Did Justice to the Book
by johngdow | created - 30 Jun 2013 | updated - 13 Jan 2014 | PublicBooks that were made into decent or good movies.
Staying true to the book as much as possible.
some of the movies are cleaner than the books
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1. Pride and Prejudice (1995)
TV-PG | 55 min | Drama, Romance
While the arrival of wealthy gentlemen sends her marriage-minded mother into a frenzy, willful and opinionated Elizabeth Bennet matches wits with haughty Mr. Darcy.
Stars: Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle, Susannah Harker, Julia Sawalha
Votes: 92,357
Highly recomended
2. Pride and Prejudice (1940)
Approved | 118 min | Drama, Romance
The arrival of wealthy bachelors in town causes an uproar when families with single daughters aggressively seek engagements, including the Bennet family, with five eligible daughters.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver
Votes: 9,226
very charming movie
3. Captain Blood (1935)
Passed | 119 min | Action, Adventure, History
After treating a Monmouth rebel against King James II in 1680s England, a young Irish doctor is exiled as a slave to Jamaica where he captures a Spanish galleon and becomes the most feared pirate of the Caribbean.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone
Votes: 16,101 | Gross: $2.96M
read the book and watch the movie.
Even though the movie is different, I like it just as much as the book. Rafael Sabatini is one of my favorite authors
4. Absolute Power (1997)
R | 121 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Career thief Luther Whitney (Clint Eastwood) witnesses a horrific crime involving U.S. President Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman).
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney
Votes: 60,195 | Gross: $50.01M
family warning. Made a great movie, was a bad book
5. The Bone Collector (1999)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A quadriplegic ex-homicide detective and his partner try to track down a serial killer who is terrorizing New York City.
Director: Phillip Noyce | Stars: Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, Queen Latifah, Michael Rooker
Votes: 185,078 | Gross: $66.52M
family warning. as scary as the movie was the book was even worse. The book was more graphic with the torture.
6. The Hunt for Red October (1990)
PG | 135 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
In November 1984, the Soviet Union's best submarine captain violates orders and heads for the U.S. in a new undetectable sub. The American CIA and military must quickly determine: Is he trying to defect or to start a war?
Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Sam Neill
Votes: 214,849 | Gross: $122.01M
Sean Connery was Marko Ramius
7. The 39 Steps (1935)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle
Votes: 61,573
The book was a drag.
8. To Catch a Thief (1955)
PG | 106 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A retired jewel thief sets out to prove his innocence after being suspected of returning to his former occupation.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams
Votes: 79,800 | Gross: $8.75M
Read book. Watch movie
9. Don't Go Near the Water (1957)
Approved | 107 min | Adventure, Comedy, Romance
On a small South Pacific island during WW2, various US Navy P.R. personnel pass the time romancing the nurses and the native girls while trying to avoid front line sea duty.
Director: Charles Walters | Stars: Glenn Ford, Gia Scala, Earl Holliman, Anne Francis
Votes: 858
Glenn Ford's Character was better than the books. Characters has better morals as well.
10. Mrs. Parkington (1944)
Passed | 124 min | Drama, Romance
A widowed matriarch reminisces about her family fortunes, including her romance with a financier/mine owner.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 1,847
you will lose respect for Mrs. Parkington if you read the book
11. Kings Row (1942)
Passed | 127 min | Drama
The dark side and hypocrisy of provincial American life is seen through the eyes of five children as they grow to adulthood at the turn of the century.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, Betty Field
Votes: 5,039
once again the hero's of the story are more likable in the movie
12. Clear and Present Danger (1994)
PG-13 | 141 min | Action, Crime, Drama
CIA Analyst Jack Ryan is drawn into an illegal war fought by the US government against a Colombian drug cartel.
Director: Phillip Noyce | Stars: Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, Anne Archer, Joaquim de Almeida
Votes: 107,988 | Gross: $122.19M
family warning
13. Patriot Games (1992)
R | 117 min | Action, Thriller
When CIA analyst Jack Ryan interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets him and his family for revenge.
Director: Phillip Noyce | Stars: Harrison Ford, Sean Bean, Anne Archer, Patrick Bergin
Votes: 120,493 | Gross: $83.29M
family warning
14. And Now Tomorrow (1944)
Approved | 86 min | Drama, Romance
A wealthy woman who lost her hearing to meningitis meets a doctor who is concocting a serum that will cure deafness.
Director: Irving Pichel | Stars: Alan Ladd, Loretta Young, Susan Hayward, Barry Sullivan
Votes: 469
not and easy read. the book gets caught up in the strike of the mill.
15. F Troop (1965–1967)
TV-PG | 30 min | Comedy, Western
The misadventures of the staff and neighbors of a remote U.S. Army outpost in the Wild West.
Stars: Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, Ken Berry, Melody Patterson
Votes: 3,328
funny
16. Crossfire Trail (2001 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 92 min | Action, Drama, Western
Rafe promises a dying friend to look after his wife and 40,000 acre ranch in Wyoming. A powerful businessman wants the ranch and widow by whatever means necessary.
Director: Simon Wincer | Stars: Tom Selleck, Virginia Madsen, Wilford Brimley, David O'Hara
Votes: 3,670
a little different they deleted the big bad guy and added a Sniper but the story still staid the same.
17. The Shadow Riders (1982 TV Movie)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Romance, Western
After the Civil War, two brothers demobilized from the army return home and must rescue certain relatives who have been kidnapped by a band of renegade Confederates.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, Dominique Dunne, Ben Johnson
Votes: 3,074
Read book and watch the movie
18. Hondo (1953)
PG | 83 min | Drama, Romance, War
Army dispatch rider Hondo Lane discovers a woman and young son living in the midst of warring Apaches and becomes their protector.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: John Wayne, Geraldine Page, Ward Bond, Michael Pate
Votes: 12,423
Well done
19. Blood on the Moon (1948)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, Western
Unemployed cowhand Jim Garry is hired by his dishonest friend Tate Riling as muscle in a dispute between homesteaders and cattleman John Lufton.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan
Votes: 3,500
Well done
20. Little Dorrit (2008)
TV-PG | 34 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
The Dorrits are a family whose life revolves around the Marshalsea, a debtor's prison. Amy Dorrit's kind nature brings the family into contact with a wide swath of English society, from the poorest to the richest, and back again.
Stars: Matthew Macfadyen, Claire Foy, Tom Courtenay, Judy Parfitt
Votes: 10,492
Highly recomended
21. North & South (2004)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Romance
North and South is a four-part adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's love story of Margaret Hale, a middle-class southerner who is forced to move to the northern town of Milton.
Stars: Daniela Denby-Ashe, Richard Armitage, Tim Pigott-Smith, Sinéad Cusack
Votes: 34,985
Highly recomended
22. The Russia House (1990)
R | 123 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
A British publisher is sent a manuscript detailing Soviet Union nuclear missile capabilities. British Intelligence intercept it and recruit him to investigate the author's editor, a beautiful Russian woman he claims never to have met.
Director: Fred Schepisi | Stars: Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer, Roy Scheider, James Fox
Votes: 17,551 | Gross: $23.00M
Family Warning. this was a tough read. I had an easier time reading David Copperfield. John Le Carre seemed to get lost in his writing
23. The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
Not Rated | 97 min | Adventure, Drama
A noblewoman discovers her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a vigilante who rescues aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine.
Director: Harold Young | Stars: Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Nigel Bruce
Votes: 4,772
Once again, some of the book is missing because of time constraints. still a good movie and still get the feel of the book.
24. The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 142 min | Action, Drama, Romance
Paris, 1792: After France becomes a republic, aristocrats are guillotined. The English Sir Percy tries to save as many as he can as The Scarlet Pimpernel in disguises.
Director: Clive Donner | Stars: Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour, Ian McKellen, James Villiers
Votes: 5,159
this was two books combined. Baroness Orczy wrote an entire series on the Scarlet Pimpernel.
25. Around the World in 80 Days (I) (1989)
PG | 89 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A Victorian Age English gentleman takes a wager that he can circle the globe in the unprecedented time of just eighty days.
Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Eric Idle, Julia Nickson, Peter Ustinov
Votes: 3,493
did not always stick close to the book but differences were not bad.
26. Jane Eyre (1983)
TV-PG | 28 min | Drama, Romance
A young governess falls in love with her mysterious employer, but a terrible secret puts their happiness at risk.
Stars: Zelah Clarke, Timothy Dalton, Carol Gillies, James Marcus
Votes: 3,688
Highly Recomended
27. The Bourne Identity (1988)
Unrated | 93 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An injured, unconscious man washes ashore in a small French town. As he recovers, it becomes quite clear, someone is trying to kill him.
Stars: Richard Chamberlain, Jaclyn Smith, Anthony Quayle, Donald Moffat
Votes: 4,758
family warning. The 2002 version was not bad but this one sticks closer to the book.
28. A Bridge Too Far (1977)
PG | 175 min | Drama, History, War
Operation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Sean Connery, Ryan O'Neal, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier
Votes: 61,577 | Gross: $50.80M
please read the book. Cornelius Ryan one of the best historians I have ever read
29. The Longest Day (1962)
G | 178 min | Action, Drama, History
The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.
Directors: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Gerd Oswald, Bernhard Wicki, Darryl F. Zanuck | Stars: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda
Votes: 59,088 | Gross: $39.10M
read this one as well. Cornelius Ryan again
30. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Not Rated | 158 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A team of Allied saboteurs is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle
Votes: 55,429 | Gross: $28.90M
Dusty Miller was funnier in the book. Luki a great character was deleted to make way for Andrea's Love intrest
Alistair Maclean wrote the book and screen play on this movie.
there were no women in the book and there are two in the movie.
the sequel he wrote later fallowed the movie not his first book. Force Ten From Navarone. Which was made in to a movie as well. Starring a young Harrison Ford
31. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
M | 158 min | Action, Adventure, War
Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.
Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark
Votes: 62,938
Schaffer was great character in the book, with a fine sense of humor.
Schaffer in the movie is just a cold hearted killer
I did not like this movie compared to the book but the author, Alistair Maclean, wrote the screen play as well
32. Bleak House (2005)
TV-PG | 30 min | Crime, Drama
A suspenseful tale about the injustices of the 19th Century English legal system.
Stars: Anna Maxwell Martin, Carey Mulligan, Denis Lawson, Gillian Anderson
Votes: 10,635
the only movie in this list that i have not read the book. This was recommended to me by a friend
33. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
PG | 136 min | Drama, Romance
Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the title opposites.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, James Fleet, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 125,796 | Gross: $43.18M
I am aware there are several mini-series out there but I have not see them yet
34. Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (1980 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 180 min | Crime, Mystery, Romance
While golfing on the Welsh coast, Bobby Jones apparently hits a stranger who falls off the the sea cliff. His enigmatic last words are "Why didn't they ask Evans?"
Directors: John Davies, Tony Wharmby | Stars: Francesca Annis, John Gielgud, Bernard Miles, Eric Porter
Votes: 1,002
I must admit , it has been a while since I read the book.
35. Shalako (1968)
M/PG | 113 min | Drama, Western
In 1880 New Mexico, a group of European hunters runs afoul of the Apache but is aided by an ex-cavalryman turned guide.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 3,486
read the book. watch the movie ladies only read the book if your prepared to be angry.
36. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Approved | 129 min | Crime, Drama
Atticus Finch, a widowed lawyer in Depression-era Alabama, defends a Black man against an undeserved rape charge, and tries to educate his young children against prejudice.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy
Votes: 333,021
a very thought provoking book and movie
37. The Fountainhead (1949)
Approved | 114 min | Drama, Romance
An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Kent Smith
Votes: 10,909
thought the book was degrading
38. Noble House (1988)
TV-14 | 355 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Ian Struan Dunross is chairman of Struan and Company, the oldest and largest trading company between Britain and East Asia.
Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Deborah Raffin, Ben Masters, John Rhys-Davies
Votes: 1,654
just watch the mini-series
39. The Little Minister (1934)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Romance
In rural 1840s Scotland, Gavin Dishart arrives to become the new "little minister" of Thrums' Auld Licht church. He meets a mysterious young gypsy girl in the dens and to his horror Babbie ... See full summary »
Director: Richard Wallace | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, John Beal, Alan Hale, Donald Crisp
Votes: 854
a real gem
40. Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
Not Rated | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
During the Napoleonic wars, a British Navy Captain has adventures in Central American waters.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty, Moultrie Kelsall
Votes: 7,514
This movie was better than the book because they cut the middle of the book right out. the book made his character towards women, as a weak willed womanizer. eck
41. Rebecca (1940)
Approved | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A self-conscious woman juggles adjusting to her new role as an aristocrat's wife and avoiding being intimidated by his first wife's spectral presence.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson
Votes: 146,831 | Gross: $4.36M
the book had such a lack of hope for happiness. Dark and despair. they were defeated in the book. Rebecca won.
People could argue that the acting was over done in this move, but I know why. the Producer, Selznick, re-shot and cut the movie.
At Oscar time Selznick took home the Oscar as best director.
42. Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
Not Rated | 132 min | Drama, War
A tough-as-nails general (Gregory Peck as General Savage) takes over a B-17 bomber unit suffering from low morale and whips them into fighting shape.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell
Votes: 15,809
they cut out the romance that was in the book. the Movie was still very well done.
43. Prince of Foxes (1949)
Approved | 107 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
An unscrupulous agent for the Borgias suffers a change of heart when asked to betray a noble count and his much younger, very beautiful wife.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Tyrone Power, Orson Welles, Wanda Hendrix, Marina Berti
Votes: 1,979 | Gross: $2.55M
awesome book. good movie.
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