• Greene On-screen

    On the occasion of this week’s U.K. release of a new film adaptation of Graham Greene’s sinister classic 1938 novel Brighton Rock, Boyd Tonkin has written a piece for the Independent examining the esteemed British author’s relationship with movies. Though some may know of Greene’s connection to the movies only by way of his brilliant scripts for Carol Reed’s masterpieces The Fallen Idol and The Third Man, as Tonkin puts it, “No giant of modern fiction has ever had such a long and—mostly—fruitful liaison with the cinema as Graham Greene.” Tonkin charts Greene’s love for film through the decades—from his years as a famed film critic (during which he wrote, Tonkin says, “perhaps the most notorious notice in the history of film criticism” about Shirley Temple) to his days as a movie insider and collaborator with such luminaries as Alexander Korda, Alberto Cavacanti, and, of course, Reed, with whom he made his most lasting mark on the medium. This entertaining look back at Greene on the silver screen also includes a list of the ten best Greene adaptations, from 1942’s Went the Day Well? to 2002’s The Quiet American.

    Clippings

Related Films

12 comments

  • By MA
    January 31, 2011
    07:51 PM

    It's a little galling that you call our attention to two films that are out of print!!
    Reply

  • By seezee
    February 01, 2011
    09:19 AM

    The Third Man is in print, just not in a Criterion edition. Fallen Idol is selling for below $10 used on Amazon Marketplace. Both are available from Netflix. So, if you want to see these films, there's nothing stopping you.
    Reply

  • By Flash Bazbo
    February 01, 2011
    06:23 PM

    What's the story with ODD MAN OUT? Is that a StudioCanal title? I still have the old Criterion laserdisc (and would love to retire it).
    Reply

  • By Flash Bazbo
    February 01, 2011
    06:27 PM

    Okay, I'm an idiot. I somehow lumped ODD MAN OUT in with Greene's films when it's just a Carol Reed one (but the themes are pretty Greene-esque). MY BAD. Still, any chance of this coming to Criterion DVD or Blu-Ray?
    Reply

  • By Joe
    February 01, 2011
    07:36 PM

    Speaking of Brighton Rock, how about a release of the original 1947 Boulting version. Besides being a fabulous movie, its number 15 on that BFI list you quoted in your Kes release announcement and never has had a US DVD release. (Lang's Ministry of Fear would be wonderful too)
    Reply

  • By Seth
    February 01, 2011
    07:36 PM

    Hey Criterion, I'd love a DVD copy of Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear, based on a Greene novel!
    Reply

  • By Jack
    February 01, 2011
    09:34 PM

    I don't know if Chris is answering on Criterion's behalf, but if so, it's a very shameful comment. MA is right, and it's been very trying to keep up with the "out of print" sinuous history of the collection. Furthermore, most people that buy the CC's discs are not interested in simply "watching the films" and, most probably in this case, they often already have. Netflix? Give me a break.
    Reply

  • By Lizh
    February 02, 2011
    02:39 PM

    It's galling for us to have to take stuff out of print, too. We try not to let it happen, but in the case of The Fallen Idol and The Third Man, we lost the rights. We hope to get them back someday, but in the meantime we haven't lost interest in Graham Greene and Carol Reed, and we don't think the viewers who bought our editions of their films have either. That's why we posted this clipping from the Independent. Not to sell something we can't sell. We thought you might be interested.
    Reply

  • By MA
    February 07, 2011
    01:32 AM

    Thanks for answering Jon. We're always interested. It just seems that the post would make more sense without the links to the editions, just like others you sometimes publish that are not about movies in the catalogue. I wonder if you could answer a question: are all the Criterion films that are OOP in that state because of loss of rights, or are there other reasons?
    Reply

  • By Lizh
    February 07, 2011
    06:02 PM

    No. OOP usually means we've lost rights, but there may be other reasons. We could be working on a new edition and feel the old one should no longer be repressed, or the cost of reprinting the original special packaging might be prohibitive, or a title may no longer be selling well in a particular format. We do try to give our audience a heads-up when things are going out of print, so if you subscribe to the newsletter, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, you shouldn't miss out on anything.
    Reply

  • By MA
    February 07, 2011
    07:53 PM

    Thank you for answering and elucidating!
    Reply

  • By LOU COPPOLA
    June 28, 2011
    05:46 PM

    ODD MAN OUT Can we get any info on this super great film? A criterion title for sure! Please let us know..
    Reply

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