I'm Currently reading Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton (don't spoil the ending for me I'm nearly there), as an avid old movie fan I had seen the Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell version some time ago and was of the opinon I new what I was going to be getting. How wrong I was. If you've seen the film but not read the book do yourself a favour and go down the library and borrow a copy.
All they have in common is the title and names of a few of the characters. Even the setting has been changed from 1938/1939 in the book to Victorian London in the film. In the book he's unemployed, in the film he's a promising composer and though I'm nearing the end of the book I've yet to come across the George Sanders role.
Still all this aside it's a great film and a great book, but why the hell didn't they just change the name of the film and the characters and be done with it?
On another topic, does anybody here cast books they read with actors? For obvious reasons as I've been reading Hangover Square I've been hearing Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell and so on. I do find it makes my reading experience more enjoyable. Sad or normal you decide?
CQM
Occasionally I see and hear an actor playing a book character in my mind, especially if I've just seen a movie with that actor, but it doesn't often last long. I'm more prone to casting actors in the stories that I write and modeling characters after their onscreen persona.
ReplyDeleteI've done that myself in the past. I wrote half of what I laughingly thought of as a screenplay where the lead character was pretty much John Barrymore.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a stage play earlier this year, and I assigned actors to play each character as I wrote it. Basically, it was just the cast of Singin' in the Rain - Gene Kelly was moody, Debbie Reynolds was the ingenue, and Donald O'Connor was their piano-playing buddy. Oh, it was awful!
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