I attempted to summarize the challenge of having Mr. Bradbury's works successfully transferred to the big screen. RB was oten times very disappointed in the approach his tales received when in the hands of less informed screen personnel. The remarks RB offers in the above video makes this quite clear.
This is a precise review of what is needed... Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film SWTWC three-and-a-half stars out of four, and wrote: "It's one of the few literary adaptations I've seen in which the film not only captures the mood and tone of the novel, but also the novel's style. Bradbury's prose is a strange hybrid of craftsmanship and lyricism. He builds his stories and novels in a straightforward way, with strong plotting, but his sentences owe more to Thomas Wolfe than to the pulp tradition, and the lyricism isn't missed in this movie. In its descriptions of autumn days, in its heartfelt conversations between a father and a son, in the unabashed romanticism of its evil carnival and even in the perfect rhythm of its title, this is a horror movie with elegance."[13]
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The link below will take you to another fine scene from the film version of SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, where Mr. Halloway (Jason Robards) goes the Mr. Dark's carnival and enter its Hall of Mirrors:
The laserdisc release of SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES featured an audio commentary track which could be viewed along with the film. The commentators were cinematographer Stephen Durum, special effects consultant Harrison Ellenshaw, and none other than SWTHC author (and screenwriter) Ray Bradbury. That commentary was not included on the DVD release. While I suppose you could sync it up to your viewing of the film on DVD or VHS, the commentary is very interesting on its own, without accompanying the film. To listen to the audio commentary (which runs approximately 95 minutes, or the length of the film), just click on the link below: