The Big Sleep. Poster of the 1946 movie and cover of the 1939 book
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The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler, 1939
movie vs book
Howard Hawks, 1946

Private detective Philip Marlowe is summoned to the mansion of General Sternwood, who wants to resolve ‘gambling debts’ that his daughter Carmen owes to bookseller Arthur Geiger. She suspects her father’s true motive for hiring a detective is to find his protégé Sean Regan who had mysteriously disappeared a month earlier.


Key Largo. Poster of the 1948 movie and cover of the 1939 book
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Key Largo
Maxwell Anderson, 1939
movie vs book
John Huston, 1948

Army veteran Frank McCloud arrives at the Hotel Largo in Key Largo, Florida, visiting the family of George Temple, a friend who served under him and was killed in the Italian campaign several years before. Because the winter vacation season has ended and a hurricane is approaching, the hotel has only six guests. The visitors claim to be in the Florida Keys for fishing.


To Have and Have Not. Poster of the 1944 movie and cover of the 1937 book
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To Have and Have Not
Ernest Hemingway, 1937
movie vs book
Howard Hawks, 1944

In the summer of 1940, world-weary Harry Morgan operates a small fishing-boat, the Queen Conch, in Fort-de-France, on the French colony of Martinique. The island is a tinder-box of dissent, harboring many people sympathetic to Free France. At his hotel home, hotel owner Gérard urges Harry to help the French Resistance by smuggling some people onto the island.


Misery. Poster of the 1990 movie and cover of the 1987 book
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Misery
Stephen King, 1987
movie vs book
Rob Reiner, 1990

Famed novelist Paul Sheldon is the author of a successful series of Victorian romance novels featuring a character named Misery Chastain. Wanting to focus on more serious stories, he writes a manuscript for a new novel that he hopes will launch his post-Misery career. Soon after, Annie reads the latest Misery novel, discovers that Misery dies at the end of the book, and flies into a rage.


Murder on the Orient Express. Poster of the 1974 movie and cover of the 1934 book
VS3
Murder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie, 1934
movie vs book
Sidney Lumet, 1974

In December 1935, Hercule Poirot is travelling aboard the Orient Express, encountering his friend Signor Bianchi, a director of the company which owns the line. During the trip, American businessman Samuel Ratchett is found stabbed to death in his cabin. Bianchi entreats Poirot to solve the case.