Faulkner’s Screenplays   Adaptations

Adaptations of Faulkner’s Fiction

Theatrical Releases

Today We Live

(MGM, 1933), 113 minutes

 

Director: Howard Hawks

Producer: Howard Hawks

Screenplay: Edith Fitzgerald, Dwight Taylor, and William Faulkner
(based on the Faulkner story "Turn About")

Cinematography: Oliver T. Marsh

Cast:
Joan Crawford (Diana)
Gary Cooper (Bogard)
Robert Young (Claude)
Franchot Tone (Ronnie)
Roscoe Karns (McGinnis)

The Story of Temple Drake

(Paramount, 1933), 71 minutes

 

Director: Stephen Roberts Screenplay: Oliver H. P. Garrett
(based on Sanctuary)

Cinematography: Karl Struss

 

Cast:
Miriam Hopkins (Temple Drake)
Jack La Rue (Trigger)
William Gargan (Stephen Benbow)
Sir Guy Standing (Judge Drake)
Florence Eldridge (Ruby)
Irving Pichel (Lee Goodwin)
Elizabeth Patterson (Aunt Jenny)

Chick (Claude Jarman, Jr.) talks with Lucas Beauchamp (Juano Fernandez) in the courthouse square of Jefferson.

Intruder in the Dust

(MGM, 1949), 87 minutes

 

Director: Clarence Brown

Producer: Clarence Brown

Screenplay: Ben Maddow
(based on the novel)

Cinematography: Robert Surtees

Music: Adolph Deutsch

 

Cast:
David Brian (John Stevens)
Claud Jarman, Jr. (Chick Mallison)
Juano Hernandez (Lucas Beauchamp)
Porter Hall (Nub Gowrie)
Elizabeth Patterson (Miss Habersham)
Will Geer (Sheriff Hampton)

The Tarnished Angels

(Universal-International, 1957), 91 minutes

 

Director: Douglas Sirk

Producer: Albert Zugsmith

Screenplay: George Zuckerman7
(based on Pylon)

Cinematography: Irving Glassberg (CinemaScope)

Music: Frank Skinner

 

Cast:
Rock Hudson (Burke Devlin)
Robert Stack (Roger Shumann)
Dorothy Malone (Laverne Shumann)
Jack Carson (Jiggs)
Chris Olsen (Jack Shumann)

The Long Hot Summer

(Twentieth Century-Fox, 1958), 115 minutes

 

Director: Martin Ritt

Producer: Jerry Wald

Screenplay: Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr.
(based on The Hamlet)

Cinematography: Joseph La Shelle (color/CinemaScope)

Music: Alex North

 

Cast:
Paul Newman (Ben Quick)
Joanne Woodward (Clara Varner)
Anthony Franciosa (Jody Varner)
Lee Remick (Eula Varner)
Orson Welles (Will Varner)
Angela Lansbury (Minnie, Will's Mistress)

The Sound and the Fury

(Twentieth Century-Fox, 1959), 115 minutes

 

Director: Martin Ritt

Producer: Jerry Wald

Screenplay: Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr.
(Based on the novel)

Cinematography: Charles G. Clarke (color/CinemaScope)

Music: Alex North

 

Cast:
Yul Brynner (Jason Compson)
Joanne Woodward (Quentin Compson)
Margaret Leighton (Caddy Compson)
Jack Warden (Benjy Compson)
Ethel Waters (Dilsey)

Sanctuary

(Twentieth Century-Fox, 1961), 100 minutes

 

Director: Tony Richardson

Producer: Richard D. Zanuck

Screenplay: James Poe
(Based on Sanctuary and Requiem for a Nun)

Cinematography: Ellsworth Fredericks

Music: Alex North

 

Cast:
Lee Remick (Temple Drake Stevens)
Yves Montand (Candy Man)
Harry Townes (Ira Stevens)
Bradford Dillman (Gowan Stevens)
Odetta (Nancy)

The Reivers

(National General, 1969), 111 minutes

 

Director: Mark Rydell

Producers: Irving Ravetch and Robert E. Relyea

Screenplay: Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr.
(Based on the novel)

Cinematography: Richard Moore (color)

Music: John Williams

 

Cast:
Steve McQueen (Boon Hogganbeck)
Rupert Crosse (Ned McCaslin)
Mitch Vogel (Lucius McCaslin)
Will Geer (Boss McCaslin)
Juano Hernandez (Uncle Possum)

Tomorrow

(Filmgroup, 1972), 103 minutes

 

Director: Joseph Anthony

Producers: Gilbert Pearlman and Paul Roebling

Screenplay: Horton Foote
(Based on the short story)

Cinematography: Alan Green

Music: Irwin Stahl

 

Cast
Robert Duvall (Jackson Fentry)
Olga Bellin (Sarah Eubanks)
Sudie Bond (Mrs. Hulie)
Peter Masterson (Thornton Douglas)
Johnny Mask (Jackson and Longstreet Fentry)

Television Adaptations

Tomorrow

(CBS-TV, first telecast March 7, 1960), 90 minutes

 

Director: Robert Mulligan

Producer: Herbert Brodkin

Screenplay: Horton Foote
(Based on the short story)

 

Cast:
Richard Boone (Jackson Fentry)
Kim Stanley (Sarah Eubanks)
Beulah Bondi (Mrs Hulie)
Charles Aidman (Thornton Douglas)
Peter Oliphant (Jackson and Longstreet Fentry)
Elizabeth Patterson (Mrs. Pruitt)

Barn Burning

(PBS-TV, first telecast March 17, 1980), 41 minutes

 

Director: Peter Werner

Producer: Robert Geller

Screenplay: Horton Foote
(Based on the short story)

 

Cast:
Tommy Lee Jones (Ab Snopes)
Shawn Whittington (Sarty Snopes)
James Faulkner (Major de Spain)

The Long Hot Summer

(NBC-TV, first telecast October 6-7, 1985), 4 hours

 

Director: Stuart Cooper

Producers: Dori Weiss, Leonard Hill, and John Thomas Lenox

Screenplay: Rita Mae Brown and Dennis Turner
(Based on The Hamlet and previous screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr.)

 

Cast:
Don Johnson (Ben Quick)
Judith Ivey (Noel Varner)
William Russ (Jody Varner)
Cybill Shepherd (Eula Varner)
Jason Robards, Jr. (Will Varner)
Ava Gardner (Minnie, Will's mistress)

Old Man

(CBS-TV, first telecast February 9, 1997), 2 hours

 

Director: John Kent Harrison

Executive Producer: Richard Welsh

Producer: Brent Shields

Supervising Producer: Cleve Landsberg

Teleplay by: Horton Foote
(Based on the novella "Old Man" in If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, by William Faulkner)

Director of Photography: Kees van Oostrum, A.S.C.

Production and Costume Designer: Patricia Norris

Film Editor: Jim Oliver

Music By: Lawrence Shragge

Casting By: Phyllis Huffman/Olivia Harris

 

Cast:
Jeanne Tripplehorn (Addie)
Arliss Howard (J.J. Taylor)
Leo Burmester (Plump Convict)
Daro Latiolais (Cajun Man)
Ray McKinnon (Shanty Man)
Jerry Leggio (Warden)
Horace Trahan (Singer on Boat)
Ritchie Montgomery (Deputy)
Edward Grady (Boat Doctor)
Dan Kamin (Boat Captain)

Other Television Adaptations

I don't have complete information about these, but Robert Mulligan directed half-hour versions of two Faulkner short stories which had been broadcast live on the Suspense series in 1954: "Smoke," from Knight’s Gambit, and "Barn Burning."