Because I watched Wilder's "Double Indemnity" (adapted from James M. Cain's novel of the same name, "Double Indemnity"), I also learned that "Desire" is also adapted from Kane's other women and families The theme novel, then read it. Also film noir, screenwriters are vastly different in how screenwriters adapt and directors approach film style and dramatic structure and themes.
Kane's original novel focuses on the female protagonist Mildred from a third-person perspective, creating an image of a decisive and tough, but also stereotyped, Southern California housewife with a dream beyond her own status. In Kane's era, Mildred's image was limited. His tenacity and decisiveness were seen as an inflated desire in the patriarchal society at that time. If we look at it after the rise of the feminist movement, Mildred's image is perhaps more powerful and positive. Kane, perhaps with disgust in casting the character, sees the woman as a femme fatale, a realistic character in a romantic crime novel.
If it is completely adapted from the original work, it will probably become a family female theme film in the traditional sense, and there will be nothing new. But producer Jerry Ward was decisive in the direction and tone of the film, and he wanted to craft it in his own way, so that it went beyond family melodrama and women's movies in general and made it a A somber feature film about murder and betrayal that became a film noir. Ward made the switch from journalist to studio screenwriting. He also wrote many screenplays, which helped him become a producer, and later became known for some WWII-themed films. He is an adventurous person, and writing comedy is not his forte. If you are trying a new subject, choosing a female film with distinct elements rooted in realism may be a good choice. When Paramount released Double Indemnity to critical acclaim, Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler co-wrote the noir characters, with a touch of comedy. . In it, the mood of decadence, epiphany and failure is added through the reminiscence narration and bitter voiceover of a dying man. Ward was deeply influenced by Double Indemnity and wondered about using flashbacks, flashbacks, and voiceovers as well. Considering the lack of a climax to drive the plot in the original, the writers added a murder scene as a climax. However, at that time, Warners was still firmly in the paper system. Film production was more collective in Warner than in Paramount. There was no talented director like Billy Wilder, so there were still certain limitations in film production. sex. But Wald's cleverness and success is to create the film from a different direction, bringing together crime themes and women's films, and using the plug-in to make the original story more dramatic, because "Desire" The harrowing scenes and betrayal plots of family life, love and career contained in the film also pointed the way for Warner's later new wave of realist cinema. Wald's newspaper background makes him more comfortable in framing the murder story, combining the idea of commercial revenue, or he will think that this adaptation of the script will be more attractive to the audience and bring better box office. The adaptation process of the script for this film is also extremely cumbersome. There have been eight versions. In the end, McDougall's version was basically adopted, and some Tenet's plots were added. It can be said that the key to the success of this black humor is also helped by the limitations of the time, McDulger implied that Mildred was trying to achieve commercial success, in the social background of the time, it had broken away from the traditional family harmony and male-dominated society. The "correct" picture. If you put it at the moment, it will probably only be reduced to a general genre film, which can only be used in technical
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