The “perfect” 1950 movie Tom Hanks never wants anyone to remake: “Leave it alone”
Like many other actors, Tom Hanks has starred in a few remakes of well-known and/or popular pictures, and like remakes in general, the quality of them has been all over the map.
He played the lead role in the Coen brothers’ do-over of The Ladykillers, which is the worst movie the siblings have ever made. He also played Gepetto in Robert Zemeckis’ live-action Pinocchio redux, which was a steaming pile of shite, to put it lightly.
A Man Called Ove with Rolf Lassgård became A Man Called Otto with Hanks, but we’ll let him away with that one because it wasn’t too shabby. The shoe has been placed on the other foot, too, with The ‘Burbs becoming a TV series and Laal Singh Chaddha winning praise from the two-time Academy Award winner for being an “extraordinary” spin on Forrest Gump.
With each passing year, the list of films that can be deemed safe from the gnashing jaws of the remake machine grows thinner, and while there are certain untouchable titles that nobody in their right mind would even consider slapping a fresh coat of paint on, much of cinema history remains up for grabs.
There is one particular movie that Hanks never wants to see remade by anyone, least of all him, which is massively ironic in and of itself because the flick he’s dead against any star or filmmaker reinventing for the modern era was, in fact, remade, and it was even headlined by the same name on both occasions.
During a conversation that no doubt got on his tits because he thought he’d left those comparisons behind by the end of the 1980s, Hanks was quizzed on whether or not he’d be interested in following in James Stewart’s footsteps by dragging director Henry Koster’s Harvey into the modern era.
“It’s like saying we’re going to do an updated version of It’s a Wonderful Life. Why?” he countered. “Leave it alone. Harvey is perfect as is, thank you.” Either he’s wilfully burying his head in the sand, or he hasn’t been paying attention, because since Harvey was released in 1950, it’s been remade no less than five times.
In the fourth version, which was also the third remake, a made-for-television feature that premiered in 1972, Stewart reprised his role as Elwood P Dowd two decades later, with the ‘Golden Age’ icon being so dissatisfied with his performance in the original that he wanted to do it again.
It’s alright for Stewart to do it twice, since he originated the part on the big screen and will forever be the one most closely associated with the movie and its main character, but as far as Hanks is concerned, nobody else should even do it once, apart from all the other actors who have, of course.
