Book into film

Whenever a film is adapted from a favorite novel, serious readers of fiction are prone to say, "Yeah, but the book is better."

That's from an interesting discussion of the comparative resources of books and movies. Some novels I've read that were definitely better as novels than the movies based on them were as movies:

Catch-22, A Clockwork Orange, Enduring Love, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Great Gatsby, High Fidelity, The Human Stain, 1984, Schindler's List, Slaughterhouse 5, A Stir of Echoes, The Trial.

Some novels I've read where maybe the movies based on them were as good as movies as the novels they were based on were as novels:

The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Grapes of Wrath, Great Expectations, The Night of the Hunter, Spartacus, The 39 Steps, The Young Lions.

At the moment I can think of only one movie I like much better as a movie than I like the book that it is based on as a book: Shane.

YMMV. But do you like the strudel better as a strudel than you like the apple and stuff, as an apple and stuff, from which the strudel is made? Please send answers on a postcard to anyone you want.