What is your favorite version of The Canterville Ghost? (1944, 1986, or 1996)
My favorite is the 1986 version with Ted Wass, Alyssa Milano, & Sir John Gilgued(sp) then the 1996 version next with Neve Campbell & Patrick Stewart. I haven't seen the 1944 version but I all I've heard were bad reviews about this version.
Same here - I watched the 1996 Patrick Stewart/Neve Campbell version, and as good as it is, I prefer the 1986 Sir John Geilgud/Alyssa Milano version.
Wether it's because it was the version I watched first (and nothing compares to the original) or just the way it was acted I don't know.
Does anyone know, however, which is truer to the original Oscar Wilde story?
I'll trade with anyone who has a jaccuzzi!!!!
I've never read Wilde's original story, but the two later film versions feel closer to the original. (Still looking for a copy of the original story.)
The 1944 production is my least favorite, too. The only reason I'd watched it in the first place was to see Charles Laughton as Sir Simon — and to see Robert Young playing someone other than Jim Anderson from Father Knows Best.
I'll have to watch the 1986 production again in order to give Alyssa Milano another chance. I remember liking John Gielgud as Sir Simon and Ted Wass as the Dad and not liking Alyssa Milano. — However, the first time I saw that '86 version was just before (or after) Ms Milano did an interview on a popular Los Angeles talk show. She must have been having a really bad day and she left a really bad impression with remarks like, "For this I got up at 5 o'clock in the morning." And that memory was clouding my impression of her performance.
The main thing I didn't care for about the 1996 version was the Dad character. He was so abrasive you could have used that performance to take the old paint off your woodwork! He came off as abusive — or near it.
Have you noticed that, in Shakespeare's day, soothsayers said the sooth, the whole sooth, and nothing but the sooth?
I love this version because I think, despite the modernization it's as close as you can get to the original tale though I do like the 1986 version. I have a seething hatred for the 1944 version. They turned it into War propaganda and it's completely unrecognizable. Oscar Wilde would have been rolling over in his grave.
At least so far, this is the only version I've seen that makes me care enough for Sir Simon that I tear up in happiness for him at the end.
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I have to agree on this. Patrick Stewart truly made Sir Simon sympathetic to me. I cared about him. He became a real person. This was simply the best version of The Canterville Ghost ever made. I have a deep seething hatred for the word war 2 propaganda of the 40s version that had little to do with Wilde's story.
My favorite is the one with Richard Kiley. That is probably because it is the first one I saw back when I was a little kid. I'm not sure which comes in second, this one or the John Gielgud version, but both are quite good.
shareThe Canterville Ghost, along with The Importance of being Earnest are my favourite Oscar wilde stories. This version is close to the original, whilst the 1944 version should have the writers and directors locked up for 100 of years. All though this version is not quite as accurate as the story, (in the original all the family saw the ghost at the begining) somewhere on the internet the story is read (spoken version) and it is worth the listen. The other two films had to have someone performing an heroic act, whilst the book (and this film) had to have a young girl asking for Sir Simons forgiveness.
Neve Campbell makes this film, she is astonishingly good and acts the rest of the screen. I felt sorry for Daniel Betts having to act opposite her as the love interest, he had no chance.
the 1996 Patrick Stewart/Neve Campbell version of course. I want to read the original story
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*nya* *purr*