The many Jean Valjeans, Inspector Javerts
Victor Hugo’s novel “Les Miserables” has been adapted countless times and has even been credited as the underpinning of the TV series “The Fugitive” and “Kung Fu.”
With a new music-less version coming to PBS on April 14 — with Dominic West and David Oyelowo as adversaries Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert — it’s worth looking back at some of the notable ways that Hugo’s 1862 epic of revolution, class, criminal justice and women’s oppression has been adapted as entertainment. 1934: French director Raymond Bernard was the first to bring Hugo’s story to moviegoers with Harry Baur as Jean Valjean and Charles Vanel as Javert. At 41⁄2 hours, it’s the longest and most faithful in detail to the original novel.
1935: The film “Les Miserables,” directed by Richard Boleslawski, starred Fredric March in the dual roles of Jean Valjean and Champmathieu, with Charles Laughton as Inspector Émile Javert. Right out of the gate, it was a story that captured Hollywood’s attention with four Academy Award nominations, including best picture. 1937: A year before his Mercury Theatre on the Air, the radio series created by Orson Welles, who starred as Valjean, was an early example of the “first person singular” style for which Welles became known. 1952: “All Quiet on the Western Front” director Lewis Milestone brought this version of Hugo’s story to the big screen in an adaptation that deviated from the novel — Cosette and Marius, for instance, are reduced to bit players while the focus stays on Valjean (Michael Rennie) and Javert (Robert Newton).
1958: Called one of the first French blockbusters, the film from director Jean-Paul Le Chanois was shot in East Germany.
1978: A TV adaptation for CBS starring Richard Jordan and Anthony Perkins.
1980: The musical that all these decades later is still in production, started as a concept album by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonbergh and premiered onstage in Paris.
1995: Director Claude Lelouch brings the story into the 20th century with Jean-Paul Belmondo playing, as Time reviewer Kevin Thomas described, “an illiterate ex-boxer turned furniture mover who becomes obsessed with the legend of Jean Valjean.”
1998: Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman and Claire Danes starred in the condensed but well-regarded Billy August film. 2000: Gérard Depardieu as Valjean and John Malkovich as Javert starred in a miniseries version of “Les Miserables” for French TV. An English-language version of the production aired on the Fox Family Channel. 2012: Winning three of the eight Oscars for which it was nominated — including supporting actress for Anne Hathaway’s Fantine — the Tom Hopper-directed film had an all-star cast with Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen.