Oliver the Eighth - Script to Screen

Just as still happens today - first comes some real-life incident, which inspires a story, which is adapted as a screenplay, then filmed as a movie, then licensed for ancillary rights, including a novelization (the value of which is seldom clear). The most interesting example so far was the life of William Randolph Hearst, which inspired the screenplay filmed as CITIZEN KANE, which begot several texts explaining how CITIZEN KANE was created and released, which in turn generated a documentary on the making of CITIZEN KANE, which itself has now just been dramatized by HBO for television! Watch for the novelization at better bookstores everywhere.
The sybaritic life of King Henry VIII led slowly and indirectly to OLIVER THE EIGHTH, and to subsequent novelization as part of a LAUREL AND HARDY so-called "big-little" book adapted by a Charles T. Clinton and published by the Saalfield Publishing Company in l934. The book is now a collector's item. Sixteen stills from the film were published with the written condensation of the story. See the film; read the book.

 



-- by Richard W. Bann --