I read Max Brand's Destry Rides Again recently. I'll be available to talk about it, for some.
One of my reactions to the character of Harrison Destry was that this seems like a very unusual character for James Stewart to have played. Calling Destry's background "wild" would be a severe understatement.
What I've recently found out is that Stewart never played the role of Harrison Destry. Literally. The movie has a different plat from the book, and the character's given name was switched to Tom in the course of pre-production.
My honest guess is that Max Brand was a hot property, but the studios didn't think the character would work on film, perhaps because his being a cool-acting criminal would have upset the production code. The book had an actual adaptation a few years before, with Tom Mix in the lead. One of his few sound films.
2 comments:
I hope you enjoyed the book but, as you said, we can talk about that.
Although I'm pretty sure we've watched the Jimmy Stewart - Marlene Dietrich version of Destry it is a totally different story from the one Max Brand told so well (I can't find the movie clip where Marlene sings 'The Boys in The Backroom'). Destry was in reality a very different character than the one played by Stewart.
The Tom Mix version was much closer to the real plot. It would be fun to see it.
We haven't gotten around to discussing it but yes, I did like it.
I know two things about the Jimmy Stewart/Marlene Dietrich version. One is that they had an affair while they were filming it. Also her character seems to have been a big influence on Madeline Kahn's from Blazing Saddles.
Tom Mix mostly did silence but lasted a few years into the sound era, and Destry is from that period. It seems like it might be on archive.org if nowhere else.
Post a Comment