Author:
Susan
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Date Posted: 03:05:59 04/01/06 Sat
Yay, a chance to talk more about my all-time favorite book! I know I've yammered on and on about how superior I think the book was to the movie, so forgive me for chiming in yet again. I too can't understand why they changed the story *so* drastically, except, as Harry Medved and Randy Dreyfuss wrote, "No one who sees this film could doubt that the self-indulgent star, and not the director, was in control, and a glance at the credits confirms that impression. Producer of this epic was Mayflower Productions--Charles Laughton's very own company." And what I've read elsewhere kind of confirms that Laughton had a lot to do with the changes, bringing his character to the foreground and pushing everyone else into the shadows, when it's really he who should be lurking in the shadows, so to speak, until the very end. (I read that he and Hitchcock were at such odds during the filming that Hitchcock pretty much gave up and abdicated control, letting Laughton do whatever he wanted.)
I totally agree that the character of Jem in the book was much more intriguing (a little mysterious and a bit of a rogue, but romantic as well). In that sense, I think the character was really well portrayed by Trevor Eve in the 1985 version. Also, throughout most of the book, Joss is the villain--very scary, not unlike James Brodie in Hatter's Castle--and Mary develops an interesting relationship with him that isn't brought out in the movie at all. Poor Joss is practically a joke in the film version, while the composite Squire Humphrey Pengallan ("Sir Humphrey Dumpty" as Medved and Dreyfuss call him) pretty much takes his place as the focus of villainy. (Their book, "The 50 Worst Films of All Time" takes a comically satirical look at all the award winners. One movie I was amazed to see included though--one of the classic horror films of the '70s: "The Omen"!) Anyway, that's why I would say that Sir Humphrey was really a composite of not just two but three characters--incorporating the essence of who Joss was intended to be as well.
Also, in the book, I thought Aunt Patience seemed a lot flightier and sort of sad as an abused wife who once was beautiful and full of life but is now beaten down, living in the shadow of her cruel husband; the film made her seem much stronger, and you almost get the impression that Patience and Joss are a happy couple.
For me, the one "improvement" over the book is Emlyn Williams's interpretation of Harry the Pedlar. His performance was the one aspect that stood out in my mind long after the movie was over and was what primarily prompted me to read the book. (I'm not putting down Bob's performance, but his character is so bland in comparison to everyone else, I swear I didn't recognize him at all. Keep in mind that the only other movies I'd seen him in at that point were Treasure Island and Oliver Twist. Therefore, while reading the book, I thought he would have been perfectly cast as Joss. What do you think?) As I recall (it's been a while since I read the book now, so please refresh my memory, Sue) Harry was a lot creepier and less over the top in the book but his *significance* to the story is one of the few things that seems to have remained unchanged. Still, very few if any of his scenes match anything in the book. (The only one that comes close is the very staged-looking tearing of her dress during the big wreck, which is like a euphemism for the scene in the book where he actually tries to rape her. Which makes her being trapped in the house with him later on so frightening. But of course that's left out of the movie too!)
Apparently, the filmmakers thought the original story would have been too intense for moviegoers of the 1930s and thus, unfortunately, toned it down into the comic book we ended up with. But still, you'd think they could have kept more of the original story than they did.
All in all, my favorite version is the movie I see in my head when I read the book, starring Robert Newton in a dual role as the evil Joss and his roguish younger brother Jem, with Emlyn Williams as Harry. Now as for who should play Francis Davey ... I never did pick an actor to play him when first reading the book, but I thought the guy who played him in the 1985 version (John McEnery) did a pretty good job. Can you think of any actors from that era who might have been well cast in the role?
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