The Golden Age of the Hollywoodized Novel

In The New York Sun, critic Gary Giddins looks at how MGM treated classics, those 19th century English novels which provided "famous stories in the public domain, inspirational work for costumers, hairdressers, and set designers, and good roles for English expats as villains.... If MGM sought titles that underscored the moral certainties of Carvel (Andy Hardy's hometown, not the custard stand), it was too intimidated to do as much violence to them as it did to contemporary novels, say "Babbitt" or "Tortilla Flat." As a result, MGM's best adaptations captured stylistic flavors that the more faithful television adaptations of our own time often ignore."