Films inspired by or based upon tv shows

PATTERNS -- the 1956 film with Van Heflin was adapted from the 1953 Rod Serling TV drama with Richard Kiley (Everett Sloan and Ed Begley reprised their roles). It was the first shot in the Eisenhower era of dramas centering around the trials and tribulations of Big Business (EXECUTIVE SUITE, WOMAN'S WORLD, THE POWER AND THE PRIZE, etc.)

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Two Glenn Ford movies at MGM in 1956 began as Television plays:

1) THE FASTEST GUN ALIVE appeared first as 'The Last Notch' with Jeff Morrow. The gunslinger he must face was played by a young baby-faced Richard Jaeckel -- much superior as a wild, 'Billy the Kid' type over Broderick Crawford in the big screen version (too old, too urban, too paunchy).

2) RANSOM! as the father who refuses to pay his son's kidnappers and even goes on TV to make his case (perhaps Ford's best single scene in his long career) started as the TV play 'Fearful Decision' with Ralph Bellamy. It was performed twice to great acclaim at the time, but did not provide the emotionally happy ending of the film (child is released safely). Instead the father is left at the end to face the consequences of his choice with everyone abandoning him.