IMDb: Classic Film Novel Adaptations

1.

Above Suspicion (1943)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X

Oxford Professor Richard Myles and new bride Frances are off on a European honeymoon. It isn't your typical honeymoon though... (90 mins.)

Director: Richard Thorpe

Stars: Joan Crawford, Fred MacMurray, Conrad Veidt, Basil Rathbone

2.

Double Indemnity (1944)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.5/10 X

An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions. (107 mins.)

Director: Billy Wilder

Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr

3.

The Mortal Storm (1940)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X

The Roth family lead a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930's. When the Nazi's come to power... (100 mins.)

Director: Frank Borzage

Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan

4.

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X

The Minivers, an English "middle-class" family experience life in the first months of World War II. While dodging bombs... (134 mins.)

Director: William Wyler

Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Dame May Whitty

5.

Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X

A Norwegian farmer lovingly raises his daughter in rural World War II-era Benson Junction, Wisconsin. (105 mins.)

Director: Roy Rowland

Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Margaret O'Brien, James Craig, Frances Gifford

6.

Topper (1937)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X

A fun-loving couple, finding that they died and are now ghosts, decide to shake up the stuffy lifestyle of a friend of theirs. (97 mins.)

Director: Norman Z. McLeod

Stars: Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke

7.

Topper Takes a Trip (1938)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X

Mrs Topper's friend Mrs Parkhurst has convinced Mrs topper, to file for a divorce from Cosmo, due to... (80 mins.)

Director: Norman Z. McLeod

Stars: Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Alan Mowbray

8.

Topper Returns (1941)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.9/10 X

A sassy girl finds herself dead after trading bedrooms with her heiress friend. Her ghost seeks aid from banker Cosmo Topper to find out why and by whom. (88 mins.)

Director: Roy Del Ruth

Stars: Joan Blondell, Roland Young, Carole Landis, Billie Burke

9.

Nancy Drew... Reporter (1939)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6/10 X

Nancy Drew, reporter for the school newspaper, clears a girl of murder charges. (68 mins.)

Director: William Clemens

Stars: Bonita Granville, John Litel, Frankie Thomas, Mary Lee

Image of Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase

10.

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X

Nancy helps two aging spinsters fulfill the byzantine provisions of their father's will, but the murder of their chauffeur complicates matters. (60 mins.)

Director: William Clemens

Stars: Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, John Litel, Frank Orth

11.

Nancy Drew: Detective (1938)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X

After a wealthy dowager who has made a substantial donation her alma mater suddenly disappears, Nancy Drew sets out to solve the mystery. (66 mins.)

Director: William Clemens

Stars: Bonita Granville, John Litel, James Stephenson, Frankie Thomas

12.

Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter (1939)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6/10 X

When a close friend of the Drew family is accused of murder in a rural community, Nancy, aided by boyfriend Ted, helps her lawyer father expose the real killers. (68 mins.)

Director: William Clemens

Stars: Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas, John Litel, Aldrich Bowker

13.

Rebecca (1940)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.3/10 X

When a naive young woman marries a rich widower and settles in his gigantic mansion, she finds the memory of the first wife maintaining a grip on her husband and the servants. (130 mins.)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Stars: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson

14.

Jubilee Trail (1954)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.0/10 X

A wild-west trader and his New York wife head out for the California by wagon train. The trader is killed enroute, and his wife finds herself with child. She continues on hoping to find a man and a home. (103 mins.)

Director: Joseph Inman Kane

Stars: Vera Ralston, Joan Leslie, Forrest Tucker, John Russell

15.

I Love You Again (1940)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X

Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife. (99 mins.)

Director: W.S. Van Dyke II

Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Frank McHugh, Edmund Lowe

16.

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.4/10 X

Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice. (129 mins.)

Director: Robert Mulligan

Stars: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy

17.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X

A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression. (129 mins.)

Director: John Ford

Stars: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin

18.

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.0/10 X

During the Spanish Civil War, an American allied with the Republicans finds romance during a desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge. (170 mins.)

Director: Sam Wood

Stars: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Arturo de Córdova

19.

Of Mice and Men (1939)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X

A mentally retarded giant and his level headed guardian find work at a sadistic cowboy's ranch in depression era America. (106 mins.)

Director: Lewis Milestone

Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Charles Bickford

20.

12 Angry Men (1957)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.9/10 X

A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court. (96 mins.)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler

21.

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X

In a murder trial, the defendant says he suffered temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case? (160 mins.)

Director: Otto Preminger

Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell

22.

Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.8/10 X

Detective Nick Carter is brought in to foil spies at the Radex Airplane Factory, where a new fighter plane is under manufacture. (59 mins.)

Director: Jacques Tourneur

Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Rita Johnson, Henry Hull, Stanley Ridges

23.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X

Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s. (129 mins.)

Director: Elia Kazan

Stars: Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan

24.

The Thin Man (1934)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.0/10 X

Nick and Nora Charles, a former detective and his rich, playful wife, investigate a murder case mostly for the fun of it. (91 mins.)

Director: W.S. Van Dyke

Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton

25.

After the Thin Man (1936)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X

Nick investigates the case of a missing man and later a murder that is connected to Nora's family. (112 mins.)

Director: W.S. Van Dyke

Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, Elissa Landi

26.

Another Thin Man (1939)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X

An explosives manufacturer suspects a young man is out to kill him. He calls in Nick and Nora (with new baby) to sort things out. (103 mins.)

Director: W.S. Van Dyke II

Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Grey, Otto Kruger

27.

Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X

Nick and Nora are at their wise-cracking best as they investigate murder and racketeering at a local race-track. (97 mins.)

Director: Maj. W.S. Van Dyke II

Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Barry Nelson, Donna Reed

28.

The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X

Nick and Nora go on holiday, and end up involved in a murder. (100 mins.)

Director: Richard Thorpe

Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Lucile Watson, Gloria DeHaven

29.

Song of the Thin Man (1947)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X

Nick, Nora, and Nick Jr. investigate the murder of a band leader in New York. (86 mins.)

Director: Edward Buzzell

Stars: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Keenan Wynn, Dean Stockwell

30.

Blossoms in the Dust (1941)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X

Edna marries Texan Sam Gladney, operator of a wheat mill. Edna discovers by chance how the law treats... (99 mins.)

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Felix Bressart, Marsha Hunt

31.

The Canterville Ghost (1944)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X

In the 1600s, cowardly Sir Simon of Canterville flees a duel and seeks solace in the family castle....

Director: Jules Dassin

Stars: Charles Laughton, Robert Young, Margaret O'Brien, William Gargan

32.

Captains Courageous (1937)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X

Harvey Cheyne is a spoiled brat used to having his own way. When a prank goes wrong onboard an ocean liner Harvey ends up overboard and nearly drowns... (115 mins.)

Director: Victor Fleming

Stars: Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas

33.

Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X

An American boy turns out to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. He is sent to live with the cold and unsentimental lord who oversees the trust. (102 mins.)

Director: John Cromwell

Stars: Freddie Bartholomew, Dolores Costello, C. Aubrey Smith, Guy Kibbee