(pb; 1957, 1967: story anthology)
OVERALL REVIEW:
Solid, action-oriented anthology, with only one stinker in the mix. Worth checking out from the library.
REVIEW, STORY BY STORY:
1.) "The Most Dangerous Game" - Richard Connell: Sanger Rainsford, an American hunter, gets trapped on the island of a homicidal Cossack (General Zaroff), and becomes Zaroff's prey in literal manhunt. Gripping, sharp work, with a zinger end-line.
Numerous film versions have resulted from this story.
The first film version was released stateside on September 16, 1932. It was directed by Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack, from a script by James Ashmore Creelman.
Joel McCrea played Bob. Fay Wray played Eve. Robert Armstrong played Martin. Leslie Banks played Zaroff. Steve Clemente (billed as Steve Clemento) played Tartar. An uncredited Buster Crabbe plays "Sailor who falls off boat".
Other versions include, but are not limited to: A Game of Death (1945), The Most Dangerous Game (1953), Bloodlust! (1961), Surviving The Game (1994, sporting a great cast, among them Rutger Hauer).
2.) "Leiningen Versus the Ants" - Carl Stephenson: A Caucasian gung-ho plantation owner and his native "peons" battle an ant invasion in Brazil. If you can ignore its era-inherent racism, this is a visually wild and thrilling tale.
This story was released stateside as a film on March 3, 1954. Titled The Naked Jungle, it was directed by Byron Haskin, from a script by Ranald MacDougall and Ben Maddow (credited as Philip Yordan).
Charlton Heston played Christopher Leiningen. Eleanor Parker played Joanna Leiningen. Abraham Sofaer played Incacha. William Conrad played "Commissioner". Romo Vincent played "Boat Captain".
3.) "Journalism in Tennessee" - Mark Twain: Witty, raucous take on Southern firebrand newspapermen.
4.) "Alone in Shark Waters" - John Kruse: After a hurricane sinks his ship and leave him afloat in the Indian Ocean, a fisherman (Mike Gardener) fends off dehydration, sharks and other forms of ocean-borne death. Harrowing, intriguing story.
5.) "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" - Rudyard Kipling: This story lost me almost immediately, interest-wise, so I didn't finish reading it - his writing style here is so jangly-noisy, perhaps too vivid.
Two animated films resulted from this story.
The first animated version aired on stateside television on January 9, 1975. Chuck Jones directed and scripted the thirty-minute short.
Orson Welles provided the voices for Narrator, Nag and Chuchundra. June Foray provided the voices for "Nagaina the Cobra, Wife of Nag", Teddy's Mother and Darzee's Wife. Les Tremayne voiced Father. Michael LeClair voiced Teddy. Shepard Menken voiced Rikki-Tikki-Tavi the Mongoose. Lennie Weinrib voiced Darzee the Tailorbird.
A later animated version, made by a different film crew, aired on Hungarian television on November 10, 1983.
6.) "To Build a Fire" - Jack London: In seventy-five-below-zero degree weather, a man wages a spirited struggle for survival against an omnipresent Yukon threat. Infotainment, with a nature-centric, telling finish.
Two film shorts have resulted from this story.
A twenty-minute short resulted from this story in 2003. Directed and scripted by Luca Armenia, Olivier Pagès played The Man.
A second, thirty-minute short was released stateside in October 2008. Mark Dissette co-directed this with Dave Main (who also scripted the short).
Michael Elmendorf played The Man. Eldon Cott played The Old Man of Sulfur Creek. Steven Kramer played Macmorvan. Chad Rowland played Bud. Bill Selig played Jedadiah.
7.) "Locomotive 38, The Ojibway" - William Saroyan: A seemingly crazy Indian (Locomotive 38) and a fourteen year-old boy (Aram, aka "Willie") go on a fishing trip in Locomotive 38's new Packard. Odd, light and charming, this.
8.) "High Air" - Borden Chase: Tunnel miners encounter a potentially fatal emergency. Solid, crises-exciting story.
9.) "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" - James Thurber: A wife- and society-pecked older man (Mitty) imbues his mundane life with unseen but intuited adventures. Fun, brief, to the point.
One film has resulted from this story. A remake of that film is rumored to be on the way.
The first version, released stateside on September 1, 1947, was directed by Norman Z. McLeod, from a script by Ken Englund, Everett Freeman and Philip Rapp.
Danny Kaye played Walter Mitty. Virginia Mayo played Rosalind van Hoorn. Boris Karloff played Dr. Hugo Hollingshead. Fay Bainter played Mrs. Eunice Mitty. Ann Rutherford played Gertrude Griswold.
The second version is scheduled for stateside release in 2012. According to comingsoon.net, Gore Verbinski is set to direct it, from a script by Steve Conrad.
I'll update this remake listing, as more information becomes available.
Showing posts with label Eleanor Parker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eleanor Parker. Show all posts
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Friday, February 02, 2007
The Painted Veil, by W. Somerset Maugham
(pb; 1925)
From the back cover:
"Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of beautiful but love-starved Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic. Stripped of British society of her youth and the small but effective society she fought so hard to attain in Hong Kong, she is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess her life and learn how to love."
Review:
Clever, short work about a young woman (Kitty Fane) whose fickleness and infidelity leads to tragedy. She's slightly more likeable than her lover, the charming caddish Charles Townsend, but not by much. Her husband, Walter, is deserving of pity -- though he himself was foolish for marrying such a stupid creature to begin with.
Maugham keeps the storyline flowing in an interesting, character-focussed manner until the middle when Kitty and several of the nuns in the Mei-tan-fu convent (site zero of the cholera outbreak), natter on too much -- the length of several short chapters -- about the history of the convent, and faith. Otherwise, aside from the generally unlikeable leads (Kitty and Charlie), this is a good read, with a strong ending.
#
This became a film in 1934. Greta Garbo played Katrin Koerber Fane (aka, "Kitty"). Herbert Marshall played Dr. Walter Fane. George Brent played Jack ["Charlie"] Townsend. Warner Oland played General Yu. Richard Boleslawski directed the film.
#
Two remakes followed.
The Seventh Sin was the title of the first remake. Released in 1957, Eleanor Parker played Carol Carwin [Kitty Fane]. Bill Travers played Dr. Walter Carwin [Walter Fane]. Jean-Pierre Aumont played Paul Duvelle [Charles Townsend]. Francoise Rosay played Mother Superior. Directed by Ronald Neame and an uncredited Vincente Minelli.
#
The second remake was released stateside on January 19, 2007.
Naomi Watts played Kitty Fane. Edward Norton played Walter Fane. Liev Schreiber played Charlie Townsend. Diana Rigg played Mother Superior. John Curran directed the film. Toby Jones played Waddington.
#
(Interesting, related segment from Chad Jones's article about Maugham ["Coming full 'Circle,' director Lamos returns to ACT"] in the Tri-Valley Herald, January 5, 2007:
"During both world wars, [Maugham] worked with the British Intelligence Department and even operated as a secret agent. James Bond creator Ian Fleming said he based some of Bond's exploits on Maugham's wartime experiences.")
From the back cover:
"Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of beautiful but love-starved Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic. Stripped of British society of her youth and the small but effective society she fought so hard to attain in Hong Kong, she is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess her life and learn how to love."
Review:
Clever, short work about a young woman (Kitty Fane) whose fickleness and infidelity leads to tragedy. She's slightly more likeable than her lover, the charming caddish Charles Townsend, but not by much. Her husband, Walter, is deserving of pity -- though he himself was foolish for marrying such a stupid creature to begin with.
Maugham keeps the storyline flowing in an interesting, character-focussed manner until the middle when Kitty and several of the nuns in the Mei-tan-fu convent (site zero of the cholera outbreak), natter on too much -- the length of several short chapters -- about the history of the convent, and faith. Otherwise, aside from the generally unlikeable leads (Kitty and Charlie), this is a good read, with a strong ending.
#
This became a film in 1934. Greta Garbo played Katrin Koerber Fane (aka, "Kitty"). Herbert Marshall played Dr. Walter Fane. George Brent played Jack ["Charlie"] Townsend. Warner Oland played General Yu. Richard Boleslawski directed the film.
#
Two remakes followed.
The Seventh Sin was the title of the first remake. Released in 1957, Eleanor Parker played Carol Carwin [Kitty Fane]. Bill Travers played Dr. Walter Carwin [Walter Fane]. Jean-Pierre Aumont played Paul Duvelle [Charles Townsend]. Francoise Rosay played Mother Superior. Directed by Ronald Neame and an uncredited Vincente Minelli.
#
The second remake was released stateside on January 19, 2007.
Naomi Watts played Kitty Fane. Edward Norton played Walter Fane. Liev Schreiber played Charlie Townsend. Diana Rigg played Mother Superior. John Curran directed the film. Toby Jones played Waddington.
#
(Interesting, related segment from Chad Jones's article about Maugham ["Coming full 'Circle,' director Lamos returns to ACT"] in the Tri-Valley Herald, January 5, 2007:
"During both world wars, [Maugham] worked with the British Intelligence Department and even operated as a secret agent. James Bond creator Ian Fleming said he based some of Bond's exploits on Maugham's wartime experiences.")
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