True, re that comparison, but there has also been ANOTHER remake; The Big Show (1961) which set the plot among a family of High-wire trapeze performers. In that version the father (Nemiah Persoff) pinched pennies; he failed to replace a worn turnbuckle, and somebody died as a result. Cliff Robertson was the good son who went to jail, and Robert Vaughn was the boss bad son in the climax fight. I have speculated elsewhere that the next incarnation of that plot will involve a pizzeria dynasty in which Papa serves ungrated parmisan and somebody chokes to death. With every rewrite, we get farther away from the Bard.
cmvgor
"A man does what he has to do-if he can't get out of it. - Bret Maverick's Pappy
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howard-roller
13 years ago
How about a rib joint in Harlem or a dim sum palace in Chinatown? Though House of Strangers was the first version and Mankiewics (can't type 36th letter on this keyboard)probably got the idea; I like Broken Lance best for several reasons: A western locale is better, A ranch is more like a kingdom than a bank... Deveraux has a retinue like Lear...Robert Wagner (as Cordelia) gets banished in effect; he goes to jail. The showdown is vaguely the same and Katy Jurado functions like Kent. Tracy dead on his horse is a reasonable parallel for Lear's death scene...Robert Wagner as the spoiled daughter kind of makes sense also. Richard Conte really doesn't deserve his fate in House of Strangers. Nice talking with you. Howard ([email protected])
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