9 Authors Who Made Terrible Films Of Their Own Books

By Padraig Cotter /

3. Norman Mailer - Tough Guys Don't Dance

American author Norman Mailer€™s last movie Tough Guys Don€™t Dance starred Ryan O€™Neil, playing a man who awakens from a bender to find a severed head in his marijuana stash; so the worst hangover ever basically. It was adapted from one of Mailer€™s weaker books, and is a horrible mishmash of tones; camp and over the top one moment, then dark and bitter the next. The movie is best remembered today for the amazing €œOh man! Oh god!€ scene, where Ryan O€™Neal €“ who was never one of the great actors to start with €“ reads a disturbing letter on a beach and reacts in the most melodramatic way possible. Aside from being funny, it also sums up what's wrong with the movie; the scene was meant to be sad, but Mailer left it in because it made him laugh. O€™Neal apparently never forgave him for this. Tough Guys Don't Dance is also of special significance to Quentin Tarantino; it was the first movie he went to see the night he finished the screenplay for True Romance.