Top 10 Remakes of Old Hollywood Movies That Are Better Than the Original

The 1950s were a treasure trove for films detailing science gone wrong providing cautionary tales with wonderful prosthetic monsters. The original spawned the oft-referenced moment where a fly with a human head became trapped in a spider-web. But that body horror was quaint compared to what David Cronenberg would unleash. His twisted vision, combined with improved and grotesque prosthetics turned the cautionary tale into total nightmare fuel. Rather than an instant transformation, the scientist who accidentally combined himself with fly DNA slowly became more and more of a monster over the course of the film. While both versions warned of the relentless march of dangerous sciences in the name of progress the ‘86 film did so with an unforgettable horror show.

This one is a rare example of a classic Hollywood film that was remade only a few years later into yet another classic. Just nine years earlier the film “The Front Page” had faithfully adapted the screwball play of the same name about a pair of newspaper reporters. Director Howard Hawks sought to make his own version, keeping the original’s premise and plot with one major alteration: swapping the gender of the second lead Hildy. With this added wrinkle, editor Walter Burns finds himself not only losing his best reporter to an engagement but also his ex-wife. While both versions were certainly classics and have been preserved by the Library of Congress, the second time around managed to become an enduring cultural touchstone.

Director James Mangold made no secret about being a fan of the iconic Western films and the anti-heroes in them that dominated the American film landscape for three decades. It then should have come as no surprise that his anti-hero film “Logan” served as a loose remake of the classic western “Shane,” following the film’s plot and even quoting the original at several points. To drive the point home “Shane” was even shown being watched by characters in the film. Both movies followed a drifter with a violent past protecting a child from a dangerous gang however, “Logan'' updated the group of gunmen to superpowered cyborgs. Logan’s final fate mirrored Shane’s leading the young Laura to quote the latter in a touching farewell to Wolverine.

Hollywood loved this story of a young ingénue and her relationship with a self-destructive alcoholic star whose best days were behind him. They loved the story so much in fact that the 2018 version was the fourth time they had made the film. The original was released in 1937, starring starlet Janet Gaynor and immediately became a massive success grabbing Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Actress, Actor, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. Remakes in 1954, and 76 helped keep it in the public consciousness but the one that really knocked our socks off came in 2018 with Lady Gaga and Bradly Cooper. That film which also nabbed acting, actress, and picture nods stung with a harsh bittersweetness that made audiences cry. But also cheer when it took home the Oscar for its heartbreaking song “Shallow.”

By 1969, the days of Westerns dominating the film landscape and old Hollywood as a whole was at its end. “True Grit” represented the end of an era when larger-than-life characters played by John Wayne would ride into a sleepy town and save the day. Fast-forward forty years and the Coen brothers, masters of intense and personal character pieces, had helmed the remake. Their take sought to be more faithful to the 1968 book on which both films were based, which was told from the perspective of the young girl Mattie Ross. While Jeff Bridges was spectacular as the over-the-hill lawman, newcomer Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie was the true heart of this spectacular retelling.

Making a remake, especially of a classic, could prove to be a tightrope walk. Depart too much from the original and you’d lose what made it great. On the other hand, a shot-for-shot remake would seem redundant and wholly unnecessary. Sabrina, however, perfectly walked that line, keeping much of the charm from Billy Wilder’s 1954 version but updating enough for modern sensibilities. Replacing Wilder was no small task but academy award winning director Sydney Pollack was up to it. The same could be said for stars Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn but the legendary Harrison Ford and underrated Julia Ormond more than delivered, providing a joyous experience for both fans of the original and newcomers alike.

Released at the height of the Western film craze in 1957, the first adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s short story “Three-Ten to Yuma” was unquestionably a fantastic example of the genre. However, much like the film stock that it was shot on, the characters existed largely in black and white. The updated version not only presented a film with modern sets and action, but more importantly made its central figures much deeper and more complex characters. Rather than being a singularly righteous character Christian Bale turned the hero Dan Evans into a broken man desperate to prove he wasn’t a coward. Similarly, as the villain, Russell Crowe plays a violent man with hidden vulnerabilities yet capable of true kindness.

1951’s “The Thing From Another World” played on the audience of the time’s fears stemming from the Cold War with uncertainty over the USSR and their nuclear arsenal living in many hearts. That film used an unknowable “vegetable” alien to stand in for that fear of “the other,” but John Carpenter’s remake took things a step further. Like in the original novella “The Thing” was an alien that was able to change into any lifeform it encountered. The paranoia was no longer of a strange and unknowable entity, but of one another. While the original ended with the scientists working together, the remake saw them turn on each other one by one, proving that we could never trust or know anyone.

The Rat Pack, which included singers like Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra, made a number of films in their hometown Las Vegas. Many of those, including the heist film “Ocean's 11” were seen as fun, but not particularly memorable. Like the original, the remake featured a star-studded cast pulling off an intricate casino heist, but improved upon it greatly with the signature style of director Steven Soderbergh. The remake’s clever dialogue, sleek direction, and inventive heist that kept the audience guessing right till the end, all set against the neon lights of Vegas, made for an unforgettable flick.

The original Universal monster movies were icons of their time, and the Boris Karloff vehicle “The Mummy” released in 1932 was no exception. The film struck a chord with audiences with its plot involving the mummy Imhotep’s curse and his desire to resurrect his dead lover. The modern version kept those elements, but replaced its slow by modern standards pace with wall-to-wall action and thrills. By preserving its original 30s setting the film was able to become a historical adventure film. That along with the crackling chemistry of leads Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz earned it a place as an endlessly rewatchable supernatural action film with loads of heart.