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melwalton
Posts: 503
Joined: October 14th, 2007, 5:58 pm

more trivia

Post by melwalton »

Jean and I were talking about poetry and I got the idea for a trivia topic.
Movies inspired by poems;
Kipling's 'Gunga Din' and 'the Vampire' ( I think the latter was a silent.)
Poe's 'Raven'
Tennyson's 'Charge of the Light Brigade'.
Anyone think of any others? Sorry, we're not giving prizes. .... mel
cmvgor
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When 'omer smote 'is bloomin; lyre.

Post by cmvgor »

Do The Iliad and The Odessy qualify as poems in this context?
My Lit teacher made us call them that, and usually added the word "epic"
as a modifier.

Parts of the first were filmed as Troy in 2004. The latter was filmed under the title Ulysses in 1954, and I think was redone as
a miniseries since then.
Last edited by cmvgor on March 10th, 2008, 11:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Faint heart never filled inside straight"
--Bret & Bart's Pappy
jdb1

Post by jdb1 »

I don't know that there are all that many movies based on complete poems -- there are plenty that use poetry in their titles or themes.

One I can think of that is a dramatization of a poem is the silent Enoch Arden, which is based on Tennyson's poem of the same name about a shipwrecked sailor who returns home to find his wife married to someone else.

Lots of cartoons -- Casey at the Bat, The Shotting of Dan McGrew, for example. And How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat, and Horton Hears a Who, all now remade as live action.

Do filmed versions of Shakespeare count?
melwalton
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Joined: October 14th, 2007, 5:58 pm

poems / movies

Post by melwalton »

Judith .... CMVGER.
I hadn't thought about Shakespeare or cartoons or classic literature like the Iliad but, of course, you're both right. You're right too, Judith, there's a dearth of movies based on poems.
I'd like to see one based on Chidiock Tichebourne's ( I'm not making up that name although I'm probably misspelling it ) 'Lines Written on the Eve of His Execution.
How could one write a poem when he was going to have his head hacked off in a few hours? At that, I guess it's as good a way as any to spend the time. It was a very good poem. It had a rhythm, you could almost hear the bells toll.
How did I get on this macabre subject? I do get carried away, .... mel
cmvgor
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When two strong men stand face-to-face...

Post by cmvgor »

Kipling's Gunga Din was mentioned earlier. But that poet wrote a number of narative poems that would would make ripping good adventure
movies. Without looking up my Kipling volume, I can name:
--The Hanging Of Danny Dever
--The Ballad of East And West
--The Ballad of Boa Da Thone
--The Palace
--The Song Of Diago Valdez


Also, Steven Vincent Benet's John Brown's Body, if fully utilized,
could be made into a miniseries.
"Faint heart never filled inside straight"
--Bret & Bart's Pappy
cmvgor
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...and don't forget the lyrics!

Post by cmvgor »

Re; our earlier discussions of movies based on poems, I thought I had a winner in Robert Service's The Shooting Of Dan McGrew (and the lady that's known as Lou), but that's a dud. There is a tape of some kids performing the poem, but I didn't try to make that count.

Then I hit on the idea of movies inspired by songs. A couple of hours of memory and research yielded these examples:
1. The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959), inspired by an early hit by The Kingston Trio.
2. Ode To Billy Joe (1976), from a 1967 song by one Bobbie Gentry. I was moonlighting as a disc jockey when that song was popular, and I got fair tired of it.

And The Gambler damn near launched a franchise:
3. Kenney Rogers as The Gambler (1980), had the singer as the character he had created in the song. Good enough for two sequels.
4. Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues (1983). More of the same.
5. Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Luck Of The Draw (1991)
was a celebration of the mid-century TV Westerns. In a 1901 trip across
country for a Very Big Poker Game, the Rogers character crossed paths
with a whole raftload of guest stars in their origional roles. Included, but not limited to: Clint Walker as Cheyenne Bodie, Hugh O'Brien as Wyatt
Earp, James Drury and Doug McClure in their Virginian personas,
Gene Berry as Bat Masterson, and many others. For a fan of the Golden Age of TV Westerns, this is a real treat. These were all TV movies. Oh, yes! Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick.
"Faint heart never filled inside straight"
--Bret & Bart's Pappy
jdb1

Post by jdb1 »

There is, however, a Warner Bros. cartoon dramatizing the "Dan McGrew" poem. Supposedly, it was the inspiration for Paul McCartney's "Rocky Raccoon."

I love Robert Service. Have you ever heard Jean Sheperd's radio rendition of "The Cremation of Sam McGee?" ("There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold") Or - "The Ballad of Pious Pete?" ("But I killed the galoot when he started to shoot electricity into my walls") Service's poems have just the right element of skewed melodrama to make great films -- too bad there aren't more based on his works.
cmvgor
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Is a songwriter a poet?

Post by cmvgor »

ibd 1;
Agreement re Service. I once had access to a library that had 2 volumes
of his verse. I think I went through both of them a couple of times.

After signing off yesterday I recalled two more song-based TV movies:

--A 1977 hit single by Mary Macgregor was turned into a 1979 movie Torn Between Two Lovers. It involved a love triangle among George
Peppard, Joseph Bologna and Lee Remick. I never saw it.

--Another Kenny Rogers song, Coward Of The County became a TV
movie in 1981. Its a fairly basic essay on the destinction between cowardice and pacificsm. Rogers has a support role as a minister. In one of the highlights, he preaches a sermon about a man who suddenly remembered where he left his bicycle.

There may be others of these, but I've about exhausted my memory in this respect.
"Faint heart never filled inside straight"
--Bret & Bart's Pappy
jdb1

Post by jdb1 »

"Harper Valley PTA" - didn't that have Barbara Eden in it?

By the way, most of Service's verse is available online now. It's really cool, and very evocative of the Yukon Gold Rush. (I wonder if Klondike reads it?)
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