Silent films that were remade as sound films

Ah, more fool I, you're right, of course. Comes of my common error of typing before I think, doesn't it? Thanks!

"The Lady from the Sea" was originally a play by Henrik Ibsen. It has also been a ballet, an opera, and a radio play.

As for filmed versions, it was turned into a short U.S. silent film in 1911 (produced by the Thanhouser company, which I'm rather fond of), and became a late UK silent feature film in 1929. A sound movie version was made in 1954, and surprisingly was made by Argentina (I didn't even know Argentina had a film industry back then!)

As usual public television did its share of versions: A 1953 version by the BBC is one of the oldest surviving examples of British television drama, a 1961 version aired live in Australia (the National Archives hold a copy, but haven't digitised it), A 1966 version came out of Spain, another version from Spain came out in 1968, the BBC did another version in 1974, Norway did a version in 1979, Spain did another version in 1984, while Portugal did a version in 1993.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a more recent film or TV version.

EDIT: Turns out there was another BBC TV version in 1958. Unfortunately, this version is lost.

"The Wizard of Oz" was also done as a short film in 1910.

That phrase rather caught my imagination, and got me thinking about the nature of film as both art and manufactured consumer product.

While a work in paint or sculpture is undoubtedly subject to what might be called "editorial" decisions during creation ("Should I add more foliage to 'Mona Lisa's' background?" - "Am I making 'David's' shoulders too broad?") just as written works are, including those ultimately intended for performance such as plays and films, it's only in the latter two (and to be fair, in their televised incarnations) that the notion of "plasticity" is brought to bear upon the finished one.

And to get further into the weeds by drawing the distinction between those, I'd apply the word "fluid" to live theatrical performances, each of which is ephemeral and unique in spite of what might be unchanged text and staging.

With a film, even after the many levels of collaborative creative decisions occurring during pre-production (script; sets; casting; costuming, etc), production (lighting; camera lenses, framing and movement; aspects of performance; printed takes and so forth) and post-production (music scoring and recording, sound and visual effects and so on) have been made, there come the matters of assembly of these multiple components: picture, sound and music editing; sound mixing and dubbing; lab work such as color correction and printing orders. All these represent the manufacturing aspect.

So now you've got a finished film but, even in that state, it continues to exist in the form of multiple components - original cut negative and INs/IPs made therefrom; mag fullcoat, D-M-E 3-stripe or optical printing neg derived from final dub; 2-stripe M&E or single-stripe of each - which have to be combined in the lab in yet another stage of manufacture to produce a single composite print for projection.

And after all that (and here's where we get to that quality of plasticity to which you referred), this final product can be tinkered with in any number of ways, whether in the form of an "extended director's cut" for home video or theatrical reissue, truncated and/or pan-and-scan for broadcast or the sort of revision to which manfromplanetx referred in relation to The Gold Rush (not to mention shortened "general release" versions of such films as A Star Is Born or It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World following their roadshow engagements, or even re-edited re-issue versions of films such as Frankenstein or Baby Face to satisfy the sensitivities of the PCA/Breen office era).

And by the time we get into issues involving shoddy print manufacture or "quick and dirty" video mastering from substandard elements at one end of the spectrum to full-on "restoration" (which involves its own set of technical and artistic decisions) at the other, it can become truly difficult to establish exactly what constitutes a definitive version of any given film.

Anyone can create their own version of "Mona Lisa" as either slavish copy or one altered for personal commentary (with toothy grin or whatever), or of "David" (with either fig leaf or enhanced genitalia, for instance), but the originals remain as close to their completed forms as the ravages of time will allow. And while even works of architecture, which generally exist as one-offs, can be subject to both post-construction alteration and/or restoration, I can think of no other art form that can be continually and repeatedly vulnerable to after-the-fact amendment, in degrees great or small, as can that of film.         



                 

      

I haven't seen it, but I hear the 1925 version is awful.

Seven Keys to Baldpate was a novel by Earl Derr Biggers, which was turned into a play in 1913 by George M. Cohan. Depite their popularity at the time, most of George M. Cohan's plays are long forgotten, and this is no exception. Notice how the BBC didn't do a version, which is strange. Maybe it wasn't good enough for them?

All versions from the U.S. unless otherwise noted.

Silent film versions included:
A 1916 version from Australia, which Wikipedia says is partially lost
A 1917 version, which I believe is on DVD
A 1925 version, which is lost

Sound versions included:
A 1929 version, courtesy of RKO
A 1935 version, courtesy of RKO (again?)
A 1947 version, courtesy of RKO (really???) - All three RKO versions are available on DVD-R
A 1983 version called House of the Long Shadows, which came from the UK

Televison versions included:
A 1946 version (only seen in New York City) - Aired live, and predated the 1947 invention of kinescopes, so is presumably lost
A 1952 version as part of Broadway Television Theatre
A 1962 version as part of The DuPont Show of the Week

Adding to the fun, Radio versions include:
1938, as part of Lux Radio Theatre
1946, as part of Theatre Guild on the Air


But what about She Stoops to Conquer, which was originally an 18th century play. Silent films were done, and TV versions were done, a straight-to-video version was done....BUT NO SOUND FILMS!! Ugh. This is getting off topic, but I mention it anyway because this is remarkable....so many adaptations, but no sound films.

Silent film versions included:
A 1910 version from the U.S. by the Thanhouser company, a company I'm rather fond of
A 1914 version from the UK
A 1923 version from the UK

TV versions included:
A 1939 version done in the UK (lost: It aired live, and the ability to record live TV was not developed until 1947, and was not used by the BBC to record a drama until 1953)
A 1948 version from the U.S. as part of Kraft Television Theatre
A 1949 version from the UK (lost)
A 1952 version from the U.S. as part from Kraft Television Theatre
A 1953 version from Canada as part of General Motors Presents
A 1956 version from the UK (also lost)
A 1960 version from the UK as part of Played Upon a Stage
A 1961 version from the UK as part of the BBC Sunday Night Play (this too is lost)
A 1966 version from the UK (yet again, this is lost too)
A 1972 version from the UK as part of Stage 2
A 1974 version from the Soviet Union (who, believe it or not, did do various adaptations of western plays for their TV service)
A 2008 version from the UK
A 2012 version from the UK

A straight-to-video version came in 2003, from the UK

Ozu remade his 1934 silent A Story of Floating Weeds as a sound film, Floating Weeds in 1959.