Wikisource:WikiProject Film/Base works

Many films are adapted from or loosely based on works that originated in some paper form, such as novels, short stories, poems, plays, or comic strips. It is important that film transcriptions be worked on, but works that the films are based on should also be completed. Transcriptions of the base work expands our coverage of that film's lore, and can allow some extra context into the film's plot, as well as its writing and production.

Works are marked as "Complete" if there is at least one (full) version that is fully scan-backed, proofread, and transcluded. If they are not, they are marked as "Incomplete" perhaps with notes on the status. If a work is known to be lost it is impossible to transcribe here as such, so it is marked "Lost".

Preferably, only place films released before the year 1978, because they're the only ones likely to go consistently PD within the next century. Also, please do not include multiple films in this list that are adapted from the same book—one at a time please.

Film	Release year	Film status	Original literary work	Base work publication year	Type	Author	Base work transcription status
Alice in Wonderland	1903	Complete	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland	1866	Novel	Lewis Carroll	Complete
A Christmas Carol	1910	Complete	A Christmas Carol	1843	Novel	Charles Dickens	Complete
Frankenstein	1910	Complete	Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus	1818	Novel	Mary Shelley	Complete
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Wizard of Oz The Wizard of Oz The Wizard of Oz	1910 1925 1933 1939	Complete Complete (problematic and needs review) Copyrighted until 2029 Copyrighted until 2035	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	1900	Novel	L. Frank Baum	Incomplete (transcription project)
The Man on the Box The Man on the Box	1914 1925	Incomplete[1] Complete	The Man on the Box	1904	Novel	Harold MacGrath	Incomplete The play (1915) is also extant, which may have also been a basis of the film (start transcription)
Oliver Twist	1922	Complete	Oliver Twist	1867	Novel	Charles Dickens	Complete
Stella Dallas	1925	Complete	Stella Dallas	1923	Novel	Olive Higgins Prouty	Complete
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse	1921	Complete	The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse	1916 (Spanish original) / 1919 (early translation)	Novel	Vicente Blasco Ibáñez	Complete
Don Juan	1926	Incomplete, uploaded to Commons	Don Juan	1824	Poem	George Gordon Byron	Incomplete (transcription project)
Gulliver's Travels	1939	Incomplete, uploaded to Commons	Gulliver's Travels	1726	Novel	Jonathan Swift	Complete
The Squaw Man	1914	Complete	The Squaw Man	1905	Play	Edwin Milton Royle	Incomplete (scan needed) A book based on the play (1906) is extant (start transcription)
The Freshman	1925	Complete	The Emancipation of Rodney	1915	Short story	Harry Charles Witwer	Incomplete (scan needed)[2]
The Fighting Coward River of Romance Mississippi	1924 1929 1935	Complete Copyrighted until 2025 Copyrighted until 2031	Magnolia	1923	Play	Booth Tarkington	Incomplete (scan needed)
Seven Keys to Baldpate	1917	Complete	Seven Keys to Baldpate	1914	Play	George Michael Cohan	Incomplete (start transcription) Play itself is based on the novel (1913) by Earl Derr Biggers, also incomplete: (transcription project)
Ella Cinders	1926	Complete	Ella Cinders	1925—1961	Comic strip	William Marien Conselman and Charles Plumb	Incomplete – series not started The comic strip concept is loosely based on Cinderella, of which several versions exist and are complete
Beau Geste	1926	Incomplete	Beau Geste	1924	Novel	Percival Christopher Wren	Incomplete
The Breath of Scandal	1924	Lost	The Breath of Scandal	1922	Novel	Edwin Balmer	Complete
That Royle Girl	1925	Lost	That Royle Girl	1925	Novel	Edwin Balmer	Complete
The Sea Beast	1926	Incomplete	Moby-Dick	1851	Novel	Herman Melville	Incomplete (transcription project)
The Sorrows of Satan	1926	Incomplete	The Sorrows of Satan	1895	Novel	Marie Corelli	Incomplete (start transcription)
La Bohème	1926	Incomplete (video needed, there exist DVDs)	La Bohème	1896 (original) / 1917 (translation)	Opera	Giacomo Puccini	Incomplete (external scan) The opera itself is based on the book Scenes of Bohemian Life (1851) by French author Henri Murger, translated into English anonymously in 1888. That book is incomplete.
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm	1917	Incomplete	Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm	1903	Novel	Kate Douglas Wiggin	Complete
Down Home	1920	Incomplete	Dabney Todd	1916	Novel	Frank Nash Westcott	Incomplete
The Jazz Singer The Jazz Singer	1927 1952	Copyrighted until 2023 Copyrighted (probably) until 2048	The Jazz Singer	1925	Play	Samson Raphaelson	Incomplete (external scan). The play itself is based on his short story called "The Day of Atonement", published in Everybody's Magazine, January 1922. That short story is incomplete.
The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter	1926 1934	Complete Incomplete	The Scarlet Letter	1850	Novel	Nathaniel Hawthorne	Complete
Jalna	1935	Copyrighted until 2031	Jalna	1927	Novel	Mazo de la Roche	Copyrighted until 2023
Arrowsmith	1931	Copyrighted until 2027	Arrowsmith	1925	Novel	Sinclair Lewis	Complete
Blind Man's Eyes	1919	Lost	The Blind Man's Eyes	1916	Novel	Edwin Balmer	Complete
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ	1925	Complete	Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ	1880	Novel	Lewis Wallace	Complete
Broken Blossoms	1919	Complete	The Chink and the Child	1916	Short story	Thomas Burke	Incomplete (from Limehouse Nights)
Carmen	1915	Complete	Carmen	1845	Novella	Prosper Mérimée	Complete
Daddy-Long-Legs	1919	Complete	Daddy-Long-Legs	1912	Novel	Jean Webster	Complete
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	1920	Complete	Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde	1886	Novella	Robert Louis Stevenson	Complete
Humoresque	1920	Complete	Humoresque	1919	Short story	Fannie Hurst	Incomplete
The Last of the Mohicans	1920	Complete	The Last of the Mohicans	1757	Novel	James Fenimore Cooper	Complete (missing source)
The Lost World	1925	Complete	The Lost World	1912	Novel	Arthur Conan Doyle	Complete
The Penalty	1920	Complete	The Penalty	1913	Novel	Gouverneur Morris IV	Incomplete
The Night Before Christmas	1905	Complete	A visit from St. Nicholas	1826	Poem	Clement Clarke Moore	Complete
The Phantom of the Opera	1925	Complete	The Phantom of the Opera	1911	Novel	Gaston Leroux	Complete
The Prisoner of Zenda	1922	Complete	The Prisoner of Zenda	1894	Novel	Anthony Hope	Complete
The Sheik	1921	Incomplete	The Sheik	1919	Novel	Edith Maude Hull	Complete
The Son of the Sheik	1926	Complete	Sons of the Sheik	1925	Novel	Edith Maude Hull	Incomplete
The Three Musketeers	1921	Complete	The Three Musketeers	1844	Novel	Alexandre Dumas	Incomplete (not scan-backed)
The Count of Monte Cristo The Count of Monte Cristo Monte Cristo	1908 1913 1922	Incomplete (video needed) Incomplete (video needed) Incomplete	The Count of Monte-Cristo	1888	Novel	Alexandre Dumas	Complete
Tom Sawyer	1917	Complete	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	1876	Novel	Mark Twain	Complete
Black Beauty	1921	Incomplete (video needed)	Black Beauty	1877	Novel	Anna Sewell	Complete
Ivanhoe Ivanhoe	1913 1913	Incomplete (video needed)	Ivanhoe (unsourced) Ivanhoe (1820)	1820	Novel	Walter Scott	Complete Incomplete
Jane Eyre	1922	Incomplete (video needed)	Jane Eyre	1847	Novel	Charlotte Brontë	Complete
A Little Princess	1917	Incomplete	A Little Princess	1905	Novel	Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett	Complete
Lord Jim	1925	Incomplete (video needed)	Lord Jim	1899	Novel	Joseph Conrad	Incomplete (not scan-backed)
The Passionate Friends	1922	Incomplete (video needed)	The Passionate Friends: A Novel	1913	Novel	Herbert George Wells	Incomplete
Peter Pan	1924	Incomplete	Peter and Wendy	1911	Novel	James Matthew Barrie	Complete
The Pickwick Papers	1913	Incomplete (video needed)	The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club	1897	Novel	Charles Dickens	Incomplete
The Rescue	1929	Incomplete (video needed)	The Rescue	1920	Novel	Joseph Conrad	Complete (unsourced)
Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe	1902 1927	Incomplete Incomplete (video needed)	Robinson Crusoe	1719	Novel	Daniel Defoe	Complete (unsourced)
Shirley	1922	Incomplete (video needed)	Shirley: a Tale	1849	Novel	Charlotte Brontë	Complete
The Silver Treasure	1926	Incomplete (video needed)	Nostromo	1877	Novel	Joseph Conrad	Incomplete (not proofread)
Treasure Island Treasure Island	1918 1920	Incomplete (video needed) Lost	Treasure Island	1883	Novel	Robert Louis Stevenson	Complete
Greed	1924	Incomplete	McTeague	1899	Novel	Frank Norris	Incomplete
The Bells	1926	Incomplete	The Bells	1871	Play	Leopold David Lewis	Incomplete
America	1924	Incomplete	The Reckoning	1905	Novel	Robert William Chambers	Incomplete
The Plastic Age	1925	Incomplete	The Plastic Age	1924	Novel	Percy Marks	Incomplete
When Knighthood Was in Flower The Sword and the Rose	1922 1953	Incomplete Copyrighted until 2049	When Knighthood Was in Flower	1898	Novel	Charles Major	Incomplete
Seven Chances	1925	Incomplete	Seven Chances	1916	Play	Roi Cooper Megrue	Incomplete
Little Annie Rooney Little Annie Rooney	1925 1931	Complete Incomplete	Little Annie Rooney	1890	Song	Michael Nolan	Incomplete (not scan-backed)
Tess of the Storm Country Tess of the Storm Country	1914 1922	Incomplete Incomplete	Tess of the Storm Country	1909	Novel	Grace Miller White	Incomplete
The Virginian	1914	In progress	The Virginian	1902	Novel	Owen Wister	Complete
The Unholy Three	1925	In progress	The Unholy Three	1917	Novel	Tod Robbins	Complete

Notes

1. The complete film is held in an archive: https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.2662/default.html Digitization needed
2. Witwer sued Harold Lloyd in April 1929 for $2,300,000 over Lloyd's 1925 film The Freshman, claiming that it was "pirated" from Witwer's short story "The Emancipation of Rodney".