• Mood: creative

'I Take This'...photoplay

Movie tie-ins with books certainly didn't begin with Harry Potter. Hundreds, if not thousands, of films have been derived from books, including Hollywood classics such as "Ben-Hur," "All Quiet On The Western Front" and "Gone With The Wind." And while Carole Lombard never starred in a film based on a blockbuster book, she did appear in several adaptations of novels. She also had a brief relationship with publisher Horace Liveright after he spent time in Hollywood to find literary properties he had rights to that Paramount could adapt (http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/50074.html).

One of Lombard's book-to-movie adaptations was a film mentioned in yesterday's entry, "I Take This Woman" with Gary Cooper:



That's Carole and Coop in an inverted negative publicity still from the film which is being auctioned at eBay -- the same seller we featured in the recent entry http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/249646.html. (According to the seller, the negative itself is in fine condition; the above was made using a lightboard rather than a scan.) It's being auctioned through just after 9:45 p.m. (Eastern) on Saturday, with bids beginning at $24.99 (none have been made as of yet). To learn more, go to http://cgi.ebay.com/CAROLE-LOMBARD-GARY-COOPER-1931-NEGATIVE-Photo-H174_W0QQitemZ400084043398QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5d26de0686.



"I Take This Woman" was based on a novel, "Lost Ecstasy" by Mary Roberts Rinehart -- and had it not been for her, this pairing of two Hollywood legends might have been forever lost (http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/45444.html). It turns out that Rinehart's novel, with the "I Take This Woman" title, is also being auctioned:



I'm guessing the illustrated cover is a dust jacket for this, not a cover for a separate printing.

Nice, you say, but what has this book to offer a Lombard fan? (Other than imagining her and Cooper as the characters, since even many of Carole's most avid fans have never actually seen this movie.) How about four pictures from the film? Here's one of them:



The book -- which the seller lists in good condition -- comes from Grosset & Dunlap -- yep, the same publishers renowned for the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew juvenile series. (In 1978, it also published Richard Nixon's memoirs. The firm is now part of the British-owned Penguin Group.)

One bid has been made as I write this...for all of $1.99. You would think that with the many Lombard and Cooper fans out there, this would go for much more than that. And it very well may; bidding doesn't close until just after 3:45 p.m. (Eastern) on Sunday. To bid or learn more, go to http://cgi.ebay.com/I-TAKE-THIS-WOMAN-1931-photoplay-Carole-Lombard-Cooper_W0QQitemZ260503773427QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAntiquarian_Collectible?hash=item3ca73c20f3.