10 Movie Remakes Involving Auteur Directors

Original: “The Maltese Falcon” (Roy Del Ruth, 1931)

Remake: “The Maltese Falcon” (John Huston, 1941)

We’ve tried to avoid films that are separate adaptations of the same source material, and certainly that could be seen to be the case here with both these films being versions of Dashiell Hammett‘s novel of the same name. But Huston’s 1941 film reportedly took the 1931 script as a basis (though this is not credited), and moreover, the film that we now look at as the definitive classic and one of the greatest films noir ever made would probably not have taken quite the form it did had it not at least partially been a reaction to the earlier version. Namely, 1931’s ‘Falcon’ came out just before the notorious Hayes Production Code began to bite, and in addition to a very different tone of voice throughout (daffier, lighter, more debonair), Del Ruth’s adaptation contained a fair amount of fairly pointed sexual content, including leading lady Bebe Daniels in the bath, being subjected to a strip search and also explicitly being shown to have slept with Ricardo Cortez‘s Sam Spade. Additionally, the homosexual innuendo that is reduced to one line in Huston’s film (Bogart‘s Spade asks Detective Polhaus “What’s your boyfriend getting at, Tom?”) is writ large in the earlier adaptation. The 1931 version was soon suppressed for its “lewd content,” leaving the way open for remakes of the material that met Code requirements. But  Huston’s film is not simply Del Ruth’s with all the naughty bits gone; with his very first directorial foray, Huston established a touchpoint in the genre, altering the mood to be something much darker and knottier, and alongside star Humphrey Bogart created the Platonic ideal of the rumpled detective whose cynical exterior conceals an unshakeable, baked-in moral compass —an archetype that persists to this day and yet has never been bettered.

Verdict: The 1931 film is fascinating now for all the ways it differs from its beloved classic remake, but there’s no doubt that if we had to save one from a fire, it would be Huston’s peerless, thrilling, expertly crafted 1941 version.

Bonus Round: In between these two, another film remade the same material —this one a direct remake of 1931’s version with the same credited screenwriter. “Satan Met A Lady,” which stars Bette Davis and Warren William (coincidentally the star of Stahl‘s “Imitation of Life,” see below), and is largely played for Code-friendly laughs that fall flat, is widely regarded as the least of the three adaptations.
Original: “Imitation of Life” (John M Stahl, 1934)

Remake: “Imitation of Life” (Douglas Sirk, 1959)

Another instance, along with “The Maltese Falcon,” of a somewhat blurred line between a remake and separate adaptation of the same source novel, (the films do not share screenwriter credits at all, yet are so incredibly similar, and there was such a precedent for Sirk remaking Stahl’s films — see Bonus Round — that it’s hard to believe the later film sprang up isolated from the earlier), both versions of “Imitation of Life” are actually pretty terrific. Sirk’s remains the better known (here are 5 Things You Might Not Know about it), a classic example of lush technicolor melodrama that certainly, in its lusty colors and bold, borderline camp weepiness, seems like the more full-blooded version of Fannie Hurst‘s 1933 novel. But the earlier black-and-white version is actually the more faithful and has elements that are arguably superior, most centrally Claudette Colbert‘s gracious, effortlessly warm performance contrasted with Lana Turner‘s stiffer, more arch turn; and the casting of Fredi Washington, a light-skinned African-American woman, in the role of the conflicted daughter, as opposed to the half-Latina Susan Kohner in Sirk’s version. That said, Sirk’s version, happening 25 years later, has a much better-written role for the main black character, here called Annie and played by Juanita Moore, imbued with intelligence and spirit, where the patronizingly saintly depiction of Delilah (Louise Beavers) in Stahl’s film now seems a much queasier portrait of a servile, naive black “Mammy.” The 1959 version, as one would expect, also gets to go a little further in heightening the stakes, with Annie’s daughter not just “passing” as white at school and in the workplace, but dating a white boy, while the role of her mother is given an added shot of glamor by making her job that of an actress who rises to fame, as opposed to the saleswoman who builds a business empire in the 1934 version.

Verdict: They’re both great, but if forced to pick one, probably it would have to be Sirk’s, for the glory of the cinematography, for the lavish funeral scene at which Mahalia Jackson herself performs, and for the line Annie gets to deliver: “How do you explain to your child she was born to be hurt?”

Bonus Round: Sirk had already remade two other John M Stahl films — “Magnificent Obsession” (1935) became “Magnificent Obsession” (1954), and “When Tomorrow Comes” (1939) became “Interlude” (1957) — but “Imitation of Life,” while a huge hit, would be his last Hollywood film. Rather unfairly Sirk has been thoroughly reclaimed in recent years, but Stahl remains much less known. Bonus trivia: Susan Kohner, who starred in Sirk’s version of ‘Imitation,’ is the mother of Chris and Paul Weitz.