Streamline | The Official Filmstruck Blog – The Sequels That Never Were
The Sequels That Never Were
Posted by Greg Ferrara on June 3, 2016
Coming on TCM tomorrow is one of those sequels that was never necessary but also turned out to be not bad. Â The sequel is 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the original is 2001: A Space Odyssey, and, of course, both movies now take place in the past, a past somehow completely missing smart phones and Facebook. Â It’s a tough business predicting the future but it’s just another workday in Hollywood taking popular story lines and characters and rehashing them for one more go around. Â In 2010, the characters are actually different except for the spirit/presence of Dave Bowman, but it’s an extension of the story. Â And while I didn’t much care for that particular story extension, there are three classic Hollywood films that never got a sequel (or the sequel I wanted) that, frankly, I wouldn’t have minded seeing. Â And I should clarify thatÂ up front, that I’m not necessarily talking about movies that didn’t have sequels. Â One of the movies I’m thinking of did indeed have a sequel, just not the one I wanted to see. Â Speaking of which…
Does anyone think The Color of Money is the right sequel for The Hustler? Â Regardless of whether you think it’s good or bad (my own personal take is it’s Scorsese-lite and a kind of dull enterprise), the sequel I want to see is what in the hell happens to Eddie (Paul Newman) after he walks out on Bert (George C. Scott) following the pool hall match between him and Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) Â - I want to just pause for a moment to let it sink in that, yes, for one brief shining moment, the universe put Paul Newman, George C. Scott, and Jackie Gleason together in a movie and we got to see it – because Eddie threatens Bert with murder and Bert threatens Eddie to never walk in a pool hall again and… and… we get The Color of Money 25 years later?!?! Â Give me something in 1966 instead, where we start the movie right after he walks out of that joint and follow through five years of hustling on the sly, evading the far reach of Bert, and trying to make something more of himself. Â I don’t want to see Eddie 25 years later training some brash young kid. Â Who cares?! Â Give me Eddie right after that confrontation. Â Added bonus: We would have had Scott and Gleason reprise their roles. Â Oh well.
I may be the only one who feels this way about this next choice but I stand by my selection: Mutiny on the Bounty. Â If you’ve ever read some of the histories on the subject (I have) you know that what happened on Pitcairn Island after the mutineers settled there was pretty dark and deadly. Â You will also be aware that stories of what exactly happened are conflicting. Â The lone surviving mutineer, John Adams, discovered in 1808 (the mutineers settled there in 1790), alternated the stories of Fletcher Christian’s death many times over the years. Â Sometimes he said Christian had been murdered. Â Other times, disease took him. Â He even gave an account where Christian committed suicide. Â Another resident of the island, a woman who called herself Jenny, said Christian was shot by one of the Tahitian men they had taken with them on the Bounty. Â One thing every story agreed on: At some time, shortly after settling, perhaps a year or two in (they had children and began a farming/fishing lifestyle), all hell broke loose and violent conflict broke out. Â Somehow, Adams, alone among the mutineers, survived. Â Since we don’t know what really happened, the story would fall into the The Cat’s Meow territory of speculative fiction. Â I know it wouldn’t be the real story but I’d love to see it nonetheless.
For my third selection, a movie that seemed to be set up for a sequel, so much so that many critics at the time thought there was one coming. Â The movie is All About Eve and the subject of the sequel would be Phoebe. Â The character of Phoebe shows up at the very end, played by Barbara Bates. Â She seems even more brazen than Eve so you might think a sequel would just be more of the same. Â Well, first off, aren’t they intended to be? Â The bad ones just go through the same motions a second, third, or fourth time but the good ones do give you more of the same by extending the story outwards. Â It’s all conjecture of course but I would guess that, in a sequel, Phoebe would be seen through immediately by Eve but Addison, who would have been replayed by George Sanders, would be intrigued by her unbridled lust for success. Â The conflict would come from Addison purposely and pointedly mentoring both of them, one against the other. Â That is, Phoebe’s success does come at the expense of Eve, as Eve’s did at the expense of Margo, but in unison with it and the two actresses would fight for that Sarah Siddons award, or so we would think. Â Perhaps it could end by a late game reveal that the two had joined forces early on and come up with a plan that destroys Addison. Â I don’t know. Â It’s for a screenwriter to figure out the hows and whys and Joseph L. Mankiewicz was just one such screenwriter. Â I wish he’d done it.
There are probably plenty of good dramas out there that would be well served by an extension of the story. Â Of course, sequels are usually made from action/adventure/sci-fi movies where the characters are easily serialized into ongoing adventures where they can continue to battle on distant worlds, fight dinosaurs, kill sharks, or race really fast and furious cars. Â And I don’t really have a problem with that, honestly, I’d just like some good old dramatic sequels as well. Â Sequels have such a bad rep precisely because they’re usually just easy ways for the studio to cash in on the same action again but there have been many good ones that weren’t about cashing in but telling more of the story. Â From The Road Back to The Godfather, Part II, Hollywood has made serious and revered sequels to critically acclaimed Best Picture winners (All Quiet on the Western Front, The Godfather) or entire trilogies following a single relationship through time (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight). Â It can happen and with the three above, I wish it had. Â Surely there are other movies out there without a sequel that you have wanted to see. Â Which ones are they? Â Maybe, finally, we can get them made.