Fine Film Both Like and Unlike the Book

What Katy Did from 1999 seems to be the only film adaptation of the famous children's book by Susan Coolidge. Several TV series were based on the story. The book was published in 1872 and possibly set in the 1860s. The movie is set later as a motorcar appears in one scene but is probably still 19th Century. It has numerous similarities to and differences from the book. In the book, Katy is the eldest of six Carr siblings. In the movie there are only four. Second child Clover and youngest child Phil are left out. In the book, Cousin Helen, played in the movie by Megan Follows, is totally wheelchair bound due to a spinal injury. In the movie she can stand but can't walk for any distance due to some illness, possibly a blood disease, so travels with a wheelchair. Instead of making two visits as in the book, Aunt Helen arrives and stays till the end of the movie. Her condition is life-threatening, unlike in the book. Her famous phrase, "School of Pain" from the book never appears in the movie. The book chronicles Katy's mishaps at home and school, while the movie takes place only at home with outings to church and a nearby town. In the movie Katy befriends an alcoholic tramp played by my second favorite actor, Dean Stockwell, who appears periodically. This character is not in the book but is a good excuse to watch Dean Stockwell. All the acting in this film is good. Instead of having two girls as friends as in the book, Katy knows a girl and a boy. In both the book and the movie, Katy accidentally causes her sister Elsie to fall downstairs, then, angry, defies her aunt's orders not to play on a rope swing and has a serious accident. In order to give the movie a happy ending, her recovery is made much more quickly than in the book. (The book perhaps overdid it a bit.) I would highly recommend this as a good family film for all ages, which have become all too rare beginning in the late 1960s.