Play it again Sam

Broadway has always been a rich source of inspiration for Hollywood so I've been researching the Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prizes and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards looking for material that needs to be added to the DVD collection. Harvey, Arsnic and Old Lace, Mr. Roberts, and a Streetcar Named Desire are just a few of the fabulous movies that were adaptated from plays. Of course not every play translates well onto film. There is an energy between the actors on a stage and the audience that cannot be captured in a movie, but I am amazed at the number of award winning plays and musicals that became classic movies. I guess I shouldn't be, but I have a hard time picturing Mr. Roberts on stage. I mean it starred Henry Fonda, Jack Lemon, William Powell, Ward Bond, Jimmy Cagney, and was directed by John Ford. But Henry Fonda did create the role on Broadway just like Jimmy Stewart originated the charactor of Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey, and Marlon Brando got the role of Stanley Kowalski after his Broadway success. So I guess there is kind of an obvious connection there. As an aside, when they were casting the movie the Petrified Forest, the star, Leslie Howard, talked the studio into casting the actor who played the part of Duke Mantee on Broadway in the same part in the movie. That man was Humphrey Bogart and it gave him his big break in motion pictures.