Ira Levin

[Princess Ivy]

Received my latest amazon order today, and have just flattened the Stepford Wives. Hollywood should be shot. they missed so much of the subtle parrody and the full horror of the stepford situation. I'm about to embark on The Boys from Brazil. I know i enjoyed the film version with Gregory Peck, so am hoping for great things. Who knows, i might even stretch to horror and pick up a copy of Rosemarys Baby!

 

[Brian G Turner]

The "Boys from Brazil" DVD was going cheap in Tescos a while back - very nearly bought it. Very strong-looking cast.

 

[Princess Ivy]

The film is great, and very true to the book. finished it at 5 this morning. Sometimes being an insomniac is great! got to finish my book, but now I've nothing to read until I make good with the library!
Of course now I am so paranoid its not funny! he has a great way with a pen, that man!

 

[littlemissattitude]

"The Boys From Brazil" is a great book. So are "The Stepford Wives" and "Rosemary's Baby". I wanted to read "Rosemary's Baby" when I was about 11 or 12 years old, when it first came out, and the library wouldn't let me check it out. So I just sat in the library and read it. I was a great trial to the librarians when I was a kid. Come to think of it, sometimes I still am.

 

[Princess Ivy]

I remember everyone being afraid of our local librarian, but at five i was very precocious and marched right up to her and demanded copies of milly molly mandy! I have to date found no reason to adapt my approach. My mom is round tonight and will no doubt pinch my copies. good thing i read them when they arrived.

 

[Dave]

The film of Boys from Brazil is an excellent film, but until recently I hadn't realised that Ira Levin also wrote The Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby. Ira Levin didn't write much else, he was mainly a playwright, though Stephen King really rates him highly. He is quoted as saying something along the lines that Levin is a Swiss Watchmaker to his own backstreet replicas. I think his book Deathtrap was also made into a film but I haven't seen that.

Anyway, my question is (and I think I know the answer) should I read these original books?

 

[littlemissattitude]

Deathtrap...released in 1982 and starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve...is a really trippy film. And I'll not say any more.

 

[j d worthington]

Dave: Yes, definitely. Also A Kiss Before Dying, which is another very good book (though slightly dated in some incidentals). Just keep in mind that Rosemary's Baby has a bit different in the handling of the blending of parody and horror.....