Graham Greene Films

[poetman]

I rented the Quiet American, and when I was reading the back cover and discovered the film was based off another of Graham Greene's novels I thought to myself that many novels Greene wrote became great movies.
I love the End of the Affair--and of course--the Third Man. What's your favorite film based on a Greene story?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001294/

 

[The Wolf]

"This Gun For Hire" with Alan Ladd is great. Raven is is an interesting character, especially for a killer.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[poetman]

"This Gun For Hire" with Alan Ladd is great. Raven is is an interesting character, especially for a killer.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

Yes. That was a great film. Oh, Ms. Lake...

 

[skbellis]

Our Man in Havana

If you need some good laughs don't forget "Our Man in Havana" (from the Graham Greene novel of the same title) starring Alex Guiness and Ernie Kovacs as a Cuban Police Chief.

Cheers,

---Scott

 

[Senator Jack]

We've talked about The Fallen Idol for quite a bit around these parts - a search will yield results. Havana's great, of course. Is that available on US DVD yet? I tried to find it when I was on London, but couldn't. Did pick up Brighton Rock, though I have yet to watch it. (this week, for sure) They did a pretty good job with The Comedians (Guinness, Burton, Taylor), but it lacks from not including the 'roulette token' line from the book that wrapped it up nicely. Still have yet to see Ray Milland in The Ministry of Fear (Fritz Lang directed!). All right, gotta get these on the list.

Regards,

Jack

 

[TM]

Yes, Senator - The Comedians! I like that one a lot. Wonderfully shot and edited and the Ambasador's house is really great. Just about a perfect cast.

Our Man In Havana, besides being fun, has great background scenes of Havana, shot just after Castro took over. Greene supported Castro and so was able to make the shoot happen. So if you look carefully you can see the old ganster-era Havana in all its glory. A little known fact about the story is that it is loosely based on a real event. There was a German spy in Portugal during the war, who was "turned" if I remember right, and fabricated a whole network of spys and informants to deceive his former employers. Greene was involved in intelligence during the war and heard the story. He then set the story in Estonia, but finding that too bleak changed it to sunny Havana.

Wish someone would film "The Lawless Roads".

Tony

 

[Feraud]

I enjoy the story, pace, and interaction between Baines and Phillipe in The Fallen Idol. Had a chance to see it on the big screen. The film is fine cinema.

The Third Man and Our Man in Havana are both excellent.

I want to see The Heart of the Matter but unfortunately Netflix does not have it.

 

[Hondo]

Graham Greene

Me thought...
this was the Graham Greene from "Dances with Wolves" :eusa_doh:

"This Gun For Hire" with Alan Ladd is great. Raven is is an interesting character, especially for a killer.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

Haaa! Veronica Lake, what a doll, my dream girl
Great movie too!!! lol

 

[Feraud]

This month TCM is doing a Based on Graham Greene event.

Graham Greene, famous as an Oscar®-nominated screenwriter as well as the author of novels with political, psychological and religious overtones, would have been 104 years old on October 2nd. Greene also distinguished himself as a journalist, short-story writer, film critic and playwright.

Born in Hertfordshire County, England, Greene began writing at an early age and published his first novel in 1929. During World War II he worked for the Secret Intelligence Service in London, where he gathered much material for his books.

Once famously sued by 20th Century Fox for his criticism of little Shirley Temple, Greene had many of his works adapted for the screen including Ministry of Fear (1944), a suspenseful story of espionage in London, directed by Fritz Lang; Confidential Agent (1945), a spy yarn set during the Spanish Civil War and starring Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall; The Fugitive (1947), director John Ford's film version of Greene's novel The Power and the Glory, starring Henry Fonda as a priest in a Latin American country where religion has been outlawed; and The Comedians (1967), a tale of political intrigue in Haiti that boasts an all-star cast headed by Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Guinness and Lillian Gish. Travels with My Aunt (1972), although not faithful to Greene's picaresque novel, gave Oscar®-nominated Maggie Smith one of her most flamboyant film roles.

TCM's salute includes Greene's most celebrated original screenplay, The Third Man (1949), which, with documentary-like precision, perfectly captured the fractured Europe of the post-World War II period and provided Orson Welles, as the mysterious Harry Lime, with an unforgettable character.

We'll also be airing Brighton Rock (1947), in which a young Richard Attenborough plays a hunted killer who has murdered a rival gangster; The Fallen Idol (1948) starring little Bobby Henrey as a boy who believes the family servant (Ralph Richardson) has murdered his wife and tries to protect him; The Quiet American (1957) with Audie Murphy as a U.S. representative caught between Communists and foreign interests in Indochina; The End of the Affair (1955) featuring Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson as illicit lovers; Our Man in Havana (1960), a satire in which Alec Guinness plays a vacuum cleaner salesman in pre-Castro Cuba.

Tune in for some great films!

 

[jawisher]

Greene and Greene

'The Third Man' is about my favorite film of all time anyway, so I guess it's my favorite Greene film. I've read most of his novels, and really like him as a writer. So outside of that one, I think I end up a little disappointed by most of the adaptations I have seen. I was not crazy about 'The End of the Affair', nor 'The Quiet American'-- either versions, and love both the novels. My perspective may be ruined...

'The Third Man' on the other hand I think is even better a film than the novel. Perhaps because the script was effectively written first, and the novel doesn't have the great stuff that Orson Wells brought to the party-- not even the "Cuckoo Clock" speach.

 

[jawisher]

Hmmm... I am interested in hearing Baron Kurtz' input on this thread...

 

[Feraud]

'The Third Man' on the other hand I think is even better a film than the novel. Perhaps because the script was effectively written first, and the novel doesn't have the great stuff that Orson Wells brought to the party-- not even the "Cuckoo Clock" speach.

Am I wrong on this or was the novel written as an afterthought to the script/movie?

 

[TM]

Yes, The Third Man was written originally as a screenplay. Then Greene novelized it.

Greene had considerable experience as a film reviewer for a newspaper. He understood that medium and so was well placed to both write original screenplays, as well as adapt his own novels into films.

Tony

 

[Senator Jack]

Never knew they made a film of Loser Takes All. I thought the book fun. Apparently, the film was a bomb.

 

[dr greg]

Fonder of Ford

Saw 'The Fugitive' here on TV last week, lots of Ford trademarks but it veered from the original story, and Fonda was more a saintly figure than a flawed one, with lots of cheesy 'halo' lighting. Some very nice stark B/W scenes though. And to forestall arguments, the book/film was based on the Cristero Wars in Mexico, and definitely not an anti-religious fantasy as some would have it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristero_War