Twenty-five films that made it from the book shelf to the box office with credibility intact.
1. GREAT EXPECTATIONS by CHARLES DICKENS
Published: 1860-1861
Film adaptation: 1946
Director: DAVID LEAN
No film version of Dickens has ever matched Lean’s superlative realisation of Great Expectations. From the jumpy graveyard scene to the weirdness of Satis House, and with actors such as John Mills and Alec Guinness giving their all, there is no level at which this utterly brilliant film doesn’t deliver.
2. WUTHERING HEIGHTS by EMILY BRONTË
Published: 1847
Film adaptation: 1939
Director: WILLIAM WYLER
To Kill a Mockingbird ...
Best Price: $0.90
Buy New $7.94
(as of 10:15 UTC - Details)
Brontë’s gothic tale of moors madness gets the William Wyler treatment in this classic movie version starring Merle Oberon as Cathy and Laurence Olivier as Heathcliffe. None of the subsequent adaptations has matched the dark power of the brilliant Wyler’s. Not even the one with Cliff Richard.
3. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by HARPER LEE
Published: 1960
Film adaptation: 1962
Director: ROBERT MULLIGAN
The film of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about racist Alabama deservedly won three Oscars, including Best Actor for Gregory Peck as the lawyer Atticus Finch. Including a fictionalised version of Lee’s friend Truman Capote, this compelling and important work has lost none of its power since its release.
4. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO by BORIS PASTERNAK
Published: 1957
Film adaptation: 1965
Director: DAVID LEAN
Lean’s snowy cinematic masterpiece starring Omar Sharif, Julie Christie and Alec Guinness brings to life the Nobel Prize-winner’s story of revolutionary Russia with tremendous style. Although beaten to 1965’s Best Picture Oscar by The Sound of Music, this memorable realisation honours all the emotional and political complexity of Boris Pasternak’s original novel.
Great Expectations (Th...
Best Price: $8.98
Buy New $19.00
(as of 02:20 UTC - Details)
5. THE LEOPARD by GIUSEPPE TOMASI DI LAMPEDUSA
Published: 1958
Film adaptation: 1963
Director: LUCHINO VISCONTI
Most famous for its almost hour-long ballroom scene and glorious period detail, Visconti’s epic filming of Lampedusa’s novel examines the honour codes of a changing Italy with the help of a handsome cast including Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale. Spectacular, long (originally running for 205 minutes) and good enough to eat.
6. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS by THOMAS HARRIS
Published: 1988
Film adaptation: 1991
Director: JONATHAN DEMME
Harris’s psychological thriller is made horribly gruesome yet archly witty in Demme’s 1991 blockbuster. Jodie Foster’s clever but vulnerable Clarice Starling is the perfect counterpoint to Anthony Hopkins’s terrifyingly competent murderer, and together they redefine the traditional cop/killer dynamic.
The Big Sleep
Best Price: $1.99
Buy New $6.00
(as of 06:45 UTC - Details)
7. DANGEROUS LIAISONS (Les Liaisons Dangereuses) by PIERRE CHODERLOS DE LACLOS
Published: 1782
Film adaptation: 1988
Director: STEPHEN FREARS
Strictly speaking, Frears’s 1988 bodice-ripper is the film of the play of the book, but its tense elegance captures perfectly the spirit of Laclos’s 18th-century novel of sex and manipulation. The dying ancien regime is represented by lethally sexy performances by Glenn Close and John Malkovich, making this 118 minutes of pure wicked pleasure.
8. THE BIG SLEEP by RAYMOND CHANDLER
Published: 1939
Film adaptation: 1946
Director: HOWARD HAWKS
The convoluted plot of Chandler’s detective story had screenwriter William Faulkner turning to the original author for help. Even though audiences still find it hard to negotiate its maze-like narrative, the real point of the exercise is to showcase Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart at their simmering, sexy best.
The Prime of Miss Jean...
Best Price: $9.35
Buy New $17.12
(as of 12:30 UTC - Details)
9. THE 39 STEPS (The Thirty Nine Steps) by JOHN BUCHAN
Published: 1915
Film adaptation: 1935
Director: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
Adapting Buchan’s 1915 adventure story for the screen was one of Hitchcock’s earliest triumphs. Although considerably “sexed up” for modern audiences, with a brace of comely heroines replacing the original’s swarthy men, it is still a classic piece of pre-war action cinema which retains all the tension of the novel.
10. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by MURIEL SPARK
Published: 1961
Film adaptation: 1969
Director: RONALD NEAME
Maggie Smith gives one of her finest performances as the ambitious teacher with a coterie of adoring “gels”. Although diverging from Spark’s popular 1961 novel in places, fans of the book tend to love the film as well thanks to Neame’s taut direction and a fine supporting cast.
11. MOBY-DICK by HERMAN MELVILLE
Published: 1851
Film adaptation: 1956
Director: JOHN HUSTON
Melville’s majestic novel of man versus beast is admirably served by Huston’s adaptation. From Orson Welles’s priestly cameo to Gregory Peck’s brilliantly unhinged Ahab, a fine cast is matched by an eerily bleached cinematography. Even a rather ropy model whale cannot diminish the power of this great film.
Dracula (75th Annivers...
Best Price: $2.20
Buy New $9.95
(as of 08:45 UTC - Details)
12. BRIGHTON ROCK by GRAHAM GREENE
Published: 1938
Film adaptation: 1947
Directors: John and Roy Boulting
Brutally gritty, Terence Rattigan’s adaptation, done in partnership with the novel’s author, Graham Greene, shocked critics with its hard-boiled realism. A young Richard Attenborough excels as the odious Pinkie in a crime drama that is worlds away from the slick American noirishness cinemagoers were accustomed to in 1947.
13. DRACULA by BRAM STOKER
Published: 1897
Film adaptation: 1931
Director: TOD BROWNING
Bela Lugosi is Dracula, since he seethed his way to stardom in Browning’s 1931 film. Necessarily cutting out some of Stoker’s extraneous material, this genre-defining horror classic turned out far scarier than the book. And any hopes Lugosi had of going on to play romantic leads were cruelly dashed.
September 24, 2009
