A film worth being made is worth being made again, or so it seems. There are of course great stories by Dickens and Shakespeare and others that just ask to be redone, and audiences enjoy watching actors like Kenneth Branagh updating roles previously made famous by greats such as Sir Laurence Olivier. But most remakes are newer takes on well-known films that have a proven track record at the box office. Or not.

With almost 10,000 DVD titles, we have quite a few remakes in our collection. When a remake is released, we like to have the original(s) in the collection for borrowers to compare versions. This sometimes creates confusion. For example, when Daniel Craig debuted as 007 in Casino Royale in 2006, we saw an uptick in requests for Peter Sellers’ 1967 film of the same name. Some borrowers were no doubt disappointed, since the 1967 film was a spoof of the Bond genre, and not considered by purists as a Bond film. Reserves for Michael Rennie’s The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) surged with the release of the remake in 2008, as did the 1953 film War of the Worlds when Tom Cruise’s remake hit our shelves. Again, borrowers reserving this from home may have inadvertently grabbed the wrong title, a black and white film which I hope they enjoyed nonetheless.

Recently we’ve added two original films to complement remakes that just came out. The first is The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3. The 2009 remake pits NYC cop Denzel Washington against hostage taker John Travolta. The original 1974 release stars Walter Matthau struggling to outwit a depraved criminal deftly played by Robert Shaw. Conventional wisdom says the original is better, but you be the judge.

The other new release, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, is not technically a remake, but rather a film inspired from Italian director Enzo Castellari’s 1978 film Inglorious Bastards. Castellari’s film starred lesser known American leads (Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson, Ian Bannen) in a sensational, over-the-top, Dirty Dozen-like adventure film produced for European audiences. Tarantino so loved the film, which he first saw on late night TV many years after its release, that he took the title (slightly altered) for his Oscar-nominated film. Bo Svenson is no Brad Pitt and the plots of these films are quite different, but you can see elements in the 1978 "Bastards" film that influenced Tarantino. The original also has a interview with both directors that is worth seeing for fans of either film.

Here are a few more originals and remakes that you might enjoy:

Cheaper by the dozen (1950 and 2003)
Hairspray (1988 and 2007)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962 and 2004)
The Producers (1968 and 2005)

But remember: when you reserve from home, make sure you pick the right film!