Book Vs Movie Podcast

Book Vs Movie: “The Man Who Fell to Earth” Our first Walter Tevis novel & the cult David Bowie Film Author Walter Tevis created some of the most interesting and unique protagonists in fiction including Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit and Eddie Felson in The Hustler. His Jerome Newton of The Man Who Fell to Earth is a humanoid alien from The Altheans who appears to be human (with a drinking problem and large business ambitions) but has a hard time connecting to people on earth...

Book Vs Movie: “The Women” The Clare Booth Luce Vs. the 1939 George Cukor Film (Plus, the 2001 Broadway Revival!) In 1936, the Clare Booth Luce play The Women debuted on Broadway to rave reviews and packed audiences which featured 45 speaking parts for women, while no man is either seen or heard. (Though all of the husbands are spoken about constantly!) The plot revolves around a group of privileged women who live in New York City and busy themselves with shopping, spa days, and gossip....

Book Vs Movie: “Cabaret” The Backstory Behind One of the Most Popular Musicals of All Time “Musicals in March” The Margos are adhering to the motto “life is a cabaret!” this week with our deep dive into a musical that is based on a book about Berlin’s underground night scene in the 1930s by Christopher Isherwood (Goodbye to Berlin.) From there it became a Broadway play by John van Druten--I Am a Camera in the early 1950s with a movie starring Julie Harris that gives new meaning to the...

Book Vs Movie: “West Side Story” Vs "Romeo and Juliet" The Shakespeare Classic & the 1961 Musical Which Swept the Academy Awards “March Musicals!” Oh, Book Vs Movie fans--where art thou? The Margos are kickin’ it with “Musicals in March” and for this episode, we decided to use one of the most adapted Shakespeare tales (which is really saying something!) and match it with one of the most ambitious films of the early 1960s. William Shakespeare uses poetry, metaphors, comedy, tragedy,...

Book Vs Movie: “Cats” The Poems of T.S. Eliot, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical & the 2019 Tom Hooper-Directed Movie “March Musicals Month!” We are deep into “Musicals in March and this episode is an offbeat delight on how some of the best musicals can come from such an unusual source. Poet T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) wrote poetry about cats to amuse his nieces, nephews, and godchildren with the collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. These poems talked about how to name a cat, why...

Book Vs Movie: “My Fair Lady” & “Pygmalion” The George Bernard Shaw Play Vs the George Cukor Movie Musical “March Musicals Month!” The Margos are working heavy on our diction to prepare for this ep. The original story of Pygmalion is based in Greek mythology where an artist falls in love with their own sculpture and is then rejected by them. Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw took the material and in 1913 created the play which tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of...

Book Vs Movie: “One Night in Miami” (2021) The Kemp Powers Play Vs. the Regina King Movie True story--on the night of Tuesday, February 25, 1964, four men who were (or will soon be) involved in the African American Civil Rights movement hung out together to celebrate one of the participant’s big wins--boxer Cassius Clay becoming the world heavyweight champion. The four men included Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke, and NFL superstar Jim Brown. Clay would become one of the...

Book Vs Movie: “What’s Love Got to Do With It” (1993) Tina Turner’s 1986 Autobiography “I, Tina” Vs the Angela Bassett Film With Tina Turner finally being nominated for a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nomination as a solo artist--the Margos decided now was the time to take a look at her life story (up to the age of 46) with her 80s bestselling autobiography (co-written by Kurt Loder!) “I, Tina” and compare it with the hit 1993 film “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” Anna Mae Bullock of...

Book Vs Movie: “The Princess & The Frog” (2009) The last traditionally made Disney animation film is the subject of this episode which explores New Orleans in the 1920s The Margos are feeling like sipping some sweet tea and exploring one of America’s most sous cities for food, culture, music, and architecture---New Orleans. The Princess and the Frog originated with the Brother Grimm’s fairytale “The Frog Prince” (which we are not really discussing today) and “The Frog Princess” by E.D....

Book Vs Movie: “Jolene” (2019) Dolly Parton’s 1973 Hit Song & the 2019 Adaptation from Netflix “Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings” The Margos have opened up our adaptations to include plays, novellas, magazine articles, and (for this particular episode) songs. Specifically Jolene by the amazing Dolly Parton. Dolly’s life has been an amazing journey from poverty in the mountains of Tennessee to her career as one of the most prolific singer/songwriters of the last 50+ years. Her music goes...

Book Vs Movie: “All the President’s Men” (1976) The Margos search for 70's creeps, dogged reporting, and “Deep Throat” “Follow the money.” The Watergate scandal of the early 1970s made headlines around the world as Richard Nixon and his loyal group of henchmen basically tried to intimidate their way into making Nixonian policies the law of the land (while breaking the law!) And they would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for those meddling Washington Post reporters Bob...

Book Vs Movie: “The Perfect Storm” (2000) The True-ish Stroy About the Sinking of the Andrea Gail in 1991 Ahoy Matey! The Margos can’t seem to escape the sea as we look into the disappearance of the “Andrea Gail” which happened during what was classified as “The Perfect Storm” in late October/early November in 1991. The confluence of two hurricanes and several storms happening at once caused several near-deaths and the force of the US Navy and Coast Guard to rescue several...

Book Vs Movie: “The Ghost & Mrs. Muir” (1947) A romantic love story between a hot-headed former sailor and a beautiful widow The Margos are not afraid to take on a spooky story from time to time and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir features everything from a cranky specter to a haunted seaside mansion and a lovely widow and young mother who is seeking her independence. Even though people have to yell at her to make it happen! Based on the novella by R.A. Dick (an Irish woman who preferred to...

Book Vs Movie: “The Poseidon Adventure” (1971) The differences between the super gross book and the really fun movie (We are not going to hide our bias here!) At Book Vs Movie, whenever people say “Duh--the book is always better than the movie!” the Margos would say “yeah--have you ever read Jaws?” Well, now we have another book to movie adaptation that features a horrible, racist, sexist, homophobic, and misogynistic novel that became a fun hit film. Sportswriter Paul Gallico helped...

Book Vs Movie: “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story” (1971) The Basis of the Waltons TV Series Started as a TV Movie! The Margos decided to get into the Depression-era holiday spirit with a look at “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story” which was written by author & creator of The Waltons TV series--Earl Hamner, Jr. Hamner has a fascinating career as a writer with several scripts of “The Twilight Zone” including the famous The Bewitchin’ Pool, (the very last episode of the original...

Book Vs Movie: Little Women The Louisa May Alcott Classic Novel Vs. the 1994 Winona Ryder-Starring Film The Margos take a trip back to mid-19th century America with the Louisa May Alcott novel Little Women which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 & 1869 and became a smash hit. To describe the life story of Alcott as fascinating does not do it justice. Hers was a life filled with riches and poverty, with humiliation and joy, with love and hate, with incredible access to the...

Book Vs Movie: His Girl Friday The 1928 Play (The Front Page) Vs the 1940 Howard Hawks Film Writers Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur changed Broadway (and later Hollywood) forever when they created The Front Page, a comedy about irascible, mean reporters in Chicago who are waiting for the hanging of Earl Williams--a communist who killed an African American policeman which makes him a pariah in Cook County. The reporters who hang around the jail to write about his fate couldn’t care less...

Book Vs Movie: Harold and Maude The Colin Higgins Story & the Direction of Hal Ashby The Margos want to sing out! Today’s special episode is based on the novelization of a screenplay by the talented Colin Higgins who manages to good luck his way into having his first attempt at a screenplay produced by Paramount in 1971. Before that, he was an American-Australian who traveled around the globe trying to figure out how to turn his passion for writing into a career. (He would go on to write...

Book Vs Movie: The Age of Innocence The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novel Vs the Martin Scorsese Film The Margos take a trip back in time when the social strata in America were restrictive in all aspects of your life from where you lived, worshipped, and mostly--who you wanted to marry. Our author this time is Edith Wharton who grew up in America and Europe in a luxury lifestyle with the top aristocracy of the mid 19th century. Born Edith Newbold Jones (the phrase “keeping up with the...

Book Vs Movie: Enola Holmes by Nancy Springer The 2006 Novel Vs the 2020 Millie Bobby Brown Movie The Margos feel the love of mystery and the thrill of self-reliance with the lively Enola Holmes as our main character. The teenage younger sister of brothers Mycroft and Sherlock. Both are brilliant and confounded by their sister’s pluckiness and determination. When we first meet Enola, we meet her mother Eudoria who wants her daughter to be independent and clever. When she goes missing,...