>
>
>Brian, that's an interesting topic - movies that are
better than books.
>While I did enjoy LA CONFIDENTIAL as a book, the
movie cleared up a lot of
>the questions I had. My favorite vote in this topic
is THE GODFATHER. I've
>always felt the movie was far better than the
book.
Mark,
I've never been able to finish 'The Godfather', so I tend to
agree with you. As movie adaptations go, what about (plugging
a few of Hammett vehicles again) "The Thin Man" with William
Powell and Myrna Loy. I heard that the Hayes commission was
formed to rate movies because of some of the
"racier" dialogue in the original movie, based almost solely
on Hammett's book. It's fabulous. Obviously there is John
Huston's brilliant screen adaptation of 'The Maltese Falcon'
(his directorial debut, btw), one of the seminal "Noir"
films. Heck, even "A Fistful of Dollars" and "Last Man
Standing" are pretty faithful (if uncredited) adaptations of
"Red Harvest". Has anyone seen "The Glass Key"? It's
tremendous, Brian Donlevy steals the show as the political
boss who employs the protagonist, Ned Beaumont. I am still
waiting to see the Continental Op in a film of his own (Peter
Boyle playing him in "Hammett" starring Frederick Forrest
ought not to count, in my opinion). Perhaps someone will do a
decent adaptation of "The Dain Curse". To my knowledge it has
never been translated to film.
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