Crime writers who bring flamboyant
characters and complex stories to life often find their stories born again in
another medium. Agatha Christie who published her first novel in 1920 became
one of the most famed authors in history with billions of copies of her work
sold to avid readers. Christie was also a playwright and romance writer. Her
play, The Mousetrap, is the world’s
longest running play—opening on April
12, 1958—having its Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and is still on the
boards today. She also penned the plays The
Hollow, and Verdict plus Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile—both
adapted into films. Writing over 70 detective novels earned her the title
“Queen of Mystery.” Included in her repertoire were short fiction, and romantic
narratives. Christie was made a dame in 1971 and we all know, “There is Nothing Like a Dame.”
Among the first mystery novels is Wilkie
Collins, The Woman in White published
in 1859 and appearing in serial form in Charles Dickens “All Year Round
Magazine” and in the United States in “Harper’s Weekly”. It was staged as a
melodrama in 1975 and titled Egad, The
Woman in White, became a stage play in 2005 and a musical by Andrew Lloyd
Webber and David Zippel in 2004. Silent films of Wilkie’s play were made in America
in 1912 and 1917 and in Great Britain
in 1929 and in America
in 1940, and 1948 and Russia
in 1982. Two TV Miniseries produced by the BBC and one in Germany
and a computer game created in 2010 titled Victorian
Mysteries: Woman in White.
A
British Horror film titled The Woman in Black
was adapted from a novel by Susan Hill in 1983 and became a play in 1987. I
remember seeing the play on a visit to London,
clutching my husband and screaming. A first for me—fortunately I wasn’t the
only one in the audience who had the shudders.
Attracted to ghost stories, Henry James
wrote the The Turn of the Screw. Published in 1898 the story has had multiple
interpretations—made into an opera, television play, motion picture, and radio
and theatre productions.
William Gillette, the actor, playwright
and inventor began a correspondence with Arthur Conan Doyle in 1898. At their
first meeting he arrived at Doyle’s home wearing a long, gray cape and wearing
a deerstalker cap. Sherlock Holmes incarnate—he appeared to have stepped out of
the pages of Doyle’s book. He gave the breath of life to Arthur Conan Doyle’s
Sherlock Holmes extensively rewriting a five-act play that Doyle had written,
then cabled Doyle asking to “Marry Holmes.”
Sir Arthur replied that he could marry Holmes or murder him or do
anything he liked with him.” Gillette wrote two plays—“Sherlock Holmes,” and “The
Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes,” and earned over three million
dollars, a hefty amount in those days, with his portrayal of the great
detective. Doyle said he was “charmed both with the play, the acting and the
pecuniary result.”
W. Somerset Maugham
wrote a short story, in 1926, that was included in his collection titled The
Casuarina Tree. Based on a true story about a murder that occurred in 1911 when
the wife of a headmaster was tried and convicted of murder after shooting a
male friend. Maugham turned his story into a play that ran in London,
toured the provinces and opened on Broadway with Katherine Cornell. The play
has been revived, and made into films in America,
France, Germany,
Spain, and Italy
and three television anthologies, a made for television movie, a musical titled
The Bloomers and an opera produced by
The Santa Fe Opera.
In 1984, William March wrote a novel
titled The Bad Seed adapted for the
stage by Maxwell Anderson. The play opened on Broadway less than a year after
its publication. The book was the last of March’s published works because of
his untimely death. Both a critical and commercial success, the book was
nominated for the 1955 National book Award for Fiction. The premise of the book
and the play—which starred Nancy Kelly who won the Tony Award for her
performance—was “nature vs. nurture” in explaining deviant behavior. Patty
McCormack, the child actress played Rhoda—The
Bad Seed. A film was made in 1956 and a television movie in 1985.
Bram Stoker worked at the Lyceum
Theatre—headed by the actor-manager Henry Irving—between 1878 and 1898. His
novel Dracula bore many other titles
until shortly before publication including The
Dead Un-Dead and was not commercially successful at first despite the
praise of critics. Stoker modeled Dracula on Sir Henry’s dramatic
characteristics and gentlemanly comportment and hoped he would play Dracula in
the stage version. Sir Henry never played the part but in 1928 the part was
played by Bela Lugosi. It was adapted for the stage by Hamilton Deane and John
L. Balderston in 1977 with the charming and sexy count played by Frank Langella
and again made an appearance in 2004 as a musical.
Chicago is based on a play by a reporter
Maurine Dallas Watkins who covered the 1924 trials of murderesses Beulah Annan
and Belva Gartner for the Chicago Tribune. In the twenties, there were many
homicides which involved women killing their husbands or lovers. Annan became the starting point for
Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly is basis
for Gaertner. Watkins pieces were
extremely successful with the Tribune’s readers and became the heart of her
play. The play appeared on Broadway in 1926 and a silent film version was
produced by Cecil b. DeMille in 1927 and remade as Roxie Hart in 1942 starring
Ginger Rogers but Ginger was accused of murder but never convicted. Gwen Verdon
read the play in the 1960s and asked her husband Bob Fosse about adapting it as
a musical. Fosse tried to buy the rights but Watkins had become a born-again
Christian and believed her work glorified decadence and rejected his offer.
After her death in 1969, her estate sold the rights to the producer Richard
Fryer, Fosse and Verdon. The musical opened in 1975 and played
926-performances. Opened on the West End in 1979 and ran
for 600 performances then was revived on Broadway in 1996 and is still playing
today. Revived on the West End—it is the longest running
American musical in history. The musical has played all over the world and won
numerous prizes including the Tony. It also became a film starring Renee
Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones and won the Academy Award for that year.
Do you dream of the play, the musical, television or the motion picture?Sometimes crime pays.
8 comments:
Love the post. I've been an Agatha Christie fan for years! I often imagine the movie version of my books as I write. Only in my dreams...
Elise I think you've proven that everybody loves a good murder--between the pages of a book! Interesting post. Thank you.
Wow, what a great listing! I bow to the "Queen of Mystery." She was my first foray into the genre, and you never forget your first, right? I didn't know about the Mousetrap play, though - will have to try to find that somewhere!!
Wynter:I remember reading every Christie I could find. Jean:Mysteries are a great escape both reading and writing.Anne Marie: Visit London--it's still playing. Wow!
I forgot to mention, Christie gave the rights to the Mousetrap to her grandson when he was born. A grand legacy.
Wow, Elise, you sure know your stuff! Thanks for an enlightening post. When I think of crime paying, that's not what I had in mind...
Great post.Geeze more proof crime pays. Thanks for sharing the history of Chicage. I didn't care for the movie. Shrug.
I always see my stories as movies as I write them. No one has come calling yet though :)
Great post, Elise.
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