Photoplay Editions & Movie Tie-Ins
The Golden Years [1912-1969] ... Epic Films

What constitutes an “epic” film?  The answer lies in some combination of a large filming budget, an all-star cast, a need for half-time intermission, a huge box office return, a slew of Academy Awards, and longevity of audience appeal.

Photoplay editions and movie tie-ins have always catered to films of an epic nature.  Many of these books are oversized and contain color stills or some other distinguishing feature to tie-in to the film’s epic stature.  For example, there are several oversized hardcovers for Gone with the Wind containing 12 color stills.

An early silent epic The Birth of A Nation (1915) was directed by D. W. Griffith.   The filming of Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman resulted in a 3 ½ hour story recounting aspects of the Civil War and the period of reconstruction in the southern states.  The Grosset and Dunlop photoplay edition was a big seller with several reprints into the 1930s the latter having only four or no interior stills as opposed to the original eight.  The title has considerable interest today but not necessarily because of the historical significance but also because of a perverse interest in the racist attitudes portrayed in the novel and film.

The 1920s gave us Ben Hur (1925), The Ten Commandments (1923), and The King of Kings (1927 First Edition) all being over two hours in length.  The Ten Commandments (First Edition) had sequences in modern times and Cecil B. DeMille wove two stories together giving us Biblical and contemporary views on morality.  All three of these Grosset and Dunlap editions have wraparound artwork dust jackets.  Ben-Hur is a reprint of jacket art from an earlier Harper Brothers non movie edition.  Before this Grosset reprint, Harper Brothers published a larger deluxe edition that featured sixteen color scenes from the filming of Lew Wallace’s novel.  There are also several British editions for this popular title.  Talking films continued with some religious messages in The Sign of the Cross (1932) another DeMille classic.

1939 has often been referred to as Hollywood’s most productive year.  Some examples include Gone With the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jesse James, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jamaica Inn, Of Mice and Men, Wuthering Heights, and The Wizard of Oz.  Wizard was the top-grossing film at the box office with a $12,000,000 gross, selling 53,000,000 tickets and costing less than three million dollars to produce.  Wikipedia has a list of films with worldwide gross totals adjusted over time for inflation, which has Gone with the Wind (Eight Oscars) leading the pack with over $3.5 billion dollars.  There are some 20 film editions for this film title alone.

Historical backdrops have always provided interesting and visually appealing movies.  Additional examples of epic films that have multiple book tie-ins are the remakes of The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben Hur (1959), and King of Kings (1961).  At present, the 1959 Ben-Hur film is tied at the top having won the most Academy Awards at eleven.  

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1956) had a three-volume set in the Everyman’s Library series by the British firm Dent-Dutton, all with different photo wraparound bands.  This film also produced a Grosset band tie-in, an oversized edition by Frederick Fell, and some assorted paperbacks.

A few more epic examples with some Academy statistics are From Here to Eternity (1953 Eight Oscars), On the Waterfront (1954 Eight Oscars), The Bridge Over the River Kwai (1957 Seven Oscars), Gigi (1958 Nine Oscars), The Alamo (1960 One Oscar), Spartacus (1960 Four Oscars), West Side Story (1961 Ten Oscars), Cleopatra (1963 Four Oscars), Lawrence of Arabia (1962 Seven Oscars), My Fair Lady (1964 Eight Oscars), and Doctor Zhivago (1965 Five Oscars).

Webmaster: webadm@photoplay-edition.com (Bay State Systems)

Last Revision:  June 1, 2021 10:51 AM