Film Remake Question

[the white drew carey]

OK- So the 70's King Kong is on right now and I got to thinking about movie remakes and I was curious: What is the first film remake (by majority concensus)?

My wife and I are fairly sure it's going to be in the 20's or 30's, since there were quite a few silent films remade as "talkies", but we're just not sure which one.

Maybe I don't know the keywords to search for because I'm not getting any answers on Google.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Noriko Takaya]

Well, the only movie I can come up with right now is Ben Hur. The first time it was shot on film was in 1907, and the people who made the film were successfully sued for copyright infringement because the writer of the book never authorized it. There was another version shot in 1925 and even though it was a silent movie, the naval battle and the chariot race are pretty damn good to watch. Then of course is the version we all love with Chuck Heston, William Wyler's classic 1959 remake of Ben Hur.

Edit: Mispelled successfully.

Edited December 29, 2005 by Noriko Takaya

[Mr March]

It would depend upon your criteria for a "remake" and whether you're talking about the date of the original or the remake itself. Plenty of films are "remade" without the consent of the original, plagarism isn't detected/acted upon legally, and some are remade unofficially.

Canadian director Sidney Olcott's 1907 film Ben Hur was an unofficial production, made without consent of the creator's estate. The film was also only 15 minutes long. Using the loosest interpretation and to the best of my knowledge, this film would be the earliest source film from which a remake was made.

You could then examine remakes with a slew of other criteria, such as Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) was the first remake to win best picture. Ironically, the Ben-Hur remake is often credited incorrectly as the first remake to win an Oscar. Then foreign films remade into North American films and vice versa. The saga of Hammett's novel Red Harvest into Kurosawa's Yojimbo into Leone's Fistful of Dollars into Last Man Standing is but one of a few really fun remake sagas

Edited December 29, 2005 by Mr March

[EXO]

I would guess Mutiny on the Bounty would be the first official remake... I checked it against Beau Geste and it had still beat it by maybe 5 years. My favorite remake of that was the 1977 Marty Feldman film "The Last Remake of Baeu Geste" with Michael York.

[Kin]

lol we got hightech computers now, so sfx is cheaper and less time consuming:P

[Zor Primus]

I think I started a topic like this one not so long ago. My vote will stick. REMAKE CLASH OF THE TITANS!

[the white drew carey]

I think I started a topic like this one not so long ago. My vote will stick. REMAKE CLASH OF THE TITANS!

356034[/snapback]

Dude, I don't think you even read what I, or any of the other members wrote. If you did, you'd realize that your post is completely and utterly out of context with the subject of this thread, you dope.

[Mr March]

Welcome to MW