I recently read J. M. Barrrie's Peter Pan for the first time, and went on to watch the charming silent version (though Barrie said it could have been a trifle more cinematic) and the disappointing, shallow Disney one (well animated, but too much coarse slapstick and too many unmemorable songs; or in the case of "What Makes the Red Man Red?", memorable for all the wrong reasons).

Then I proceeded to the 2003 Peter Pan, directed by P. J. Hogan.…

This is the definitive film of Madame X, the 1908 melodrama of self-sacrificing mother love that has been adapted at least 16 times for the screen. Despite being set in modern post-war Greece it's also the most faithful adaptation of the play (which can be read at the internet archive) and can be viewed with subtitles (also at the internet archive).

Director/screenwriter Laskos Orestishad helped kickstart Greek cinema with Daphnis and Chloe back in 1931. His careful "opening out" of…

Wheeler and Woolsey's bawdiest film, even after the censors hacked it up. The edits are clumsy and noticeable, but only the dirtiest lines and a few scenes of suggestive dancing were cut, and that still leaves plenty of dirt. Norman Krasna scripted such a salacious film that the censors allowed ordinarily unacceptable filth to remain after the worst was scrubbed away. And what remains is still jaw-dropping, with blatant implications of homosexuality, transvestism, and bestiality. Eddie Cline turns in his…

Aside from the 1939 Basil Rathbone version, this is the best adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles and undoubtedly the most faithful. At first it feels terribly strange: How odd to see the most British characters of all time speaking Russian! And though the filmmakers go to great trouble to get the period right, the buildings, furnishings, locations, and clothing still look undeniably Slavic.

But by the end I was very impressed. The Russians have a reputation for reverent,…