basis for...?


when I first saw this on IFC(?) a few years back, I could have sworn the credits said something to the effect that the original novel was written 1914(-18?), but the writing credits here say McGrath wrote the novel AND the screenplay. unless McGrath was a very young man when he wrote this and adapted it later on, say 50s or 60s (where it sat in development hell until 90s), something ain't right.

Besides that, IF it was early 20th Century novel, then Richard O'Brien HAD to have read it and adapted it for Rocky Horror Show! If on the other hand, it was a more recent work, then McGrath owes ROB a good deal of money! The similarities between the two works are nearly identical once you remove RH's songs.


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-Master of the house a struggling doctor in the eyes of his peers? check.

-said doctor makes a unique breakthrough in his field of scientific research, dies at end? check

-two servants just arrived from a distant location, who are lovers with a shady background and a dark plot of their own? check

-young couple, just engaged, drawn into a dastardly plot when they plan a visit to doctor to announce their nuptials? check

-the young groom-to-be seduced by another man? check

-"biker"-type murder victim served as dinner by servants? check

-close "outsider", and allegedly not-too-bright, friend of the doctor is executed? check

-house is visited by a rival doctor? check

-someone (doctor) is bound to wheelchair? check

-manor house was once considered a castle, is cold and drafty and full of candles and candelabra? check

-a judge investigates the goings-on at house? check

-animals referred to in a phamacological way? check (frogs, 'roaches')

-technology is used which is ahead of it's time for local area? check

also, one of the actors is a well-known singer: Sting and Meat Loaf
(and they're both schtupping one of their co-stars during filming!)

granted, there are a few changes in character(s), but the basic plot and flow of the story is there. Just trade Tim Curry for Alan Bates, and break out the fishnets!

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"I will show you the life of the mind!" Karl Mundt

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The book by Patrick McGrath was first published in 1989, so I am guessing that you are confusing the credits to another movie with this one.

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About the scheming man and woman servants who are really husband and wife, and it's a commentary on the British class system with a lot of dark humour and forbidden sexuality.

I didn't notice the Rocky Horror parallels. Actually I recently saw the film "Performance" and that was a much more obvious influence on Richard O'Brien, IMO. Turner = Frank N. Furter.

An gabh thu tuilleadh?

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