Kenneth Wishnia is no mean author of mysteries, but he also teaches English at Suffolk County Community College in New York. I am delighted that this semester one of his classes is using as a textbook the anthology I edited, Crimes Against Nature: New Stories of Environmental Villainy.
A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of speaking to his class via zoom. They asked a lot of great questions and - how wonderful! - had clearly read the material.
But I want to talk about one point that came up. Someone asked which authors had influenced me and that led to me rambling about Donald E. Westlake and how terrible the movies based on his books had turned out.
Ken spoke up in defense of The Hot Rock, which I admit is the best of them, but that got me trying to think of a first-class movie comedy based on a humorous novel. At first I couldn't come up with any. Eventually I remembered some and realized how few of the novels in question I had read. So I am going to list what I came up with and invite you to add more.
CATEGORY 1: Read the book and seen the movie.
The Princess Bride. One of my favorite movies, and it is based on a great book. Perhaps not surpisingly the screenplay was written by the author of the book, William Goldman. In As You Wish by Cary Elwes (who played Westley) we learned that on the first day of production they had to stop filming because the sound man was picking up strange noises. It turned out that Goldman was at the far end of the set praying out loud that director Rob Reiner did not ruin his masterpiece. Happily his prayer was granted.
American Fiction. Based on the novel Exposure by Percival Everett. This is a case where I liked the movie better than the book, possibly because I saw the movie first. Both are delightful.
Confess Fletch. Based on Gregory Macdonald's novel. Don't get me started on the more successful Chevy Chase movie Fletch, because I despise it.
Thank You For Smoking, based on the very funny book by Christopher Buckley.
Bananas. "Elements" of the plot are from Richard P. Powell's novel Don Quixote U.S.A.
M*A*S*H. Based on the novel by Richard Hooker, alias Hiester Richard Hornberger, Jr. and W.C. Heinz. HRH really had been a surgeon in Korea.
Mister Roberts. Based on the novel by Thomas Heggen. Heggen's success ruined him. He couldn't figure out how to write a second book and drowned in a bathtub at age 30 with a heavy dose of barbiturates.
The Devil Wears Prada, based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger.
About a Boy, based on the novel by Nick Hornby.
No Time For Sergeants, based on a play by Ira Levin, based on the novel by Mac Hyman.
Our Man in Havana. Graham Greene wrote the screenplay, based on his own novel. A few years ago Christopher Hull wrote Our Man Down In Havana: The Story Behind Graham Greene's Cold War Spy Novel. It's interesting but a more accurate subtitle would be: Graham Greene's Experiences in Cuba.
Kind Hearts and Coronets. "Loosely based" on Roy Horniman's 1907 novel, Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal.
Bridget Jones' Diary, based on the novel by Helen Fielding.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Remembered this one at the last moment! Shane Black had apparently written most of the script when he decided it needed to be a crime story. He took the detective elements from Brett Halliday's Bodies Are Where You Find Them and wrote/directed a very funny flick.
CATEGORY 3: Haven't read the book or seen the movie, but I've heard they are good things bout both..
Clueless. A California high school girl's attempts at good deeds backfire. Based on Emma, the only Jane Austen novel I could not get through.
Breakfast at Tiffany's. Based on Truman Capote's novella.
Crazy Rich Asians, based on the novel by Kevin Kwan.
Mrs. Doubtfire, based on Madame Doubtfire, by Anne Fine.
So, what am I missing? I'm sure you will mention some that make me bang my head in frustration for not thinking of them Remember, it has to be a good comedy based on a novel.
Clueless is a great movie, as is Mrs. Doubtfire. Well worth your time. The only movie I recall enjoying more than the book is The Pelican Brief.
ReplyDeleteOh, The Pelican Brief is not a comedy. But then I don't recall thinking The Devil Wears Prada was a comedy either, the book or the film. Some wry moments, but not what I would call a comedy. (That said, it has been about 20 years since I read the book and saw the movie. But my memory is screaming drama.)
DeleteWell, I remember Prada as a comedy, but maybe we laugh at different things?
DeleteThe Loved One, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh, is a satire on the funeral business, and one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. But then, I have a sick sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteEdward Lodi
Thanks. I will add it to my list.
DeleteTHE TWELVE CHAIRS (1980) directed by Mel Brooks, with Frank Langella, Ron Moody, and
ReplyDeleteDom DeLuise, from 1928 Russian novel by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov. This was just one 18 film adaptations of the book, none of which I have seen (and many of which were foreign-made -- Poland-Czechoslovakia, Nazi Germany, Brazil, Cuba, Syria, Russia, and England. Mel Brooks considered this one of the three movies he was most proud of making. It is very funny.
A good movie but not one of my favorite Brooks flicks. (Producers, Saddles, Frankenstein, and High Anxiety...)
DeleteAs you say, Rob, Comedy is hard! Hard to get published, and certainly hard to teach. My Goddaughter series was optioned (compared to Donald Westlake by Ellery Queen MM) and the option ran out during the pandemic. Even so, we wondered if the comedy would transfer to screen readily. My fave adaptation to screen is The Wrong Box, a Brit film based on the Robert Louis Stevenson book.
ReplyDeleteDonald Westlake said Hollywood is America's support system for writers. The studios option your books over and over again and never do anything with them...
DeleteLove this post, Rob! I agree with Barb--You MUST see Clueless, and Mrs. Doubtfire too.
ReplyDeleteAs for movies that were better than their books (not just comedies), for me those would include Forrest Gump, M*A*S*H, Dances with Wolves, The Graduate, and The Godfather.
Argh! How did I forget The Graduate?
DeleteEdward Lodi, I too think "The Loved One" is one of the most - if not most - BRILLIANT black comedies ever written and filmed. Evelyn Waugh knew how to write. And I feel like "Our Man in Havana" written by Graham Greene and the movie starring Alec Guiness ranks 2nd.
ReplyDeleteAnd I LOVE Clueless.
Don't overlook TV. The recent "Bad Monkey" miniseries, based on the novel by Carl Hiaasen, was longer than it needed to be (a problem with a lot of TV shows these days), but I enjoyed most of it, and it captured the tone of Hiaasen's writing well. It's not purely a comedy, but the "Slow Horses" TV show is also terrific, and includes much of the comic tone employed in the Mick Herron books. In the non-mystery realm I also liked "Lucky Hank," based on the Richard Russo novel "Straight Man," which does a great job of capturing the absurdity of modern academia.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure Michael Chabon's The Wonder Boys was better on film than on paper, but it was fun to watch, especially Robert Downey, who was brilliantly and hilariously sleazy.
ReplyDeleteAnd, speaking of Richard Russo, the film version of Nobody's Fool is a lot of fun, too, with a brilliant cast: Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, and Melanie Griffith in the major roles.
ReplyDeleteThe book Harriet the Spy is great, but the movie is terrible. The movie The Road to Wellville is hilarious & quite different from the book. It is about Dr. Kellogg of the Kellogg Cereal Company, but in the book it says Wellville refers to Kellogg's arch rival, Post Cereal. Both companies are still in business all these years later.
ReplyDeleteRoad to Wellville is good.
DeleteGee, no love for Stephen King or Harry Potter?
ReplyDeleteNeither is big on comedy.
DeleteI don't remember the differences between the book and the movie for Harry Potter 6, but the movie was very funny.
DeleteHow about "The Wrong Box," from 1966? Based on a very funny British novel (by Rbt. Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, no less!) which I started, set down and now can't find! Daft, British black-humoured silliness! Rudyard Kipling gushed over the book and I loved the movie when I saw it in the '70s.
ReplyDelete