Thursday, June 25, 2020

Thursday Movie Picks: TV Edition-Book to TV Adaptations



TV time again and this is another biggie from Wandering Through The Shelves who had the great idea to choose this theme and there are so many to choose from. I went with the King and Queen of the miniseries to a more recent British TV series and here they are...

1. EAST OF EDEN-1981


This is my favourite version of this book written by John Steinbeck. Don't get me wrong, the 1955 film that I have spoken about before is excellent but this one takes in more of the complete book than just the last part. Jane Seymour stars as the villainess, Cathy Ames who leaves her hometown, after burning down her home with her parents inside it. After  some foolishness on her part, she ends up on the doorstep, beaten to a pulp, of 2 brothers, Adam and Charles Trask. Of course we have the Cain and Abel story going on here where the good son sees Cathy through rose-coloured glasses and the bad boy sees Cathy for who she is. Let's just say her beauty gets the better of both ending up with her pregnant with twins. The latter half of the book is what most people know about where the twins are repeating the good and evil vibe set out by their Father and Uncle. This is excellently acted and really shows the acting chomps of Jane Seymour. To me, this is a must see.

2. THE THORN BIRDS-1983


When this miniseries came out(authored by Colleen McCullough), it caused a huge furor with the Catholic Church where the pope denounced it and the news dedicated whole segments about whether priests should be allowed to marry(uh yes!). This stars the king of the mini series, Richard Chamberlain as the young Ralph DeBricassart who is the priest in a small town in Australia near Drogheda, a huge sheep ranch reigned over by the great Barbara Stanwyck. Her brother and his wife come with their children to live and work on this farm. Their one girl is a young Meggie whom the priest grows very fond of. Well, little girls grow up and the priest has some very lusty thoughts but he quells them because he is also ambitious and has his eyes set on the Vatican. People were riveted to this miniseries that, I think, was 4 two hour episodes. I loved it and loved the romance, the acting and how so much repeats from one generation down to the next. Barbara Stanwyck won an Emmy for this role but felt Ann-Margaret should have won in her stead. This was second in the most popular miniseries next to Roots...another great TV show. Thank God Netflix and all these cable channels didn't exist back then. 

3. POLDARK-2015-2019


I love the PBS series starring a hubba hubba Aiden Turner as Ross Poldark who, considered dead for the past 5 years, shows up quite alive coming home to see his family and the love of his life, played by Heida Reed. Little does he know that she married his brother thinking Ross was dead. From there we meet a scruffy waif that Ross saves, played by Eleanor Tomlinson who cleans up very well with her long red locks. Soon enough they become a twosome but she can not stop him from saving his part of the world, working the mines, sparring with a jerk Jack Farthing and still drooling over his lost love. We meet a noble doctor, many townspeople, distant cousins, a disgusting minister with a penchant for women's toes all set around the last 1700's to the early 1800's. This is a wonderful series that is a remake of another Poldark done in the 1970's I love this one and hope you get a chance to see it.

Which 3 would you choose?

35 comments:

  1. I'd love to see the first two ... but I think being Cornish I've seen plenty of Poldark ... however yes - it's a good series. Loved the Thorn Birds when it was a tv series ... take care - Hilary

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    1. How lovely to be living in this same area which looks so beautiful

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  2. "I'll raise Cain as long as I am Abel" - S.D. Knight

    Hi, Birgit!

    I haven't seen any of these pictures, dear friend, but your reviews have be determined to change that. I love Jane Seymour, and after viewing the trailer and reading the rave reviews on IMDB, I can tell that her beauty and soft-spoken manner mask the evil within and that her performance in E of E is one of the greatest by any actress in a film or mini-series. I have also liked Timothy Bottoms ever since The Last Picture Show.

    Can you believe Ann-Margaret is going on 80? I concluded that she is an underrated actress when I saw her in the Mike Nichols film Carnal Knowledge along with "Jack," Art Garfunkel and Candy Bergen. Ann makes me go hubba hubba.

    The scene from Poldark made me smile because it reminds me of countless others I have watched in which an angry exchange between man and woman leads to a sudden burst of desire and passionate verboten kissing.

    While I prefer works set in more modern times, I would like to give all three of these a try because I always appreciate good storytelling and acting.

    Enjoy the rest of your week, dear friend BB!

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    1. Yes, there are so many angry passion moments in film. It always does make me laugh a little because when I a, angry, the last thing I want to do is kiss him unless it’s with my knuckles...hahaaa..just kidding but I can think it Like Ralph Cramden. You will really like East of Eden and I hope you can see it. I can’t believe Kitten with a whip will be 80

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  3. I couldn't get in to Poldark. Just saw the first few episodes. Watched all of The Thorn Birds when it was on. Don't get me started on religions which do nothing but start wars. Haven't seen East of Eden and don't believe I ever saw the movie. I might look for your suggestion.
    Enjoy Father Brown on the BBC and thought I would read the novels. Turns out the TV series is just based on the two main characters in the books and is not remotely similar.

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    1. Oh bummer about Poldark. Yes, religion has created great works of art and architecture but it has brought so much heartache to put it mildly from the Crisades, the 100 yrs war and the 30 years Warnever mind all the priests lusting after the altar boys. Oh and thinking the Romans were heathens with their baths decided to get rid of that which brought about disease and General grossness

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  4. Sadly I can think of more that failed. Game of Thrones' final season crashed and burned and the Shannara series became a train wreck by the end of the first season.

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    1. I have yet to see any Game of Thrones but heard the last episode sucked. I have not even heard of Shannara

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  5. I haven't seen any of these Birgit as having read the books I just could not get into them the characters just were not right as I had envisaged them...hope you are keeping well...take care xxx

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    1. I have read The Thorn Birds and I found the mini series was close to the book. I still have to read East of Eden and I have not read Poldark either

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  6. I like that you picked a bunch of mini series! I haven't seen any of them though because I suck. lol

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    1. Hahahaaa.. you don’t suck besides, maybe one day...

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  7. In your "Period Dramas" post I already mentioned the BBC version of Les Miserables that I recently watched and is about as good as anything on film I've seen. That would definitely make my list.

    A few others that I enjoyed were The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Roots, and Pride and Prejudice. I've enjoyed so many film versions of the latter, but as I recall the BBC version did best at following the book.

    This topic sparked more immediate thoughts than most other topics. Good one.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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    1. Roots was..is excellent and I was riveted as were millions when this came out.

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  8. I did see the Thorn Birds and enjoyed it. I thought of Centennial. I enjoyed that mini series.

    betty

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    1. Glad you saw The Thornbirds and I have never heard of Centennial

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  9. Hi Birgit, loved the Thornbirds,well Richard Chamberlain really.
    Never got into Poldark, and haven't seen East of Eden..
    Hope you are well, Kate x x

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    1. A few of you do not care for Poldark. I think you would like East of Eden

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  10. Mary and I used to watch a lot of the BBC dramatizations of books on *Masterpiece Theater*. I know "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" was an adaptation of Le Carre's George Smiley books (Alec Guinness played Smiley), and "The Jewel In The Crown" was an adaptation one of the books of Paul Scott's *The Raj Quartet*. A particularly good adaptation was Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited." I read the book after having seen the show, and was pleasantly surprised at how well the book and the show corresponded to one another.

    Many others were based on the book, but how closely they followed it was almost secondary. "All Creatures Great And Small" was based on James Herriott's books, which I've read and didn't correspond to the episodes of the series. Ditto "Flambards": I've never read the books by K. M. Peyton, so I don't know how closely the show matched, but remember it was very well done. A couple of series that we especially liked were "The Duchess of Duke Street" and "Danger: UXB," which I thought were based on novels but were evidently created from scratch by John Hawkesworth, who no doubt required a lot of research.

    Anyway, I'm rambling...

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    1. You are not rambling and I love your picks. I remember the ones you speak of as being very popular and yet, I never watched them..maybe I was a bit too young for Masterpiece Theatre..meaning I was a dumbass.

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  11. I’m a Jane Austen girl, and Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth version, of course) has to be the pinnacle.

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    1. God I have to see this miniseries with Colin Firth

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  12. For someone who watches a LOT of tv and NO movies, you would think this would be a topic on which I would be able to comment. Sadly, I've never seen any of these. I have never seen Poldark, after watching the preview on PBS. I have the PBS Passport, since I'm a contributor, so I'm sure I could access the archived shows. However, I've just never been interested. After reading your synopsis, I may just check out a few of these.

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    1. It is quite good, I think. There are so many shows based on books...quite wild actually.

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  13. On of these days I am going to check out Poldark. I haven't seen it but I know of it. And East of Eden is a great book and movie. Oh James Dean. Happy Thursday. Or should I say, I hope it was a good one. Hugs-Erika

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    1. East of Eden is an excellent film but I just love this miniseries

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  14. Oh my gosh, Jane Seymour played Catherine perfectly hard and wicked. I think Steinbeck would've shuddered if he'd seen Seymour's performance. Part of the series was filmed in Hollister, where I live. Steinbeck's grandparents owned a dairy farm here, around the turn of the 20th century.

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    1. That is so cool that you love right where Steinbeck lived and the miniseries was partly filmed ther...coool

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  15. I loved the Thorn Birds. Kudos to McCullough. Seriously well written.
    AND enjoyed the film. Good pick!

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    1. I would love to see The Thornbirds again and the book was good and I was surprised at how closely the miniseries followed the book. Wild that the brothers of Meggie except for 2, never even thought of having kids and the others, well we know what happened to those 2.

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  16. So many crashed and burned. GOT definitely didn't stick the ending.

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  17. My mother loves the first two. (And I should all caps and italicize "loves".) I watched The Thorn Birds with her. Very dramatic. I've seen bits of East of Eden (whenever it was on, she watched it).

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    1. That’s funny...glad she loves the first 2 because so do I and would love to get the on DVD.

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  18. I know of Thorn Birds and would like to see it.
    I wanted to like Poldark, but nope I did not. I feel the world doesn't quite looked as lived in as other period dramas. And I find Aiden Turner soo cheesy as Poldark especially when he does that smouldering thing.

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