All in Cinematters

Stage to Screen: The 10 Worst Adaptations of Musicals

What plays beautifully on the stage might not necessarily translate effortlessly to the screen. Move musicals that have been adapted from popular stage musicals do not always make the transition successfully. For every West Side Story, The King and I, and The Music Man, there is a musical that just didn’t work so well when Hollywood got their hands on it. Here are ten of the worst stage to screen journeys that make us wonder just what happened.

The Ten Scariest Stephen King Films

With IT poised to open in just a few weeks, threatening to terrorize us all and turn a whole new generation of people against clowns, I thought it would be fun to look at the ten scariest films based on Stephen King books and short stories. Any single of these is guaranteed to scare the crap out of you.

Movie Musicals that Deserve a Second Look

There are many movie musicals that were not perfect. For one reason or another, they just don't delight audiences the way big hits like Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, or West Side Story do. That's perfectly fine; not every outing is going to be a hit. There are, however, several movie musicals that may have missed the mark, but managed to still have moments of beauty and magic. Today's column explores eight movie musicals that deserve a second look. 
 

1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year

Most movie buffs are aware that a disproportionate number of Hollywood’s greatest films were released in 1939. The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Stagecoach, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington are among the 510 titles of the golden age of the Silver Screen that opened in 1939. What film fans may or may not know is the myriad number of films that came out in that amazing year. Whether you are cognizant of this or not, you will most definitely enjoy a new book that has just been released by Rowan & Littlefield Press: 1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year by Thomas S. Hischak.