of course. A remarkable example of translating a play to the screen by opening it up and making it cinematic. Just terrific.
Best Play to Film Adaptations#22
Posted: 8/30/13 at 10:00amBorn Yesterday, folks. I also liked The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the Moon Marigolds and Equus, but I know I'm in the minority.
Best Play to Film Adaptations#23
Posted: 8/30/13 at 10:09am
Miracle Worker is on top of my list also.
And Wait until Dark
(not that I would not LOVE to see these stage again.)
Updated On: 8/30/13 at 10:09 AM
Best Play to Film Adaptations#24
Posted: 8/30/13 at 10:12amRASHOMON wasn't based on a play.
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