Sir, I shan’t see the new version of The Wicker Man (“Don’t look now — it’s another remake”, Aug 30). Two pointless remakes of the last few years were Flight of the Phoenix and The Omen. The original version of the first of those, directed by Robert Aldrich with an all-star cast headed by Jimmy Stewart, is a masterpiece of drama, acting and tension, deserving its cult status. Yet I believe it wasn’ t a huge commercial success. So the remake was doomed on two counts.
Richard Donner’s version of The Omen does look dated and quaint by today’s standards, but you cannot remake such a cult classic. Better to come up with originals.
DANIEL CLEE
Wellingborough, Northants
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Sir, Remakes of movies are no new thing; nor are they always inferior. John Huston’s classic 1941 screen adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s celebrated detective story, The Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet, was a remake of an earlier 1931 film treatment, directed by Roy del Ruth. Another not very recent remake was the 1952 MGM version of the 1937 hit The Prisoner of Zenda.
The 1964 remake, by film director Don Siegel, of Robert Siodmak’s The Killers (1946), which stars Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster, is rather good. Two of its stars, Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson, went on to appear in John Boorman’s magnificent Point Blank, which has certain storyline affinities with The Killers. Siegel’s remake therefore appears as a transitional film, and is enriched by this.
JOHN OWSTON
Southall, Middx
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Sir, Have those renaming Guy Gibson’s dog Trigger in the remake of The Dam Busters (report, Sep 1) checked its copyright with the custodians of Roy Rogers’ estate?
ROBERT VINCENT
Wildhern, Hants
Sir, It is ridiculous to remake The Dam Busters with British screenwriters. Everyone knows that it was the Americans who carried out this raid, using the Enigma intelligence they captured during the film U571.
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LIEUTENANT-COLONEL K. R. BRYAN
Andover, Hants
Sir, We need to give Hollywood a taste of its own medicine. How about a remake of High Noon? With Alan Titchmarsh.
TIM FOOTMAN
Bangkok