Ken and Robin Consume Media: Films Adapted from Haggard, Heinlein, and Dunsany
June 24th, 2025 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
100 Yards (Film, China, Haofeng Xu & Junfeng Xu, 2023) Resentful, pushed-aside martial artist (Jacky Heung) decides to wrest his late father’s organization from the shady rival (Andy On) who inherited it. Stylized staging and restrained delivery convey distinctly mainland take on the fight for supremacy trope.—RDL
The Door Into Summer (Film, Japan, Takahiro Miki, 2021) Swindled out of his share in the robotics company he helped found and into a cryosleep chamber, a young genius resorts to fringe science to regain what he lost. Glossy romantic beats add feeling to the tricky plotting of its Robert Heinlein source novel.—RDL
It Happened Tomorrow (Film, US, Rene Clair, 1941) Turn of the century reporter (Dick Powell) advances his career and woos a charming mentalist’s assistant (Linda Darnell) when an older colleague starts giving him newspapers from one day in the future. Comedy of the fantastic with a light touch as magical as its subject matter. One of the two feature films ever adapted, in this case extremely loosely, from the work of Lord Dunsany.—RDL
She (Film, US, Lancing Holden & Irving Pichel, 1935) Following in the footsteps of a 16th century ancestor he strongly resembles, a jut-jawed explorer (Randolph Scott) finds a hidden civilization in the Arctic, ruled by a ruthless despot (Helen Gahagan) who has been longing for him for five hundred years. The best adaptation of the H. Rider Haggard fantasy classic features glorious art deco production design and an unforgettable climactic ritual dance sequence.—RDL
The Wedding (Fiction, Gurjinder Basran, 2024) The impending, lavish nuptials of a perfection-seeking bride and checked out groom heighten the tensions between public face and inner self for a large cast of characters from B.C.’s Sikh community. Generous, expansively observed social novel of values both traditional and Instagrammed.—RDL
Good
Phantom (Film, Germany, F. W. Murnau, 1922) Weak-willed clerk with poetic ambitions (Alfred Abel) spirals into degeneracy after a fleeting interaction with a rich young woman sparks an obsessive romantic fixation. Moral drama with expressionistic touches and an early example of the blatantly tacked-on happy ending. Sometimes classified as a fantasy film, due to a couple of symbolic shots that last a few seconds.—RDL
