REMAKES OF THE CLASSICS & then some

[ImKukie]

Which did you see 1st the remake or the original, which did you prefer?

What titles have not yet been remade but should?

~Maybe it's not a remake but it sure seems like the same story to me
Which current films have you seen that have strong similarities to
a specific film of years gone by

[ImKukie]

On SATURDAY Sept 13th on TCM at 10:15 AM My Favorite Wife (1940)
will be airing. The film itself is apparently a reworking of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Enoch Arden"; in tribute, the main characters' last name is Arden. (thanks Wikipedia)
The title description states the film is about
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's re-marriage.
This version is Cast with: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott. And Directed by: Garson Kanin. The version is in BW & runs aprox 88 mins

In 1963 this film was remade & renamed as Move Over, Darling staring Doris Day & James Garner. I love the little tribute to the original when during the scene where Ellen is giving Bianca a massage she describes a movie to her which is actually the film "My Favorite Wife."

A familiar plot (only with roles reversed) was released just months prior to My Favorite Wife titled Too Many Husbands

I saw the remake 1st & loved it then a few years later saw the original (Thanks TCM) and was torn over which I liked best. There were aspects of the original that I appreciated for the addition that it gave to the story line that I missed out on by watching the remake 1st however I am a huge Doris Day fan so with this one, I think its a 50/50 split. They are both great films and each adds its own uniqueness.

Having never seem the movie Too Many Husbands - I could swear that there was a 3rd similar version of this films story line that I had seen. I could be wrong but I can't shake the idea that there is still another remake out there.

[Cheryl Bailey]

My Favorite Wife is one of my all time favorite Screwball type comedies. What the remakes do not have is Carey Grant and Irenne Dunne who have amazing chemistry in this. Gail Patrick and Randolph Scott are also great. I like the Doris Day remake alright but James Garner is not in the same class with Grant. His expressions are priceless in this. However, this is a great story or it would not be remade so many times. There is also a version with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase but I do not remember the title.

[ImKukie]

Are you thinking
?

[Cheryl Bailey]

No, it's with Chevy Chase, not Steve Martin. But I like Housesitter.

[Cheryl Bailey]

Seems Lke Old Times is the one I was thinking of. but is not exactly like the original, more of a variation of the plot. /it is also a screwball comedy.

[ImKukie]

I don't think I have ever seen this - Thanks for the info, I'll add it to my ever growing flix list. It looks like a good watch.

[maryhatchbailey]

I never get tired of watching, My Favorite Wife. I watched it again today on TCM after reading a review of the remake of The Women in the NY TImes. (Of course the review found the re-make a poor comparison of the original despite the great cast.) But it got me thinking, who would you cast in a modern-day re-make of, My Favorite Wife?

[B-Independent.com]

just reminded, me....never started a thread regarding My Favorite Wife. I made sure I was up today to finally do my TCM viewing...

as for a remake of MFW....hmmmm....

Clooney in the Grant role, since he is, after all, the modern Cary Grant.
Jodie Foster as the island stranded wife. she never does enough comedy.
Julia roberts as the 2nd wife....to play off her annoying nature.

okay, there's the dream cast..

[maryhatchbailey]

Thanks for the info - this is one of my all time faves. I recently saw the Too Many Husbands version for the first time on TCM. I think it was Jean Arthur, Melvyn Douglas, and Fred MacMurray (sorry, too lazy to check for sure). Although I normally love both Arthur and Douglas, I didn't think this was a good movie. My disappointment ocurred early on, during the scene with Arthur and her character's late and present husband's secretary. Then it gets old pretty fast. Also, I remember reading that Maralyn Monroe was filming a re-make of this when she died...

[ImKukie]

Yeah that was called "Something's Got To Give"
She was actually fired because apparently she wasn't respecting the work schedule/being a difficult actress. She died very shortly after. They were going to recast her part but ended up scrapping it all together. They eventually started over with the new title and new cast.

[king2clio]

Some other examples of classic films remades as other classic films:

1) A Star is Born (Janet Gayner, 1937), remade as A Star Is Born (Judy Garland, 1954), remade as A Star Is Born (Barbara Streisand). I preferred the 1954 version with Judy Garland.

2) The Front Page (1931), remade as His Gal Friday (1940), remade as The Front Page (1974). I preferred the 1940 version with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.

3) Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), remade as Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), remade as the Italian movie The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963). I preferred the 1954 version with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day.

4) The Hands of Orlac (silent, 1924), remade as Mad Love (1935), remade as Hands of a Stranger (1962). I prefer the second version with Peter Lorre.

5) Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), remade as The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1956). The original is pretty good, but I prefer the remake with Vincent Price and the bizarre shooting style to maximize the effect of 3-D projection.

So, based on an N of 5, that implies that I usually like the second version of a movie best.

But I think that's a specious generalization, because I almost always like an original foreign film much better than the American remake.

And I almost always like the classic version of a film better than a RECENT Hollywood remake. For example,

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is vastly better than the 2004 remake
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) is better than the 2004 remake.
Hitchcock's Psycho is vastly better than the pointless remake by Gus Van Sant.
The silent 1919 version of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is much better than the 2006 remake, which rips off the backdrops from the original and adds bad dialogue with bad acting.
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), an existential sci-fi movie that does a great job with a few big props and trick photography, is better (IMO) than the comedic Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)

So, in general, I'm not crazy about modern U.S. films that remake foreign films, and I usually don't like modern U.S. films that remake films from prior to 1970.

I have a hard time thinking of titles that "have not yet been remade but should," because I'm fond of classic films and prefer good black and white cinematography to color films. I don't relate to not wanting to see a movie because it's a) in black and white, b) has subtitles, or c) doesn't star leading current movie stars.

But I do realize this perspective isn't typical of most moviegoers.

[Sevorin]

I seem to remember a version of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari from the early 1960s with Dan O'Herlihy and Glynis Johns. My memory of it is super-dim, but I do recall that I didn't think highly of it. Only the 1919 original has any pizzazz, and that's just because of the expressionistic set design and a couple of far-out performances.