It's all about the Intro

Script Cards are nice and all, but use them wisely.

In other words, don't take one of the most interesting parts of the story, and then just show a couple of text cards about it.

I loved Hawthorne's introductory chapter. It captured my imagination and drew me into the story. And really, isn't that also what the first ten minutes of a film are supposed to do? They always tell us to show, don't tell. Well, the creators of this film version of the House of the Seven Gables tell. Then after telling, they dream up what might have happened thirty years before the beginning of the novel. And they get it all wrong.

I would have started the film with visuals of Matthew Maule's modest home by Maule's well. I would then have shown Colonel Pyncheon, the accusations, the hanging, the tearing down of Maule's home, the building of the Colonels. The curse of Maule could have been the final sequence in the montage. But no. Insead, they show nothing at all.

And yes. This is only the beginning of diversions from Hawthorne's vision.

WC: 185