Alice's Playhouse
In Alice's Playhouse you will discover an exceptional collection of feature films adapted from some of the most celebrated plays ever written. Often featuring towering performances, outstanding direction and exceptional writing, this collection is a superb archive of contemporary drama masterfully transferred to the silver screen.
Filmizations of The Bard's work may be scrolled via the 'Shakespeare' sub-feature in green on the left, along with other notable playwrights who have been adapted for celluloid.
For adaptations of novels and short stories, check the 'Special Interest' link and click on 'Based on...'
Right: Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh relax during the filming of Tennessee Williams' masterpiece, 'A Streetcar Named Desire'.
Forbidden Planet (1956)
7.6/10
Director: Fred M Wilcox
Starring: Robby the Robot, Warren Stevens, Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis
'The best of the science fiction interstellar productions of the fifties', according to Pauline Kael. The action takes place in the year 2257 on the p... Read more
Under Milk Wood (1971)
6.3/10
Director: Andrew Sinclair
Starring: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O'Toole
This film version of a wonderfully evocative radio play weaves a magical tapestry of words around the lives and dreams of the inhabitants of the tiny... Read more
A Good Woman (2004)
6.5/10
Director: Mike Barker
Starring: Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Mark Umbe...
One of Oscar Wilde's most popular plays, 'Lady Windermere's Fan', is moved to '30s New York. Helen Hunt is Mrs Erlynne, the widow living comfortably o... Read more
She's the Man (2006)
6.4/10
Director: Andy Fickman
Starring: Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, Laura Ramsey, Robert Hoffman, Jonathan Sadowski, A...
This contemporary teen take on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night sees Viola (Amanda Bynes) assuming her brother Sebastian's identity so she can play on the... Read more
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
7.2/10
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Tom Ewell, Marilyn Monroe
While Hollywood censors carefully watched the filming of this notoriously racy production, Marilyn was pure perfection as a sexy, yet innocent, starle... Read more
Driving Miss Daisy (1990)
4.5/10
Director: Bruce Beresford
Starring: Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, Dan Aykroyd
The Oscar-winning adaptation of Alfred Uhry's play about a wealthy Jewish widow and her black chauffeur. It covers the period from the late forties th... Read more
The Field (1990)
7.4/10
Director: Jim Sheridan
Starring: Richard Harris, John Hurt, Tom Berenger, Sean Bean
An Irish tenant farmer faces the loss of the land his family has worked for years when it is put upfor auction, and bid on by an American (Tom Berenge... Read more
The Lion in Winter (1968)
8.1/10
Director: Anthony Harvey
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, Peter O'Toole, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Tim...
Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn tear strips off one another in this grand historical drama about 12th Century King Henry II choosing an heir to th... Read more
Throne of Blood (1957)
8.1/10
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura
Kurosawa's version of 'Macbeth' spares no effort in creating an atmosphere of obsessive madness and supernatural compulsion. The black and white contr... Read more
The Libertine (2004)
6.4/10
Director: Laurence Dunmore
Starring: Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton, John Malkovich, Rosamund Pike, Tom Hollander, Kell...
Johnny Depp plays the hedonistic writer John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, close friend of Charles II (John Malkovich) and a notorius figure in 17th cent... Read more