Mystery Films Based On Plays

Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.)

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Mystery Films Based On Plays
Topic Started: May 1 2009, 09:20 PM (249 Views)
Black Tiger	May 1 2009, 09:20 PM Post #1
Charter Member Posts: 1,813 Group: Members Member #50 Joined: September 15, 2005	Kashimo over on the Swashbuckler page asked an interesting question as to whether or not Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" ever made the stage-to-screen jump and oddly enough, I don't recall one. One mystery based on a stage play that I enjoyed was "The Ninth Guest" by Owen Davis. The plot is similar to Christie's "Ten Little Indians" (aka "And Then There Were None"), about a group of guests invited to a party by an unknown host, trapped and killed off one-by-one by an unknown killer who may be one of the guests. However, Davis' play actually preceded Christie's book. There have been a slew of stage/screen mysteries. What are some of your favorites?



Laughing Gravy	May 1 2009, 09:23 PM Post #2
Revered in the UK Posts: 11,070 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: August 31, 2005	The Bat and Witness for the Prosecution are two that come to mind.



CliffClaven	May 2 2009, 11:09 PM Post #3
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 231 Group: Members Member #712 Joined: March 30, 2009	The Cat and the Canary was a Broadway comedy. Silent version is still entertaining, with a faux Harold Lloyd hero and the archetypal reading-of-the-will-in-a-dark-old-house plot. Remade with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, inspired a clone with the same two stars (Ghost Breakers), and the clone was remade by Martin & Lewis (Scared Stiff). All are good light fun. A much later Cat and the Canary was made in England and played almost seriously with a few lurid touches -- I remember it feeling like a TV show. A Shot in the Dark, the second and possibly the best Inspector Clouseau film, was based on a successful French play that was not a Clouseau-style comedy. It's doubtful much of the play survived at all. Mr. and Mrs. North was a misfired comic whodunit starring Gracie Allen without George Burns (Big mistake right there -- George knew how to be ticked and loving at the same time; the guy in the film merely registered as a jerk). Based on a play based on a successful series of books. You could never tell whether Gracie was being ditzy or scheming to protect somebody; the filmmakers didn't seem to know or care. Worth seeing once, just for curio value. William Gilliette's original stage version of Sherlock Holmes was more or less the official source for the first Basil Rathbone effort, although the latter ended up being a completely new story. Still, it's a dandy flick. John Barrymore did a silent version that's coming from Kino, but I haven't heard much good about the film itself.



Sgt Saturn	May 4 2009, 09:53 AM Post #4
Charter Member Posts: 5,720 Group: Members Member #11 Joined: September 3, 2005	Busman's Honeymoon (1940) began life as a stage play before becoming both a novel and a movie. I've not seen it, but I've heard that it takes great liberties with the Lord Peter Wimsey character...
	The Ol' Sarge


panzer the great & terrible	Jun 13 2009, 06:33 PM Post #5
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,351 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	You'd about have to. Sayers wasn't a movie-type writer. Too ghoulish for one thing. You couldn't possibly turn The Nine Tailors into a movie.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


CliffClaven	Jun 20 2009, 11:17 PM Post #6
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 231 Group: Members Member #712 Joined: March 30, 2009	The last British TV version focused on the courtship of Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane over three books. Worthwhile, with good actors and a plush 1920s look, but uneven. Strong Poison: Wimsey takes an interest in a murder case because of the defendant, Harriet Vane. The mystery is okay, but it feels padded at three parts. The best scenes are Wimsey visiting Vane in jail -- uninvited hero and uncertain damsel in distress. Have His Carcass: Vane finds a body on a beach, and calls in Wimsey (whose romantic attentions she's still resisting). The best of the batch, and actually fills all four parts while lacing the not-quite romance with a classic fair play mystery. Gaudy Night: Very odd. Again, more Vane and Wimsey than mystery. For a good stretch the mystery seems to be nothing more than bits of vandalism (a prologue shows a gunshot and a lonely grave, but connection isn't explained until very late). And even without reading the book it's obvious big cuts were made (characters appear, are given backstories and conflicts, and are never seen again). Still, the college setting is interesting and it's busier than Strong Poison.



toddgault	Jun 21 2009, 09:35 AM Post #7
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 156 Group: Members Member #339 Joined: January 21, 2008	Wasn't Hitchcock's Rope based on a play? That was a ghoulish bit of business, two friends murder another friend and then throw a party where the food is served on the chest where they've stored the body.
	Todd Gault..........Serial Buff


panzer the great & terrible	Jun 22 2009, 09:04 AM Post #8
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,351 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	Based on a play, yep. It's been interesting to see how the reputation of this picture fluctuates. Some call it classic, others think it's junk.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer	Jun 22 2009, 09:14 AM Post #9
Balconeer Creeper Posts: 14,178 Group: Members Member #244 Joined: July 6, 2007	I saw it (Rope) in the last year and I enjoyed it. I didn't know why Hitch filmed it in 10 minute segments (other than a reel is 10 mins.), but now that I know it was based on a play it makes perfect sense.
	"She's got style, she's got grace She's got long, long legs, she's got... Savoir Faire"


Frank Hale	Jun 22 2009, 01:02 PM Post #10
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	Not just a play, but a play set in real time. In the Truffaut book, Mr. Hitchcock called the 1 reel takes a �stunt�, but he also tried extremely long takes in his next picture, �Under Capricorn�, a tremendous flop. By the time of �Dial M For Murder�, another filmed play, we see a totally different approach, although even then the play is not �opened up� very much. The problem with such long takes is that they are the negation of cinema. Unless there's a dramatic purpose: My favorite long take is in �Lady From Shanghai�. Everett Sloane is telling Orson outside the courtroom how he, Everett, is going to give Orson the shaft. The camera imperceptibly dollies in from a medium shot to a close-up during a multi-minute take. Another great Orson moment.



panzer the great & terrible	Jun 27 2009, 09:06 AM Post #11
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,351 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	Under Capricorn may have flopped at the box office, but that had more to do with Bergman's private life and the difficulties of distributing indies than it did with the movie itself. IMO it's one of Hitchcocks best, the first film of his mature period and far better than anything he would do until Strangers On a Train kicked off the glory days which ended with Marnie, a fine though flawed film that was released straight to the grind houses and drive-ins in another distribution nightmare. Why these things happened to Hitch is beyond me, but my guess is, the suits looked to him for light entertainment, and every time he tried to go beyond that, they made sure he struck out. The Wrong Man, my personal favorite of his movies, is another example. It's like they had Robert Bresson on the payroll and tried to market his stuff as light comedy. Hitch attained great name recognition because of the TV show, but folks didn't recognize what he actually did. I don't agree that long takes are the negation of cinema, Frank. There's more to movies than the Odessa steps. When sound came in, movies ceased to be all about editing because the medium itself had changed. In the Murnau/Borzage/Fox set, watch any silent and any talkie and you'll get an idea of what I mean. When I was younger I preferred the silent style; it seemed more visually exciting; but these days I prefer the talkie style, long takes, deep focus, moving camera and all. I'll take John Ford over Eisenstein any day. Any day.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Frank Hale	Jun 28 2009, 02:14 PM Post #12
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	The problem with Rope is that the camera has become the principal actor, and a rather hammy one who dominates rather than enhances the story. As I indicated, I think long takes are fine if they advance the narrative. At some point, however, a film becomes a photographed stage play. Battleship Potemkin isn�t really a fair comparison, is it? I found Under Capricorn rather overwrought. In the Truffaut book Hitchcock claims it flopped because by 1949 the public expected a thriller from him. The long takes merely emphasized that it was not a suspense film. The distributor was Warner Brothers, and, as cheerfully as Hitchcock finds scapegoats in the rest of the book, I�m sure he would have blamed the Rossellini affair if he could have.



panzer the great & terrible	Jun 28 2009, 03:51 PM Post #13
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,351 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	Agreed about Rope -- it's one of the least personal of his American movies and, as you note, the camera is much too busy -- I particularly dislike the reel change when the camera dollies into the table for no reason at all -- but though you find UC overwrought, I find it moving. Sometimes when Hitch takes off the "master of suspense" mask he reaches me on a deep level. It's no secret that I prefer The Wrong Man and Under Capricorn to his suspense pictures. He uses characters made miserable by their past so often that I feel it's no accident; he's talking about himself. In any case you and I have already established that we watch movies in quite different ways, Frank, so why not leave it at that? Perhaps audiences were disappointed that it wasn't a suspense flick, but were audiences really as aware of him in the late Forties as he seemed to think, or was that just egotism on his part? I don't think people gave him much thought until the TV show started, but I may be wrong. I do know that Capricorn's distribution got fumbled (it was made by Hitch's own company and he knew nothing about distribution; I've never heard about Warners' participation before), and its rep suffered more damage when a VHS with a muddy, tinny soundtrack got circulated in the eighties. I'm pretty sure Capricorn, like Foreign Correspondent, was a pet project and he was wounded by its failure, which accounts for the blather. I never go by what he says anyway. He was a shy fellow with a huge ego who hid his feelings and took defeat personally. Or put it another way -- he lied a lot, and wasn't the only director who did. In any case, Dial M For Murder was also a filmed play (I saw it on Broadway), but thanks to Grace Kelly and a crackerjack script was a huge hit despite having no suspense whatever. Ray Milland was absolutely great in the movie, the most charming of all Hitchcock's charming villains. And the whole plot revolved around a little key. Great stuff.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


« Previous Topic · Who Done It? · Next Topic »