Book Vs Movie Podcast

Book Vs. Movie: The Children’s HourThe 1934 Play Vs. the 1936 ("These Three") & 1961 AdaptationLillian Hellman’s first play, The Children’s Hour, caused a sensation in 1934 when it debuted on Broadway with the tale of two schoolteachers accused of being lesbians when homosexuality was illegal in much of the U.S. The show was so scandalous that a Chicago run was canceled. Hellman always stated that the play's moral was about the power of lies and how they can affect an entire community. In 1936, Hellman wrote the screenplay for its first adaptation, These Three, starring Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins, and Joel McRea, jettisoning the lesbian subplot. It was directed by William Wyler, who reluctantly allowed the changes due to the Hays Code but was eager to take on the material again one day. In this episode, the Margos talk about the 1936 & 1961 adaptations with most of the original script intact, both directed by Wyler. The story takes place in New England with two friends who run an all-girls boarding

Book Vs. Movie: Cat on a Hot Tin RoofThe 1955 Play Vs. the 1958 Classic FilmThe Margos are feeling very Southern in this episode devoted to the work of Tennessee Williams and his personal favorite work--Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The 1955 play was based on his 1952 short story “Three Plays of a Summer Game” and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama during its Broadway debut. The story of the Pollitt family in the Mississippi Delta and their personal grievances and torturous secrets was considered incredibly raw and racy for the conservative 1950s. The 1955 play was directed by Elia Kazan and starred future Dallas star Barbara Bel Geddes as Maggie “The Cat” Pollitt and Ben Gazzara as Brick Pollitt. Burl Ives (“Big Daddy”) and Madeleine Sherwood (“Sister Woman”) would go on to star in the film adaptation in 1958. Bel Geddes and Kazan were nominated for the Tony Award in the original production, and the themes of homophobia, family bonds, and sexism excited audiences then and to this day. The film was directed and adapte

Book Vs. Movie: Strangers on a TrainThe 1950 Novel Vs. the 1951 Classic FilmThe Margos return to Alfred Hitchcock with his classic thriller Strangers on a Train, based on Patricia Highsmith’s debut novel. The story of two men meeting up and deciding to commit double murder in just a few hours may strain credulity--but it is a fun story ride!In the novel, budding architect Guy Haines meets wealthy gadabout Charles Anthony Bruno (called Bruno throughout the book) on a train ride to Texas. Guy wants to divorce his cheating (and pregnant) wife, Miriam, to marry his true love, Anne Faulkner. Bruno has a father who wants him to grow up and be more responsible, while he would rather travel, drink, and spend his family’s money. Bruno proposes they kill the person in their lives holding back their happiness. Guy agrees to escape the conversation and is shocked when Bruno strangles Miriam to death. Bruno now wants a favor in return. Highsmith was a master of thrills and suspense with several books, including “The Talen

Book Vs. Movie: The Last Picture ShowThe Larry McMurtry 1966 Novel Vs. the 1971 Peter Bogdanovich Film The Margos put on a Texas-sized episode of Book vs. Movie with The Last Picture Show--both the 1966 novel by Larry McMurtry and the 1971 film by Peter Bogdanovich. Both tell the tale of lonely people living in a forgotten Texas city with barely enough room for their hopes and dreams. McMurtry was a native of Archer City, Texas, born in 1936. When he was young, his family did not own many books and relied on oral storytelling to pass the time. A graduate of both the University of North Texas and Rice University, he would go on to create the town of Thalia as a stand-in for his native land to become the “Thalia: A Texas Trilogy,” which includes Horseman, Pass By (adapted into the 1963 Hud,) Leaving for Cheyenne (adapted into the film Lovin’ Molly in 1974) and 1966’s The Last Picture Show. He would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove, and his status as a top-notch writer and collector of antique boo

Book Vs. Movie: Blow-UpThe Julio Cortazar Short Story Vs. the Michelangelo Antonio Movie The Margos are feeling very mod today with this particular episode. We talk about Michelangelo Antonini, one of the most revered directors of the 1960s & 1970s, with a Palm d’Or, the Golden Lion, the Golden Bread, and the Golden Leopard among his film accomplishments. 1966’s Blow-Up is his biggest English language hit, and it captured the New Wave movement in modern filmmaking. The original story is from Julio Cortazar in a short story titled “Las Babas del Diablo,” written in 1959. The symbolism-heavy story is told with several unreliable narrators and the artist's relationship to their medium. Our protagonist is Roberto, a French-Chilean translator who loves photography and may or may not be connected to reality. He remembers watching a middle-aged woman in a park with a teenage boy. Is she procuring him for an older man? Roberto takes photographs and obsesses over the crime about to happen. The 1966 film (Antonioni

Book Vs Movie: “What’s Love Got to Do With It” (1993)Tina Turner’s 1986 Autobiography “I, Tina” Vs. the Angela Bassett Film RIP Tina! (1939-1983)With Tina Turner finally being nominated for a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nomination as a solo artist--the Margos decided now was the time to take a look at her life story (up to the age of 46) with her 80s bestselling autobiography (co-written by Kurt Loder!)“I, Tina” and compare it with the 1993 film “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” Anna Mae Bullock of Natbush, Tennessee, began her life sticking out in her Baptist choirs as a child and grew up to be one of the biggest stars in the world. From the moment she met Ike Turner--her life went on a trajectory of fame, struggle, acclaim, and abuse to reaching the Guinness World Book Of Records for the World’s Largest Playing Audience at 180,000. The movie based on “I, Tina,” was directed by Brian Gibson and stars Angela Bassett and Tina Turner, and Laurence Fishburne as Ike Turner, focusing mainly on their marriage and c

Book Vs. Movie: Dragon: The Bruce Lee StoryThe Shannon Lee Book/Memoir Vs. the 1993 Biopic Bruce Lee is one of the biggest martial artists of all time and created the style Jeet Kune Do, which caused controversy within the martial arts community. As a Chinese-American, he wanted to spread the word to anyone eager to learn and not keep secrets. He also believed in pushing himself to the limit in everything he did, which caused friction in Hollywood and Hong Kong film communities. Born Lee Jun-fan November 27, 1940, in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong by parents who tried to keep their smart, energetic son who would get into street fights in the 1950s. After being sent back to America to get his act together, Lee became more interested in school (mainly history and philosophy) and brought his new martial arts ideas to eager Bay Area students to Seattle. After demonstrating his new brand of Kung Fu in a 1964 championship in Long Beach, California, Hollywood came calling for Lee. His early years as a child m

Book Vs. Movie: LauraThe 1943 Novel Vs. the 1944 Classic FilmThe Margos continue with the 1940s with the film noir genre--Laura starring the gorgeous Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and Vincent Price. Based on the 1943 novel Ring Twice for Laura by Vera Caspary, the story of the mysterious Laura Hunt, who is found murdered (or was she?), was initially serialized in Collier's magazine in October and November 1942. It became a hit novel and was released as an Armed Services Edition to the troops in World War 2. Narrated in the first person, “Laura” is going murdered at her apartment door with her face left unrecognizable. Detective Mark McPherson tries to find her killer and focuses on her former lover, Waldo Lydecker, and her finance Shelby Carpenter. In the middle of the investigation, Laura shows up, surprised that someone was killed in her place. So who is the real victim and killer? The movie, directed by Otto Preminger, brings Gene Tierney as Laura, and from there, the character of Lydecker c

Book Vs. Movie: The Thin ManThe Dashiell Hammett Novel Vs. the 1934 Classic FilmThe Margos are looking for actors with chemistry and witty banter, so we had to dive into the fabulous world of Nick and Nora Charles and The Thin Man. What began as a feature in Redbook magazine in December 1933 turned into a best-selling novel by one of the most important writers of the 20th Century--Dashiell Hammett. We discussed Hammett when talking about The Maltese Falcon, and for several reasons, The Thin Man became his last novel. Hammett was a passionate anti-fascist who joined the Communist Party in 1937. By the 1950s, Congress investigated him before the House of Un-American Activities (HUAC), where he refused to “name names.” He went to a federal penitentiary in West Virginia and found himself impoverished afterward. His partner Lillian Hellman would go on to run his estate posthumously. The Thin Man is a story about a former New York City police officer (Nick Charles) who marries a wealthy socialite (Nora Charles) and

Book Vs. Movie: The Best Years of Our Lives The MacKinlay Kantor Novel Vs. the 1946 Classic FilmThe Margos continue their journey through post-WW2 America with one of the most celebrated movies of the 20th Century--The Best Years of Our Lives. The film was based on the novel Glory for Me by MacKinlay Kantor, who wrote the story of wounded GIs dealing with trauma in blank verse form. He started as a war correspondent in London and flew in some bombing missions. Glory for Me was an unglamorous look at what war makes people do to survive the experience and struggle to live a “normal” life afterward. He based his characters on real soldiers he had met while on his assignments and was passionate about telling the truth. Kantor eventually won the Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for Andersonville, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp. He was unhappy with director William Wyler’s take on his work which he felt was sanitized and disrespected actual war veterans. Wyler had flown in combat missions over Europe on the Memphis Belle

Book Vs. Movie:The Little FoxesThe Lillian Hellman 1939 Play Vs. the 1941 Bette Davis FilmPlaywright Lillian Hellman is one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th Century who had a complicated life filled with love affairs and massive success and was the toast of Broadway for works such as The Little Foxes, The Children’s Hour and Watch on the Rhine. She was also a House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) pariah and was called a liar by author Mary McCarthy on The Dick Cavett Show in 1979. Between controversies and celebrations, she had a 30-year relationship with fellow writer Dashiell Hammett and had many of her works adapted into film. The New Orleans native lived HARD in her 79 years before passing in 1984. The Little Foxes is a semi-autobiographical tale of a 1900 Southern family scheming to gain wealth by any means possible. Regina Hubbard Giddens (played by the legendary Talulah Bankhead on Broadway) is a woman who is married to a man she despises (Horace) and has two brothers (Benjamin and

Book Vs. Movie:OctopussyThe Ian Fleming Short Story Vs. the 1983 Roger Moore BondThe Margos are feeling very Bond--James Bond that is with 1983’s Octopussy based on a short story by Ian Fleming in the posthumously released Octopussy and The Living Daylights. Fleming, a former British Agent and the creator of Bond, passed away in 1964; he had left several short stories and novels that helped to continue the brand, including comic strips printed in newspapers worldwide. (We can’t promise not to giggle about the title throughout the episode!)Major Dexter Smythe was a hero in the Second World War and was implicated in a murder scheme and a cache of Nazi gold. In the original story, Bond is a secondary character, and we learn about the tragic life of Smythe. He is a man of only 56 but acts like 96 with loss and alcoholism chasing him through life. Smythe killed a man and let him rot for 15 years under a glacier, so there is that. His pet is an octopus, and Bond allows him the opportunity to either turn himself in

Book Vs. Movie: Rear WindowThe 1942 Short Story Vs. the 1954 Classic FilmThe Margos are swooning throughout this episode for one of the greatest movies of all time, adapted from a short story by a very interesting (and prolific) author. Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window is one of his finest works based on the short story; It Had to be Murder by Cornell Woolrich. Woolrich is considered one of his generation's best mystery/suspense writers, with dozens of titles making it to movie adaptations, including The Bride Wore Black, Night Had a Thousand Eyes, Mrs. Winterbourne, and Original Sun. He was so proficient as a writer of novels, screenplays, and short stories he had two noms de plumes--William Irish & George Hopley. A lonely man (he once dedicated a book to his hotel room), when he passed in 1968, he left his work to his alma mater Columbia University which eventually helped change the copyright laws. (See Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 1998.)The story's bones are the same as the film: an injured m

Book Vs. Movie: Touch of Evil The 1956 novel Badge of Evil Vs. the 1958 Film Noir ClassicThe Margos dive right back into one of our favorite genres--film noir! The 1958 Orson Welles’s directed film Touch of Evil is based on a 1956 novel by Whit Masteron titled Badge of Evil. The book sold reasonably well at the time, but at the time, the movie was given mixed reviews due to Welles not staying until the final edit process. In 1998, a “re-cut” of the film was based on a 58-page memo Welles had sent to the studio 40 years previously is now considered a modern classic and one of the last true “film noirs” to be released. Whit Masterson was the nom de plume of two writers--Wade Miller and Will Daemer who wrote more than 30 books together (including Kitten With a Whip in 1964!) Their original story is about a man, Rudy Linneker, killed by a dynamite blast at this home. His daughter Tara stands to make $2 million and is engaged to someone her father disapproved of before her death. There are other suspects, includin

Book Vs. Movie: Kinky BootsThe True Story Behind the 2005 Movie & 2013 Broadway Musical (and the 2019 movie!)The “Month of Musicals” concludes with Kinky Boots, the true story of a footwear company in Earls Barton, North Hamptonshire, UK--WJ Brooks. The factory was in Steve Pateman’s family for decades when in the 1990s, they started losing money to the cheaper, faster competition. Pateman appeared on BBC’s Trouble at the Top documentary showing how his company switched to creating boots for transvestites who needed more security when they stood in high heels. The collection expanded to “kink wear,” dubbed “Kinky Boots” by the BBC producers, and the story took off. In 2005, director Julian Jarrold and writers Geoff Deane and Tim Firth brought the story to life (unfortunately, the factory had to close in 2000.) Joel Edgerton plays Charlie Price (the Steve Patemen substitute), and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Lola is an amalgam of several drag queens that were customers of WJ Brooks's “Divine, Provider, and Lady Prov

Book Vs. Movie: La Cage Aux Folles & The BirdcageThe Original Film and Broadway Musical Vs. the 1996 FilmThe “Month of Musicals” continues with the 1996 film The Birdcage, which took its influence from the play turned into Broadway musical La Cage Aux Folles. The original 1973 french play takes place in Saint-Tropez, where a gay couple meets an ultra-conservative family member. It was a huge hit in Paris, playing for over a year in 1973, and was made into a film in 1978. Originally written by Jean Poiret, the original played in Paris for over 1800 performances with Poiret and Michell Serrault as the leads Georges and Albin, aka “Zaza.” The 1978 film had Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi as the lead playing Renato Baldi to Serrault’s Albin. It played to art houses across America. Poiret wanted to film the American version of the film, so he refused to sell the rights to the play but had no problem selling it as a musical. Grease producer Allan Carr helped bring the project to Broadway as a musical, with Harvey Fi

Book Vs. Movie: HairsprayThe 1988 John Waters Movie Vs. the 2007 Adaptation“Musicals in March”The Margos continue their look at “Musicals in March” with the John Waters classic Hairspray, which started with the 1988 movie starring Rikki Lake, Divine, and Debby Harry. Based on his experiences of being a fan of the 1957-1964 Baltimore teen dance TV program--The Buddy Deane Show, Waters was a huge fan of R&B music. On the Buddy Deane show, the dancers were integrated, unlike Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, which was based out of Philadelphia at the same time. Baltimore Magazine April 1985 by John Waters "Ladies & Gentleman: The Nicest Kids in Town!”Being a self-described “Super Fan” of the show, the director has a well-known career as an avant-garde-loving and bizarre artist who loves things that are in bad taste. His interest in something as wholesome as Buddy Deane made him think about writing a more accessible film about a group of teen dancers/local TV stars who fight racism and oppression with thei

Book Vs. Movie: Hedwig and the Angry InchThe 1999 Off-Broadway Musical Vs. the 2001 Movie“Musicals in March”The Margos kick off “Musicals in March 2023” with one of the best rock musicals based on a gender-bending lead c character--Hedwig and the Angry Inch created by multi-hyphenates John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask. Created in the late 1990s Off-Broadway, is the tale of misfit Hedwig Robinson who began life as Hansel Schmidt in Germany and became a famous-ish rocker in middle America. On her way to stardom, she interacts with the audience, talking about her life and how she wound up with an “Angry Inch.” The musical was a massive hit in 1998, starting with various music as its center and gradually becoming an original soundtrack--Hedwig was THE cool show to see on Jane Street in the late 90s. Mitchell wrote and directed the film adaptation in 2001, and Hedwig remains a popular show with none other than Neil Patrick Harris filling her shoes on Broadway. Between the original and the adaptation, which d

Book Vs. Movie:BlacKkKlansmanThe True Story Ron StallworthThe Margos visit the world of nonfiction with the too-nutty-to-not-be-true story of retired police officer Ron Stallworth who in the late 1970s infiltrated the Kuy Klux Klan in Colorado Springs, Colorado. On his journey, he met racists throughout the region who were not precisely clever but had designs of terrorizing nonwhites and Jewish people. After his assignment, he transferred to work at the Utah Department of Safety--never speaking about the job until after retirement. His 2014 book Black Klansman: A Memoir explains how and why he joined the Colorado “Organization” and how it felt to be the only person of color on the police force. We also learn how the KKK planned to bomb gay bars and cross-burnings throughout Colorado Springs. During his recruitment process, Stallworth spoke with the Grand Wizard, David Duke, and even took a photo with the noted racist creep. Director & screenwriter Spike Lee and producer Jordan Peele adapted the memoir int

Book Vs. Movie: Ma Rainey’s Black BottomThe August Wilson Play Vs. the 2021 Movie Pittsburgh native August Wilson (1945-2005) is one of the most successful playwrights of the 20th Century; with a collection of works that came to be known as The Pittsburgh Cycle, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice in his career and was inducted into American Theater Hall of Fame in 2006. His 1984 work Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is the subject of today’s episode. Gertrude Pridgett (Ma Rainey’s birth name) was dubbed the “Mother of the Blues” for her outrageous stage presence and ability to hold audiences in her trance. The Blues being one of America’s native art forms, the combination of the gospel with jazz music enticed the world with the earliest recordings featuring African American culture and is revered to this day. Rainey learned the ropes of show business through her husband “Pa Rainey” and was a mentor to a young Bessie Smith. Wilson’s 1984 play is a fictional account of Rainey attending a recording of her work at