Book Vs Movie: “A Streetcar Named Desire”
The Tennessee Williams Play Song Vs the Elia Kazan Movie
The Margos are feeling very fragile and need to take long, hot baths when discussing one of the greatest dramas of the 20th Century--A Streetcar Named Desire. The play by Tennessee Williams thrilled the Broadway stage in 1947 starring young buck Marlon Brandon who went full method with Kim Hunter, Jessica Tandy, and Karl Malden.
The play is Williams’s follow up to the incredible success of The Glass Menagerie in 1944 which was greatly based on his own life story. Williams grew up in an unhappy home and had family members with mental health issues. The writing was his escape and many of his characters tend to be lost souls who are searching for meaning and/or companionship.
In post-World War 2 America, musicals were making the most money in New York theater but when A Streetcar Named Desire--audiences stood in lines for hours to watch Brando and his masculinity on full display. He was a fan of Stella Adler and her acting technique which as first scared Jessica Tandy (playing Blanche Dubois--an “aging” southern belle who is looking for help in a time of crisis.”) Her husband, fellow thespian Hume Cronyn convinced this type of drama will change theater forever.
Taking place in New Orleans in 1947, Blanche Dubois is a woman who has just lost her family home in Laurel, Mississippi, and moves in with her younger sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and her brutish husband Stanley Kowalski. Brando plays Stanley as a cross between man & animal who resents his sister-in-law moving into their tiny home.
The tension between Blanche & Stanley fuels most of the scenes and has consequences for everyone in their lives culminating in violence.
The film was directed by Elia Kazan based mostly on his Broadway production though because of the Hays Code, many changes had to be made to make it “appropriate” for a 1950s movie audience. (There were no rating systems back then and movies were meant for a more general audience.) Most of the hyper-sexuality was toned down and were under the guise of symbolism to get their point across.
It’s one of the top dramas of all time and we really enjoyed digging into the changes with the film (which started with the casting of Vivien Leigh as Blanche who was thought to be more commercial than Jessica Tandy.)
So between the play and the movie--which did we prefer? Have a listen and find out!
In this ep the Margos discuss:
Clips used:
Book Vs Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts
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/
Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram @Studio39Marketing & @musicalmadeleine
Book Vs Movie: “Harper Valley PTA”
The 1968 Song Vs the 1978 Movie (really!)
Ever since the pandemic began, we decided to create a new show each week (rather than biweekly which has been our habit for over six years now) the sources of adaptations have expanded to magazines, novellas, and songs. You would assume a shorter source would make for shorter episodes but, they can bring on just as much of a discussion as a novel.
This brings us to today’s subject of our podcast--Harper Valley PTA. The song was written by Tom. T. Hall and performed by country singer Jeannie C. Riley in 1968. The story about a “widowed bride” who is slut-shamed by her daughter’s junior high school PTA (Parents Teachers Advisory) and gives a takedown at a meeting that is spectacular in its shade and incisiveness was one of the first feminist anthems and managed to become a number one hit in the U.S. on both the pop and country charts. (Past episode Dolly Parton did the same in 1980 for 9 to 5!)
The 1978 movie is an R-rated cuckoo bananas production starring Barbara Eden (a stone-cold fox!) as Stella Johnson who exacts a Porky’s style revenge on the local yokels who dare to take her on. She also is wooed by an equally sexy Ronny Cox and is teamed up with Nanette Fabray in this film that played in drive-in theaters in 1978 and made millions.
It features nudity, wrap dresses, elephants, revenge porn, makeovers, and a helicopter proposal.
So between the song and the movie--which did we prefer? Have a listen and find out!
In this ep the Margos discuss:
Clips used:
Book Vs Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts
.
Join our Patreon page to help support the show! https://www.patreon.com/bookversusmovie
Book Vs. Movie podcast https://www.facebook.com/bookversusmovie/
Twitter @bookversusmovie www.bookversusmovie.com
Email us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.com
Brought to you by Audible.com You can sign up for a FREE 30-day trial here http://www.audible.com/?source_code=PDTGBPD060314004R
Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.com
Margo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/
Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram @Studio39Marketing & @musicalmadeleine
Book Vs Movie: “Arrival”
The Ted Chiang Novella Vs the Amy Adams Film
The Margos are looking into the world of language and SciFi with the Ted Chiang novella Story of Your Life published in 1998 and the 2016 movie directed by Denis Villeneuve Arrival.
(Warning! Spoilers coming right your way!)
In the story, Dr. Louise Banks is a linguist and narrator tasked to help the U.S. Government with a group of alien shapeships who suddenly arrive. The aliens are “heptapods” and it is Banks’s job to try and create a common language with them. She is helped by Dr. Gary Donnelly and the two make contact with two heptapods named Flapper and Raspberry.
During this assignment, she learns that she will one day become a mother to a daughter who will die young. She can see in the future all of these interactions with her. She can also see that she marries Dr. Donnelly and he leaves her in the future.
If you have knowledge of the future, do you have an obligation to let others know? What if you have a child with someone and know when they will die? What is your obligation with this knowledge?
The movie Arrival stars Amy Adams as Dr. Banks and Jeremy Renner (known as Ian Donnelly in the film) It would go on to receive eight Academy Awards nominations including for Best Best Picture and Best Director. But NOT for Best Actress for Adams. BOO!
So between the book and the film--which did we prefer? Have a listen and find out!
In this ep the Margos discuss:
Clips used:
Book Vs Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts
.
Join our Patreon page to help support the show! https://www.patreon.com/bookversusmovie
Book Vs. Movie podcast https://www.facebook.com/bookversusmovie/
Twitter @bookversusmovie www.bookversusmovie.com
Email us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.com
Brought to you by Audible.com You can sign up for a FREE 30-day trial here http://www.audible.com/?source_code=PDTGBPD060314004R
Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.com
Margo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/
Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram @Studio39Marketing & @musicalmadeleine
Book Vs Movie: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
The F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Vs the David Fincher Movie
The Margos take on the world of magical realism with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in Collier’s Magazine in 1922. The main character, Benjamin Button, is born looking and behaving like a 70-year-old man. Gradually it is revealed that Benjamin is aging backward so when he is 18 in his heart, he looks and acts like a 50-year-old man.
In his lifetime, his father puts him in charge of the family business, marries a beautiful younger woman, enlists to fight in the Spanish American War, has a son, and then his family must deal with the consequences of him aging back to his birth state.
The David Fincher 2008 adaptation stars Brad Pitt as Benjamin and Cate Blanchett as his love interest Daisy. There are several changes between the short story and the multiple Academy Award-nominated film. We are here to talk about it!
So between the book and the film--which did we prefer? Have a listen and find out!
In this ep the Margos discuss:
Clips used:
Book Vs Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts
Join our Patreon page to help support the show! https://www.patreon.com/bookversusmovie
Book Vs. Movie podcast https://www.facebook.com/bookversusmovie/
Twitter @bookversusmovie www.bookversusmovie.com
Email us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.com
Brought to you by Audible.com You can sign up for a FREE 30-day trial here http://www.audible.com/?source_code=PDTGBPD060314004R
Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.com
Margo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/
Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram @Studio39Marketing & @musicalmadeleine