Evening star., 1940-08-18

step ny step, even speech by speech
In many instances, the Margaret
Mitchell story was put on celluloid
so carefully it requires three hours
and As minutes to show the finished
production.
While this book to-film process
has set standard for subsequent
efforts, it must be admitted that
faithful filmization of novels was
going on long before young David
o. Selznick undertook his new to
the line policy.
Not alone in Hollywood is this
practice followed. Just recently
Metro Goldwyn Mayors English
studio has made Dorothy Savers
mystery novel "Busman's Honey
moon" with scarcely change from
the plot she told. Murder mysteries
have always suffered less than other
books, of course, the reason being
that plot is the major item in de-
tective books and if a studio chooses
to change a murder plot. it might
just as well have an original written
and save the price of buying the
novel.
English Standards High.
Hence, Robert Montgomery's char
acter of Lord Peter Wimsey con-
tinues to have a leaning toward
crime detection. and Constance
Cummings plays Harriet Vane, the
authoress of detective thrillers. who
marries Lord Peter. Hollywood
learned as far back as "The Thin
Man" that mystery readers want a
status quo f1lmization of their fa-
vorites, even though they know the
who, why and what
English production of famous
novels is at a high standard. any,
way. after 1.-THE Citadel and Good
by. Mr.. Chips." In each instance.
the novel was altered. but it was
done so eXpertly that the public
applauded. In the former. A. j.
Cronin had the doctors wife meet
death. while the picture accom-
plished the same drama by having
the victim the doctors loyal friend
Mrs Chips merely was spoken Of
in the James Hilton book but she
was a character who could be rea-
sonably and effectively enlarged
upon for the screen.
Ethel Vance's Escape" will breeze
along with Norma Shearer and Rob-
ert Taylor following the adventures
the author conceived One small
change is made. but it heightens the
dramatic timber. The countess will
be living in the home formerly
owned by Emmy Ritter (Nazimova)
so that it will be less matter of
coincidence when Mark takes his
escaping mother there.
For the Hays Office.
In adapting The Mortal Storm" :"
from Phyllis Bottome's novel Holly
wood chose to have the heroine
rather than the hero die.
Purely because the Hays Office
permits no crime to go unpunished,
the adapters Of Daphne Du Maur-
ier's "Rebecca" made a point of
stressing that Rebecca's death was
wholly an accident and not murder.
In that way Laurence Olivier and
Joan Fontaine could "live happily
ever after"
None expected Twentieth Century
Fox to follow the dialogue of John
Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath" but
the spirit and action was. all there.
So were the characters, outside of
the oldest Jode son, who ran away
into the swampS. He was dropped
to save time in telling the story.
When motion pictures are made
of great novels the chief adaptation
concern is one of selectivity. Natur-
ally. no novel of $50 pages, as
is Pride and Prejudice" can be
screened in full in 90 minutes. For
tunately, most long novels contain
much description, which becomes
merely a background glance to the
audience. The only ones who pour
over this description are the set de-