By Nava Atlas | On August 16, 2017 | Updated March 14, 2023 | Comments (0)
National Velvet is the story of a horse-crazy fourteen-year-old girl, Velvet Brown, who rides her horse, Pi, to win Britain’s Grand National steeplechase.
The 1935 novel of the same name by Enid Bagnold (1889 – 1991) was successfully adapted to film in 1944 and featured the young Elizabeth Taylor in her first leading role.
Assisted by Mi, her father’s hired hand, Velvet plots to get the horse ready for what’s considered “the greatest race in the world,” praying to become “the best rider in England,” not for the money but for the glory of the horse she loves so dearly. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On July 16, 2017 | Updated October 11, 2025 | Comments (0)
Elizabeth von Arnim went by various pen names throughout her career, perhaps explaining why her reputation wasn’t quite as cemented in her lifetime as was that of some of her contemporaries.
An incicive and witty writer, two of her novels became well-known films. The first was Mr. Skeffington (1940). Much later, The Enchanted April (1922) was adapted into the charming 1991 film Enchanted April.
Here is a review of the Americanized and significantly altered 1944 film version of Mr. Skeffington starring Bette Davis and Claude Rains. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On July 15, 2017 | Updated December 30, 2024 | Comments (8)
Lots of films have been made from novels by the classic women authors on this site, as you’ll see by linking to this site’s Filmography. But there are also a number of biographical films about women authors themselves, the lives they led, and the stories they told.
What is it, do you supposed, that’s so fascinating about the life of a woman who writes? The films don’t focus on the act of writing for the most part — wouldn’t that be a yawner! Rather, they pay homage to the literary legacy they left behind in the form of their wonderful stories.
Some of these films take more literary license than others when it comes to the true facts of their subjects’ lives, but many, if not all, can at least be an introduction to the author, her life, and work.
Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On July 6, 2017 | Updated July 20, 2024 | Comments (0)
Lots of us know that the film version of Gone with the Wind was based on the epic novel of the same title by Margaret Mitchell, and that To Kill a Mockingbird was a faithful rendition of Harper Lee’s classic.
Little Women has been the subject of a number of film versions, and most of us, at least us book nerds, know Louisa May Alcott by name quite well. And will there never be an end to filmed versions of the Brontë sisters’ novels, or those of Jane Austen?
There are many other classic films based on classic novels by women, whose titles are firmly planted in cultural history. But the connection to the authors who created them is often lost. See if you know who wrote the novels upon which these twelve classic films were based — you’ll find the answers at the very end. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On June 19, 2017 | Updated July 5, 2026 | Comments (0)
Show Boat (1936) began in 1927 as a revolutionary stage musical, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Based on Edna Ferber’s best-selling novel of the same name, the musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands, and dockworkers on the Cotton Blossom, a showboat on the Mississippi River, beginning in the late nineteenth century.
With themes including racial prejudice and enduring love, the musical contributed such classics as “Ol’ Man River,” “Make Believe,” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” to the American songbook. Read More→
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