Book Vs Movie: “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story” (1971)
The Basis of the Waltons TV Series Started as a TV Movie!
The Margos decided to get into the Depression-era holiday spirit with a look at “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story” which was written by author & creator of The Waltons TV series--Earl Hamner, Jr.
Hamner has a fascinating career as a writer with several scripts of “The Twilight Zone” including the famous The Bewitchin’ Pool, (the very last episode of the original American series.)
He also created 80s TV nighttime soap, Falcon Crest!)
In between, he wrote the 1961 novel Spencer’s Mountain which became a movie starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara as Clay and Olivia Spencer. They play a couple living in the Grand Teton Mountains in Wyoming and their eldest son “Clay-Boy” is set to become the first in his family to go to college.
Ten years later he wrote, “The Homecoming” which told a similar story with a twist--the Walton family was based in the Blue Ridge mountains during the depression. The TV movie was on December 19, 1971, in the U.S. and was such a big hit--it was immediately turned into a TV series.
Hamner narrated every episode which ran for almost ten years and started the phrase “goodnight John-Boy!”
In this episode, the Margos talk about the author, his original novella, the 1971 TV movie, and try to decide which we like better. Have a listen!
In this ep the Margos discuss:
- The interesting life of Earl Hamner, Jr.
- The casting of Patricia Neal as Olivia Walton and why she was not hired for the series
- The major differences between the movie and novella
- The cast: Patricia Neal (Olivia Walton,) Richard Thomas (John-Boy Walton,) Edgar Bergen (Grandpa Walton,) Dorothy Stickney (Grandma Walton, ) Cleavon Little (Hawthorne Dooley,) Andrew Duggan (Big John Walton,) and Judy Norton (Mary Ellen Walton.)
Clips used:
- The Homecoming trailer
- An early ad for The Homecoming
- Olivia Walton is suspicious of John-Boy
- Earl Hamner, Jr opening scene narration
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Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.com
Margo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/
Book Vs Movie: Little Women
The Louisa May Alcott Classic Novel Vs. the 1994 Winona Ryder-Starring Film
The Margos take a trip back to mid-19th century America with the Louisa May Alcott novel Little Women which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 & 1869 and became a smash hit. To describe the life story of Alcott as fascinating does not do it justice. Hers was a life filled with riches and poverty, with humiliation and joy, with love and hate, with incredible access to the best writers in the world and the worst images of the Civil War and the damage it did to humanity.
Alcott’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott, was a transcendentalist and educator who belonged with the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in the Concord area of Massachusettes. She was raised to be an abolitionist and feminist and was raised to be independent. In her peripatetic life, she moved over 20 times in 30 years before becoming a successful writer and the highest-earning author in her generation.
Little Women is loosely based on her own family story of the protagonist, Jo, being a substitute to Alcott. In the novel we have Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March who are being raised by their mother “Marmee” and their father is serving as a chaplain during the civil war. The sisters are poor but smart and kind. They all have special talents and want to live life to the fullest.
Jo is the most modern with a lack of concern for marriage and society’s expectation of women. She is spunky and whip-smart. A hero to generations of girls, she had been played by Saoirse Ronan, Katharine Hepburn, Maya Hawke, and in the 1994 Gillian Armstrong-directed film Winona Ryder.
Released on Christmas Day 1994, it became an instant classic.
In this episode, the Margos talk about Alcott’s life, the original novels, and how they differ from the 1994 adaptation. So which did they like better? Have a listen and find out!
In this ep the Margos discuss:
- The incredible life of Louisa May Alcott
- The success of Little Women and how it changed publishing
- Key differences in the most popular adaptations
- The cast: Winona Ryder (Jo March,) Trini Alvarado (Meg March,) Samantha Mathis (Older Amy March,) Kirsten Dunst (Younger Amy March,) Claire Danes (Beth March,) Christian Bale (Laurie,) Eric Stoltz (John Brooke,) Gabriel Byrne (Friedrich Bhaer,) Susan Sarandon, (Marmee,) and Mary Wickes (Aunt March.)
Clips used:
- Little Women trailer
- Jo declines Laurie's proposal
- Amy declines Laurie's sorta proposal
- Beth gets a piano for Christmas
- Music by Thomas Newman
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Email us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.com
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Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.com
Margo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/
Book Vs Movie: His Girl Friday
The 1928 Play (The Front Page) Vs the 1940 Howard Hawks Film
Writers Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur changed Broadway (and later Hollywood) forever when they created The Front Page, a comedy about irascible, mean reporters in Chicago who are waiting for the hanging of Earl Williams--a communist who killed an African American policeman which makes him a pariah in Cook County.
The reporters who hang around the jail to write about his fate couldn’t care less about justice--they just want a story. Our lead, Hildy Johnson, is ready to leave the newspaper business for good and marry a New York City gal. He claims to be eager for more money and respectability--but his cohorts in reporting know better.
As does his boss, Walter Burns, he schemes to keep him on duty and in Chicago. (Even “kidnapping” Hildy’s mother in law!)
Earl Williams escapes jail and manages to find Hildy alone in the press room. Realizing that Williams is innocent of the charges, Hildy hides him in the company desk and comedy ensues.
The “rat-a-tat” style dialog was a revelation at the time which may explain why it had been adapted several times for film, TV, radio, and on Broadway several times.
The 1940 adaptation from Howard Hawks is titled His Girl Friday switches genders for Hildy with Rosalind Russell playing the part against Cary Grant as Walter Burns. The script was credited to Charles Lederer but Ben Hecht most certainly had a hand in the dialog. (He would later be credited as one of the most successful screenwriters in history with Scarface, Spellbound, and Wuthering Heights in his official credits.)
The Margos talk about the original play and the most successful movie adaptation and decide which we like better.
In this ep the Margos discuss:
- How The Front Page changed Broadway
- Ben Hecht and Herman Mankowitz in Hollywood
- The biggest changes between the original text and the 1940 script
- The many problematic themes of the original material
- The cast: Cary Grant (Walter Burns,) Rosalind Russell (Hildy Johnson,) Ralph Bellamy (Bruce Baldwin,) and John Qualen (Earl Williams)
Clips used:
- His Girl Friday trailer
- Walter Burns, Hildy Johnson, and Bruce Baldwin have lunch
- Hildy returns to quit
- Walter convinces Hildy to stay
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Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.com
Margo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/
Book Vs Movie: Harold and Maude
The Colin Higgins Story & the Direction of Hal Ashby
The Margos want to sing out! Today’s special episode is based on the novelization of a screenplay by the talented Colin Higgins who manages to good luck his way into having his first attempt at a screenplay produced by Paramount in 1971. Before that, he was an American-Australian who traveled around the globe trying to figure out how to turn his passion for writing into a career. (He would go on to write & direct 9 to 5!)
Harold and Maude became the second film of legendary director Hal Ashby who won an Oscar for editing In The Heat of the Night in 1967 and was eager for the challenge of creating a movie about peace and love.
The film stars Bud Cort as Harold Chason, a young, lonely man obsessed with death and pranks his stiff, upper-crust mother (played by Vivian Pickles) by staging phony suicides. (This is a very dark comedy, by the way!)
One of his hobbies is attending funerals for strangers where he meets his soulmate--Maude Chardin. Maude is 79 years old and lives her life to the fullest. Together they discover the glories of planting trees, stealing cars, music, and fighting the good fight.
Academy Award-winning actress Ruth Gordon plays Maude and this ultimately uplifting film has been a cult favorite since its release in 1971 (though it was trashed by the critics at the time.)
We talk about the journey of Harold and Maude from the script stage to the inclusion of Cat Stevens’s music which makes the whole movie feel like a wonderful daydream.
We also want to give a special shout-out to the Hal documentary directed by Amy Scott and the book Hal Ashby and the Making of Harold and Maude by James A. Davidson which were essential to our research.
Listen to this episode to hear us talk about the book & movie and decide which we like better.
In this ep the Margos discuss:
- The intriguing lives of Colin Higgins and Hal Ashby
- Behind the scenes trivia about the filming of the movie in the Bay Area
- How the music of Cat Stevens is its own character in the story
- The controversial nature of the May December romance between the leads
- The cast: Bud Cort (Harold,) Ruth Gordon (Maude,) Vivian Pickles (Mrs. Chasen,) Cyril Cusack (Glaucus,) Charles Tyner (Uncle Victor,) Eric Christmas (Priest,) George Wood (Psychiatrist,) Ellen Geer (Sunshine Dore,) Judy Engles (Candy,) Tom Skerritt (credited as “M. Borman”) as the cop.
Clips used:
- Maude encourages Harold to LIVE
- Maude steals a car
- Mrs. Chasen applies for computer dating for Harold
- Harold’s Date, Sunshine Dore, and her scene as Juliette
- Tom Skerrit as the police officer
- Music by Cat Stevens
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Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.com
Margo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/
Book Vs Movie: The Age of Innocence
The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novel Vs the Martin Scorsese Film
The Margos take a trip back in time when the social strata in America were restrictive in all aspects of your life from where you lived, worshipped, and mostly--who you wanted to marry. Our author this time is Edith Wharton who grew up in America and Europe in a luxury lifestyle with the top aristocracy of the mid 19th century.
Born Edith Newbold Jones (the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses refers to her father’s family) the future Pulitzer prize winner was a world traveler at a young age who would become fluent in French, German, and Italian. She eschewed the usual fashions and expectations of women at the time.
She also wrote poetry and short stories which were not considered proper for a woman in the high society of the time. In the 1880s she returned to New York and put her writing to the side as she became a debutant and looked for a proper husband.
We talk more about the fascinating life of Edith Wharton and how she came to write The Age of Innocence in 1920. (And why she won the Pulitzer Prize versus the always political Sinclair Lewis.) There have been a few adaptations over the years from stage to screen but this time we want to focus on Martin Scorsese’s 1993 film.
The story of Newland Archer who is engaged to the lovely (and kind of boring) May Welland and is intrigued by soon-to-be divorcee Ellen Olenska. Ellen is older than May and considered a rebel for not only ending her marriage to a Polish Count (he’s an abusive creep) but she treats her staff as equals and prefers to travel alone.
Newland and Ellen have a passionate (but chaste) romance which causes tension. Does he leave the social world of New York behind and live with Ellen? Or should he stay home and marry May as a proper gentleman should.
Listen to this episode to hear us talk about the book & movie and decide which we like better.
In this ep the Margos discuss:
- The fascinating life of Edith Wharton
- The world of high society in America in the 1800s & early 20th century
- The controversial ending of the story
- The cast: Daniel Day-Lewis (Newland Archer,) Michelle Pfeiffer (Ellen Olenska,) Winona Ryder (May Welland,) Richard E. Grant (Larry Lefferts,) Alec McGowen (Sillerton Jackson,) Geraldine Chaplin (Mrs. Welland,) Mary Beth Hurt (Regina Beaufort,) and Stuart Wilson (Julius Beaufort.)
Clips used:
- The Age of Innocence trailer
- May offers him a chance to end their engagement
- Ellen and Newland have a brief encounter
- The final end of the affair
- Music by Elmer Bernstein
Join our Patreon page to help support the show! https://www.patreon.com/bookversusmovie
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Twitter @bookversusmovie www.bookversusmovie.com
Email us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.com
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Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.com
Margo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/