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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 2, 2017 23:39:18 GMT
Call them "unofficial remakes," "retreads", "ripoffs" or what have you. They're those films you start watching that soon give you that "I've seen this plot before" feeling. I'm not talking about bona fide remakes, repeatedly-employed variations on literary themes like Romeo and Juliet, Robinson Crusoe or Jekyll and Hyde, trendy genre films that capitalize on elements of a recent hit, like all those "possession" films that came out in the wake of The Exorcist, or broad premises like Hitchcockian "innocent man on the run" exercises; I mean basic plots that were original to one film or another and then recycled, sometimes disguised as something else. For example:
Outland (1981) - High Noon (1951) in space.
Alien (1979) - Space again; a gussied-up, big-budget It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958).
Father Goose (1964)/Rooster Cogburn (1975) - The African Queen on, respectively, a WWII island and old west dry land. A Millionaire For Christy (1951)/Man's Favorite Sport? (1964) - An attractive but scatterbrained girl fixates on a not-quite-eligible bachelor, engaging in zany antics to be near him and causing him nothing but problems (including with his fiance), which of course is Bringing Up Baby (1938). I suppose you could include What's Up , Doc too, although Bogdanovich & company weren't at all coy about what they were up to.
I started thinking about it recently while watching Design For Scandal (1941), in which reporter Walter Pigeon is tasked by publisher Edward Arnold to publicly embarrass judge Rosalind Russell by embroiling her in scandal, but falls in love with her instead. It didn't take long to realize it was a warmed-over serving of Libeled Lady (1936), which was also officially remade by the same studio five years later as Easy To Wed. Recent discussions on this board's "film musicals" have touched on similar topics.
While I understand that definitions can be amorphous and viewpoints will differ, I'm interested in anyone's viewing experiences from which it suddenly dawned on you, "Hey, wait a minute, this is such-and-such-a-movie!"
I hope I explained it adequately. And even if not, let the debates begin. Or give a what-the-hell-is-he-talking-about shrug and ignore it. I'm easy.
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Post by OldAussie on Nov 3, 2017 0:11:21 GMT
Although changed considerably, at least Against All Odds had the decency to credit Out of the Past as its basis. Unlike Gladiator which shamelessly plagiarised The Fall of the Roman Empire and was nominated for ORIGINAL screenplay.
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Post by london777 on Nov 3, 2017 0:24:56 GMT
Do they still qualify if the later movie acknowledges the earlier one?
Like A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop from Blood Simple? I first saw it in Spanish (which I hardly speak at all) and had no idea of the source. So different is the style (and of course period and setting) that it did not dawn on me while watching it (one of my least enjoyable cinematic experiences, by the way). The penny only dropped next day. I have seen it since with English captions and esteemed it a bit higher (but not by much).
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 3, 2017 0:25:50 GMT
Although changed considerably, at least Against All Odds had the decency to credit Out of the Past as its basis. Unlike Gladiator which shamelessly plagiarised The Fall of the Roman Empire and was nominated for ORIGINAL screenplay. Thanks, OldAussie. That's just the sort of comparison about which I'm curious. I saw Gladiator and The Fall Of the Roman Empire only once each years ago, and far enough apart that the similarities escaped me. I only wish I recalled them well enough to examine them with you.
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Post by politicidal on Nov 3, 2017 0:30:30 GMT
Just finished Ransom (1996) and word of mouth says that's a remake of the Glenn Ford movie Ransom! (1956) only they cleverly removed the exclamation.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 3, 2017 0:42:14 GMT
Do they still qualify if the later movie acknowledges the earlier one? Like A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop from Blood Simple? I first saw it in Spanish (which I hardly speak at all) and had no idea of the source. So different is the style (and of course period and setting) that it did not dawn on me while watching it (one of my least enjoyable cinematic experiences, by the way). The penny only dropped next day. I have seen it since with English captions and esteemed it a bit higher (but not by much). I have to admit I hadn't considered the foreign/English-language aspects. I'd think if acknowledgement of an earlier film is made, at least nobody's trying to put anything over on anyone. I remember seeing the 1987 Chinese movie City On Fire purely by coincidence not long after having seen Reservoir Dogs, and immediately recognized major plot elements, scene construction and even staging directly lifted by the later film without any attribution. I have seen Blood Simple, but not Like A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, so my thanks for bringing attention to it.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 3, 2017 0:48:48 GMT
Just finished Ransom (1996) and word of mouth says that's a remake of the Glenn Ford movie Ransom! (1956) only they cleverly removed the exclamation. According to IMDb, the original writers were credited on the 1987 remake. It's always nicer when they play fair. I saw the Glenn Ford version much more recently than the Mel Gibson one, about which I remembered little by that time.
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Post by President Ackbar™ on Nov 3, 2017 0:56:11 GMT
The War of the Worlds (1953) = Independence Day (1996)
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) = Godzilla (1998)
Them! (1954) = Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
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Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 3, 2017 0:58:09 GMT
Gotta log off now, see to dinner and have an evening with hubby, but I'll be back in due course and shall read and respond to all further replies and comments...and thanks for those submitted so far.
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Post by OldAussie on Nov 3, 2017 0:58:19 GMT
Miller's Crossing had a lot in common with The Glass Key. Also The Big Clock / No Way Out.
Not sure if they are considered to be remakes.
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Post by President Ackbar™ on Nov 3, 2017 1:00:21 GMT
And, more recently,
Man Facing Southeast (1986) = K-PAX (2001)
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Post by Richard Kimble on Nov 3, 2017 1:05:29 GMT
In the House of Strangers thread I wrote about how much it resembles The Godfather.
Mutiny On The Bounty moseyed out west as Red River.
Gunga Din used the guy-quitting-to-get-married bit from The Front Page, and itself was later reworked as Sergeants Three and Soldiers Three.
Supposedly Braveheart (which I've never seen) is a ripoff of Spartacus.
The classic Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror" is a rewrite of The Enemy Below, down to minute plot details. According to Harlan Ellison, the "BoT" writer even admitted this to him.
There's a 2 part Daniel Boone episode that is stolen lock, stock and barrel from Bend of the River. BotR was Universal, DB was Fox. I can't explain how this was done without lawsuits; perhaps b/c Aaron Rosenberg produced both.
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Post by Richard Kimble on Nov 3, 2017 1:09:42 GMT
The Big Clock / No Way Out. Not sure if they are considered to be remakes. No Way Out is absolutely a remake of The Big ClockThere's also The Glass Web (1953) w/Ed G Robinson that bears more than a little resemblance to TBC. It's set in a TV station rather than a high-rise.
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Post by Richard Kimble on Nov 3, 2017 1:14:03 GMT
Unlike Gladiator which shamelessly plagiarised The Fall of the Roman Empire and was nominated for ORIGINAL screenplay. Even more absurd: Broken Lance was a credited remake of House Of Strangers, yet Philip Yordan (or more precisely, whoever he was fronting for -- rumor has it Yordan himself was near-illiterate) won an Oscar for Original Story.
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Post by kijii on Nov 3, 2017 1:56:00 GMT
Any of the Hitchock man who is being chased across the country for something they didn't do have usually have some things in common:
For example: Robert Cummings in Saboteur (1942) and Derrick De Marney in The Girl Was Young (1937), etc.
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Post by jervistetch on Nov 3, 2017 3:08:02 GMT
When I watched Woody Allen's BLUE JASMINE I got a huge STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE vibe. STREETCAR must have been an influence on Woody but I don't remember him acknowledging it.
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Post by london777 on Nov 3, 2017 3:53:59 GMT
When I watched Woody Allen's BLUE JASMINE I got a huge STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE vibe. STREETCAR must have been an influence on Woody but I don't remember him acknowledging it. In Catherine Shoard's article in the Guardian (6 Sept 2013) she comments "Allen is sceptical about theories that say it's a modern spin on A Streetcar Named Desire" but unfortunately does not go into more depth. The two plots are certainly very similar. In Vanity Fair, Bruce Handy wrote "... this is a film that draws deep from the well of A Streetcar Named Desire. Cate Blanchett, who has played Blanche du Bois onstage, is here cast as an updated version of Tennessee Williams’s anti-heroine, Blanche’s reveries about a faded Southern aristocracy replaced with contemporary delusions bred by life as lived among the 1 percent in Manhattan and the Hamptons."
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Post by jervistetch on Nov 3, 2017 8:05:27 GMT
When I watched Woody Allen's BLUE JASMINE I got a huge STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE vibe. STREETCAR must have been an influence on Woody but I don't remember him acknowledging it. In Catrherine Shoard's article in the Guardian (6 Sept 2013) she comments "Allen is sceptical about theories that say it's a modern spin on A Streetcar Named Desire" but unfortunately does not go into more depth. The two plots are certainly very similar. In Vanity Fair, Bruce Handy wrote "... this is a film that draws deep from the well of A Streetcar Named Desire. Cate Blanchett, who has played Blanche du Bois onstage, is here cast as an updated version of Tennessee Williams’s anti-heroine, Blanche’s reveries about a faded Southern aristocracy replaced with contemporary delusions bred by life as lived among the 1 percent in Manhattan and the Hamptons." Thank you, london. It's good to know that I'm not crazy with this idea.
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Post by mattgarth on Nov 3, 2017 9:35:42 GMT
Raoul Walsh appreciated his earlier works so much that he reshuffled them a couple of times ---
Bogart's HIGH SIERRA goes out west in McCrea's COLORADO TERRITORY.
Flynn battles Japs in OBJECTIVE BURMA while Cooper takes on the Seminoles in DISTANT DRUMS.
(not counting STRAWBERRY BLONDE / ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON -- pure remake)
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Post by bravomailer on Nov 3, 2017 12:36:49 GMT
Gunga Din – Kelly's Heroes – Three Kings: offbeat soldiers set out on their own to get rich.
Westworld – Jurassic Park: something goes awry at a hi-tech playground and people must fend for themselves.
Little Big Man – Dances with Wolves: discontented with his people and civilization, a white person finds much to admire in American Indians.
Some folks say that Five Easy Pieces draws a good deal from Some Came Running. I've only seen FEP.
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