Solid Snake

Saw The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) a few days ago on BD. I really liked it. Solid film. Some aspects haven't aged well in narrative but it's a strong film and even stronger in the context of it's time.

This film though is a remake of one of his own films from 1934. I found it interesting that a director would remake a film of their own. And possibly making it better as well. Which I feel this film was. Hitch's own feeling about the two films is that the earlier film "is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional." I actually really really like the original just because of look of it and Lorre (phonetically speaking English) being in it. It's a lesser film, still good though, than the remake but I enjoy it much more. I think I just dig B&W Hitchcock more than when he did Color.

Mann remade L.A. Takedown (TV movie) into Heat. I can't watch the TV one, just looks horrid to me. While I love the hell out of Heat. DeMille remade The 10 Commandments. Both I've yet to see either. Though I've greater interest in the first one he did over the later one just because of the filmmaking nature they had at that time.

So what other directors have remade their own films? And were they better than the original?

DaveyJoe

This happens sometimes with foreign language films being remade in America. George Sluzier remade Spoorlos into The Vanishing and totally ruined the ending.

bluetoast

Michael Haneke remade his own Funny Games. Never saw the original, but I don't really see the point in a shot for shot remake of your own flick.

Tim Burton expanded Frankenweenie, and it seems more suited to a short than a full on movie, though I still enjoyed both.

JumpCutz

Here's a pretty good list....

Frank Capra:

Lady For a Day (1933) remade as Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
Broadway Bill (1934) remade as Riding High (1950)


Bob Clark:

Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972) remade as Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (2006)

George Cukor:

What Price Hollywood? (1932) remade as A Star is Born (1954)

Cecil B. DeMille:

The Squaw Man (1914) remade as The Squaw Man (1918)
The Squaw Man (1918) remade as The Squaw Man (1931)
The Ten Commandments(1923) remade as The Ten Commandments (1956)

John Ford:

Marked Men (1919) remade as 3 Godfathers (1948)
Judge Priest (1934) remade as The Sun Shines Bright (1953)


Sidney Franklin:

The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) remade as The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957)


Howard Hawks:

Ball of Fire (1941) remade as A Song is Born (1948)


Alfred Hitchcock:

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) remade as The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)


Ernst Lubitsch:

The Marriage Circle (1924) remade as One Hour With You (1932; codirected with George Cukor)
Kiss Me Again (1925) remade as That Uncertain Feeling (1941)


Leo McCarey:

Love Affair (1939) remade as An Affair To Remember (1957)


Jean Negulesco:

Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) remade as The Pleasure Seekers (1964)


Yasujiro Ozu:

I Was Born, But...(1932) remade as Goodmorning (1959)
A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) remade as Floating Weeds (1959)
Late Spring (1949) remade as Late Autumn (1960)


Steven Spielberg:

Firelight (1964) remade as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)


Raoul Walsh:

High Sierra (1941) remade as Colorado Territory (1949)
The Strawberry Blonde (1941) remade as One Sunday Afternoon (1948)


James Whale:

The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933) remade as Wives Under Suspicion (1938)


William Wyler:

These Three (1936) remade as The Children's Hour (1962)

whoopdido

Would District 9 count as a remake of Alive in Joburg, or just a continuation?

islandclaws

I never understood why Haneke remade Funny Games. I appreciated watching Watts bound and gagged for an hour and change, but the original smokes it in every regard.

inri222

The mother was not meant to be eye candy, the boys were more ordinary looking in the original & Tim Roth was weak as the father.
I think that is what messed up the remake.



Spoorlos is a fucking masterpiece, while the remake (The Vanishing) is just one big dummed down giant turd.

DonnachaOne

Michael Mann. LA TAKEDOWN became the much better HEAT. It's strange looking at the former afterward; it's like a BE KIND REWIND sweded version. Xander Berkeley's in both; he has a small role in HEAT, whereas LA TAKEDOWN has him as the Waingro character who betrays the crew.

Strevlac

El Dorado could be considered a remake of Rio Bravo. Both directed by Howard Hawks.

Jay G.

Ole Bornedal remade Nattevagten (1994) as Nightwatch (1997)

Takashi Shimizu originally made Ju-on as a DTV movie in 2000, then remade it as a theatrical feature in 2002, then the American remake in 2004. He also directed a sequel for each version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ju-on#Films

Jay G.

The Pang Brothers - Bangkok Dangerous (1999) remade as Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

Mondo Kane

Todd Browning made talkie remakes of Unholy Three and London After Midnight (As Mark of the Vampire). We'll never really know how the latter holds up in comparison, but at least the two versions of Unholy 3 have different endings (I liked the silent-version ending's better)

PopcornTreeCt

I hope Spielberg remakes Jurassic Park.

islandclaws

Why?

cleaver

I consider Evil Dead 2 a remake of Evil Dead 1

Mattflix

Tim Burton remakes the same movie over and over again.

davidh777

El Mariachi > Desperado

inri222

Robert Rodriguez should only be allowed a budget of $7,000 per film. IMO he has never done anything as good as El Mariachi.

davidh777

Though I guess in some circles it's considered a sequel instead of a remake. I have yet to see El Mariachi so I dunno.

Obi-Wanma

But it's not. The opening where Ash comes to the cabin with Linda again and the brief recap of ED1 only exists because they didn't have rights to just use footage from ED1.

DaveyJoe

Agreed, I love that movie and would double dip if Criterion ever releases it on BluRay. The remake is just awful and a great example of how American films lack the balls to do anything gutsy.

Jay G.

Both of these are sequels instead of remakes, although as Obi-Wan Jabroni points out, the ED2 confusion is often because they recap an abridged version of the events of ED1 using newly-shot footage.

A better fit for ED1 would be Within the Woods, the original short film shot to get funding for ED1. Sam Raimi is also producing the remake of ED1.


For the film The Five Obstructions (2003), Jørgen Leth was tasked with repeatedly remaking his short film The Perfect Human, each time with a new obstruction posed by Lars von Trier.

Werner Herzog made the documentary feature Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), then made the drama Rescue Dawn (2007), based on the same true story.

Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre was shot in both German and English, which was more common an occurrence when sound was first introduced into film. It's not quite the same as remaking a film years later though.

Groucho

John Carpenter:

Assault on Precinct 13 / Ghosts of Mars

(not a joke post)

Hokeyboy

I know this gets touted a lot, but i's a real stretch IMO...

RagingBull80

Yep. I love the original (And would also love a Criterion Blu-ray upgrade) but the American remake is horrid.