Speaking of lit to screen adaptations

[Frederica]

The Age of Innocence (1934) is coming up on my Classicflix queue, I look forward to seeing it with no little trepidation, given that neither John Boles nor Irene Dunne immediately leaped to mind when I read the novel. Is the 1924 Elliot Dexter - Beverly Bayne effort still with us?

[Michael O'Regan]

Ooooooh, I would so love to see that. I did enjoy the book; actually the only one of Wharton's that I've enjoyed
I don't know how you feel about the Scorsese version but I think it's amazing.

[Frederica]

Ooooooh, I would so love to see that. I did enjoy the book; actually the only one of Wharton's that I've enjoyed
I don't know how you feel about the Scorsese version but I think it's amazing.

Ymmv on the Scorsese film! My favorite Wharton book-to-film is the recent The House of Mirth. Not a laff riot, though.

[gjohnson]

And I kept expecting Mulder to appear by the end and rescue Scully...

[Harold Aherne]

By all indications, the '24 version seems to be kaput. I do like the '34--it was one of only two films directed by Phillip Moeller (the other was Break of Hearts with Katharine Hepburn). Be prepared for the usual condensations necessary to get any novel down to an 80-minute movie. Here's what I wrote about it when the WA release was announced:

"It's faithful enough to the Wharton novel to please her devotees while adding some interesting new touches, including a framing story set in the present day with a much older Newland Archer talking to his scandal-plagued grandson and then recalling his romance with Ellen Olenska. Irene Dunne gives a good performance as the countess and John Boles is always worth watching. Helen Westley is memorable as old Mrs. Mingott and Lionel Atwill does a good Julius Beaufort."

Of course, when my class read it in college many of us were kinda hung-up on the whole cousin romance thing, but I was more awed by Wharton's description of the Faust scene in the first pages: "An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences".

-HA

[Michael O'Regan]

Ooooooh, I would so love to see that. I did enjoy the book; actually the only one of Wharton's that I've enjoyed
I don't know how you feel about the Scorsese version but I think it's amazing.

My favorite Wharton book-to-film is the recent The House of Mirth. Not a laff riot, though.

Didn't really like the book too much. Haven't seen the film.