Movie to Musical - what was the first?- Page 2

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 4:32pm

frontrowcentre2---Well, that's kind of the same thing I was talking about with "The King and I." R&H really based their musical on the screenplay for the Fox film "Anna and the King of Siam," and used some dialogue sections word-for-word. This was their inspriation for their musical... Okay, actually it was Gertrude Lawrence's inspiration. She saw the Fox movie and called up her friends, R&H, and asked them to write a stage musical of it for her... and they did.

But "The King & I" says "based on the book by Margaret Langdon," just as the musical of "A Connecticut Yankee" says "based on the book by Mark Twain."

"Hazel Flagg" had no other previous source material other than the screenplay for the Lombard & March film "Nothing Sacred." So, it wins!

Updated On: 6/7/06 at 04:32 PM

[justme2]

Posted: 6/7/06 at 4:52pm

What about Moulin Rouge? There was a 1930's movie with Constance Bennett, then the 1950's era Musical (is the latter classified as a musical, though?)


EDIT: "Moulin Rouge" was also the title of a book by Pierre La Mure. This book was the basis for the 1952 movie of the same name. I guess that makes it not eligible.

Updated On: 6/7/06 at 04:52 PM

[justme2]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 12:43pm

Yes, I saw that yesterday when I was researching it online. I've only seen the Constance Bennett movie (which, I agree, was ok, but no great shakes), and a silent foreign version that was very hard to watch considerinng the missing footage. I'd seen the 50's movie, but didn't enjoy it much. It's classified as a musical on IMDB, but I questioned that, as my memory matches yours of only one or two dance sequences.

Thanks for the additional info provided! So Hazel Flagg wins it!

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 1:51pm

So it seems...

I keep wondering if there wasn't some ill atempt earlier than 1953 and Hazel Flagg. It seem kinda LATE to the party for this movie-to-stage-musical progression to happen.

[justme2]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 2:08pm

It does, doesn't it? I keep going through my silent archives to see if there were any there, and there's a few, but the silent came from a play or book before it, so it doesn't count.

[WhenURScrap]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 8:53pm

Hello, Dolly! is based off of Thornton Wilder's 'The Matchmaker' ... if no one knew...

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/8/06 at 11:15pm

And The Matchmaker was Thornton Wilder's rewrite of his own play, The Merchant of Yonkers, which was based on Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy's Einen Jux will er sich machen ("A Roaring Good Time."), which was a rewrite of British playwright John Oxenford's farce, A Day Well Spent.