Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Notes on contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- NOTES -- 1 A very American fable: the making of a Mohicans adaptation -- Phase One - John Balderston's "epic" proposal -- Phase Two - Philip Dunne's heroic individuals -- Phase Three - Ralph Block's dreadful "western" -- Phase Four - emergency action -- NOTES -- 2 Romancing the letter: screening a Hawthorne classic -- NOTES -- 3 The movies in the Rue Morgue: adapting Edgar Allan Poe for the screen -- Poe's paradoxical popularity -- The Universal Poe -- Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) -- Poe's "Murders" and Universal's Murders -- Later adaptations of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" -- Conclusion -- NOTES -- 4 Readapting Uncle Tom's Cabin -- NOTES -- 5 Screening authorship: Little Women on screen 1933-1994 -- NOTES -- 6 Melville's Moby-Dick and Hollywood -- Adapting Moby-Dick -- Moby Dick (1956) -- Moby Dick (1998) -- The unmade Moby Dick -- NOTES -- 7 Screening male sentimental power in Ben-Hur -- A tale of two main characters -- A muscular and sentimental hero -- Making Christ manly -- Manly sentimental power -- A religious epic becomes secular melodrama -- Treading the boards with horses and Jesus -- Staging Christian manliness -- From stage to reel - racing into movie history -- M-G-M's first Ben-Hur - Niblo's 1926 extravaganza -- The Academy's darling - William Wyler's 1959 Ben-Hur -- NOTES -- 8 John Huston's The Red Badge of Courage -- NOTES -- 9 Translating Daisy Miller -- I -- II -- III -- IV -- Works consulted -- NOTES -- 10 Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady -- Henrietta's granddaughter -- Talking beans -- Jamesian language, Emersonian vision, and postmodern irony -- "An erotic story"? -- "What will she 'do'?" -- NOTES -- 11 The Europeans - and the Americans -- NOTES -- 12 Sister Carrie becomes Carrie.

A picture for adults -- Alternatives of consequence -- The nature of emotional greatness -- A double text -- "Willie Wyler's medium" -- The dignity of men -- Brothers under the skin -- NOTES -- 13 Hollywood and The Sea-Wolf -- NOTES -- 14 An untypical typicality: screening Owen Wister's The Virginian -- A contradictory legacy -- When and where men were men -- Owen Wister's "Horseman of the Plains" -- Shepherds with guns -- The westerner goes eastern -- The return of history: The Virginian (2000) -- Mavericks and a maiden -- The "equality" finds its measure -- NOTES -- Filmography -- Index.