<P> In 1924 , Erich von Stroheim attempted a literal adaptation of Frank Norris 's novel McTeague with his moving picture Greed , and the resulting film was 91⁄2 hours long . It was cut , at studio insistence , to four hours , then without Stroheim 's input , cut again to around two hours . The end result was a film that was largely incoherent . Since that time , few directors have attempted to put everything in a novel into a film . Therefore , elision is all but essential . </P>
when was the first book made into a movie
1924