Great Literature on Film

Joan Fontaine as Jane Eyre

Over the past two years I have watched some really good films based on classic novels. I know that calling a film or book a classic is the proverbial “kiss of death”, and will often dissuade people from watching or reading. For many, “classic” means old, old fashioned, out of date, and irrelevant.

Nevertheless, a good film adaptation can make a great book spring to life on the screen, and become a classic in itself. For example, a good actor or actress needs only a facial expression or a glance to convey what it takes a novelist pages to describe. A good film director can convey in one scene what the novelist took a whole chapter to describe. 

Moreover, in viewing the films below it becomes apparent how important the casting director is in putting a film together. Everyone knows the story of how Humphrey Bogart was not the first choice for the lead in Casablanca, and that even Ronald Reagan was considered for the part. Is it possible to imagine anyone else in the role today?

Below are eight highly recommended film adaptations.

Moby Dick. Herman Melville’s masterpiece of Captain Ahab’s doomed pursuit of the great white whale was brought to the screen in a 1956 color production by director John Huston. The film stars Gregory Peck as Ahab, Richard Basehart as Ishmael, Orson Welles in a cameo as a fiery preacher, and a great supporting cast. I saw this film when it first came out and can still vividly remember characters like Starbuck from whom the coffee chain derived its name, and the magnificent cannibal chief and harpooner Queequeg. In addition to the incredible finale, who could ever forget Ahab’s nailing of the gold piece to the mast?

The Red Badge of Courage. Stephen Crane’s realistic portrayal of ordinary soldiers before and during a single battle was originally published in 1895. It has become the model for all subsequent novels about warfare. It was brought to the screen in 1951 by director John Huston, who had a great interest in American history. True to the novel, the film sees the Civil War through the minds and eyes of the ordinary men who fought. Audie Murphy, the most decorated hero of WW II, stars along with a fine supporting cast. The final charge, capped as it is by conversation between victorious soldiers and their defeated captives, is extremely moving. 

The Magnificent Ambersons. Booth Tarkington’s Pulitzer Prize novel of a prominent Midwestern family at the dawn of the twentieth century was brought to the screen by Orson Welles in 1942. Completed a year after his groundbreaking film, Citizen Kane, this film shows Welles at peak directorial form with dazzling cinematography and splendid performances by a great cast that includes Joseph Cotton, Anne Baxter, and Tim Holt.

Dodsworth. Sinclair Lewis’ best-selling 1929 novel was brought to the screen by director William Wyler in 1936. Walter Huston, in what some consider to be his finest performance, plays a wealthy industrialist who sells his business and sets off with his wife of 20 years to discover Europe, and re-discover themselves. Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor co-star. “Selected as one of the most important films of all time by the Library of Congress.”  

Persuasion. This 1995 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s final novel, is as close to the spirit of the great author as it is possible to get. Cieran Hinds and Amanda Root star as the separated lovers in this BBC presentation shot in beautiful color. 104m.

 Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte’s revolutionary 1847 novel received the full Hollywood treatment in a 1943 film adaptation by Twentieth Century Fox that starred Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. There have been over 20 film adaptations of this novel but this ranks with the best. 97m. 

Great Expectations. David Lean directed this 1946 film that is generally regarded as the best adaptation of any novel by Charles Dickens. The spectacular cinematography, as well as the set design won Academy Awards.The film stars John Mills and Valerie Hobson. 118m.

 Crime and Punishment. Peter Lorre and Edward Arnold star in this 1935 version of Feodor Dostoyevsky’s great novel. Directed by Josef von Sternberg, the film exemplifies a trend in Hollywood of the 1930s towards elevating feature film credentials by adapting classical literature. 88m.

Peter Lorre

Some people look down their noses at film adaptations but watching these films has led me to re-read these novels that I had read long ago in my high school and college years. I have found that these authors were great story tellers and that their writing is still alive despite the passage of years. In the  films mentioned above the filmmakers produced works of art that stand alone no matter how faithful they may or may not be to the original novel. 

It takes one author to write a great novel. If you watch the credits roll on these films, you will see that it takes many craftsmen and women working together to create a work of film art.

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