When one is adapting books to movies, there are always difficulties; but the films we watched in class are pretty accurate. I am sure it is extremely difficult to cram a book into a two-hour movie without excluding characters, settings, or elements of the plot.
There are some times when a person is pleased and other times disappointed with film adaptations, though. With Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard’s 1938 Pygmalion, starring Leslie Howard as Henry Higgins and Wendy Hiller as Eliza Doolittle, I was very pleased; but in My Fair Lady, directed by George Cukor in 1964, I found Rex Harrison’s Henry to be too old, especially for Audrey Hepburn’s Eliza. In George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play, Pygmalion, Henry seems as if he should be a lot younger, but I feel the costumes and settings in My Fair Lady, designed by Cecil Beaton, are very accurate.
Overall, I was very pleased with the film adaptations and the books. I feel that this course has enlightened me about the interconnected worlds of film and literature. Also, I am a huge fan of classic films, so I absolutely loved this course.