When Hollywood's STUDIO SYSTEM was at its height of power, movies were turned out quickly and efficiently. For the creative assembly line to work, everyone had his or her task, and there was little room for overlap. Producers produced, directors directed, and actors acted. Interestingly, writers were the first group to win the opportunity to take on new roles when many were allowed to direct their own scripts in the 1940s. As for actors, when stars were being rushed into four, five, or six films per year, giving them the extra time to direct a movie would have cost the studio too much in potential revenue. It is no wonder, then, that there was a dearth of actor-directors through the 1930s and most of the 1940s. (Exceptions included most notably Lionel Barrymore and ORSON WELLES.)
Even in the area of comedy, where there was a longstanding tradition of actor-directors from the silent era (e.g., such legends as CHARLIE CHAPLIN and BUSTER KEATON), comic films during the '30s and '40s were not directed by their stars. W. C. FIELDS, MAE WEST, and the MARX BROTHERS did not even fully control their own material.
Not until the late 1940s, when the studio system began to break down, did a small cadre of actors begin working on both sides of the camera. IDA LUPINO, DICK POWELL, and ROBERT MONTGOMERY were some of the more interesting early actor-directors of this era, often directing films in which they themselves did not appear. Others followed suit, most of them, however, choosing not to continue their double careers. JAMES CAGNEY, BURT LANCASTER, and MICKEY ROONEY are among those who tried their hand at directing and then gave it up.
Ever since the 1960s, the number of actors who have tried directing has gone from a trickle to a stream to a flood. Also, an ever-larger number of actors wanting greater control of their own films has resulted not only in successful dual careers but in successful movies as well. CLINT EASTWOOD is perhaps the best example of today's premier actor-director. But others have done well, also, such as PAUL NEWMAN, JOHN CASSAVETES, WARREN BEATTY, and ROBERT REDFORD. In the comedy arena, the actor-director mantle has been passed to (among others) JERRY LEWIS, WOODY ALLEN, and MEL BROOKS. Most comedy actor-directors are also writers, creating and controlling their own comic visions with a totality envied by directors of other genres.
Films based on a work of art from another medium, usually a play or a novel, have been a Hollywood mainstay since 1912 when Adolph Zukor introduced his FAMOUS PLAYERS COMPANY. Well-known works of art, whether from the stage or the world of letters, served two important functions for the early moviemakers: They provided instant, proven plots for an industry that was voracious for new stories, and they provided name recognition that would attract paying customers into the theaters. For those two reasons novels, plays, songs, etc., continue to be adapted into movies today.
While virtually every literary classic from Pride and Prejudice to War and Peace has been adapted into a movie, the overall quality of such adaptations has not been good. The fact is, the better the novel, the less likely it is to be made into a great movie. The unique elements of the novel - the descriptions of internal thoughts and feelings - do not translate well to film. Master directors such as John Huston can sometimes accomplish wonders in this area (for example in The Red Badge of Courage, 1951), but the film medium seems better suited to capturing the vividly described physical action of pulpier novels such as Jaws and The Godfather. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Alfred Hitchcock made many of his greatest films from trashy, mediocre novels.
Given their dependence on language, plays were a surprisingly hot commodity for the movies even before the arrival of the talkies, but there was a virtual stampede to adapt plays to the screen during the first decade after the sound revolution. Though plays are closer to the film medium than novels, at least in regard to their structure and length, “opening up” and turning them into visual stories has often proved difficult. Even such well-known and enjoyable adaptations as The Petrified Forest (1936) and The Philadelphia Story (1940) tend to be static. In the hands of visually acute and creative directors, however, plays can be turned into great films such as Amadeus (1984). Yet there are also some absolutely dreadful adaptations, such as Man of La Mancha (1972), arguably one of the worst adaptations in the history of the cinema. Most of the plays of Neil Simon, from Come Blow Your Horn onward, however, have been transferred into successful, popular films.
Although songs have occasionally been adapted into movies (e.g., Ode to Billy Joe, 1976), short stories have proven to be a particularly good source of fine films, probably because the story line must be expanded rather than forcibly cut. Some famous films based on short stories include JOHN FORD's classic Stagecoach (1939) and ROGER CORMAN's films based on Edgar Allan Poe tales and starring VINCENT PRICE. The importance of adaptations to the industry grew during the 1950s and 1960s. Hollywood sought to distinguish its product from that of television, and it did so, in part, by paying hefty sums of money to buy best-sellers and hit plays and turning them into big-budget, big-screen spectaculars. For instance, adaptations such as From Here to Eternity (1953), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), and The Exorcist (1973) were gargantuan successes, as was Chicago in 2002.
In more recent years, as the movies have become a recognized art form, there has been a rise in the percentage of movies made from original scripts, and producers have a growing confidence in the salability of movies that haven't already been hits in other media. The widespread use of original material began in earnest with the success of Easy Rider (1969) but has fully come into its own thanks to gigantic hit films based on original screenplays, such as Star Wars (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Back to the Future (1985), Moonstruck (1987), and Good Will Hunting (1997).
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