The Bonfire of the Vanities was a bestseller.

The movie, well, not so much.

It was a mess from the beginning.

Tom Wolfe’s book was identified with the excesses of the 80s.

The movie, well, pretty much the same thing.

The big problem is that the book doesn’t have a likable or even sympathetic character. It’s about Wall Street bond trader Sherman McCoy getting lost in the unfamiliar Bronx after sleeping with his mistress Maria Ruskin. On his way back to his safe home, he hits a young black man named Henry Lamb. British journalist Peter Fallow and black religious and political icon Reverend Bacon use the comatose boy for their own financial and personal reasons as McCoy struggles to save what’s left of his life.

Sherman McCoy should not be anyone that we like and he should not be played by Tom Hanks. Nor should Peter Fallow be Bruce Willis. And when the studio realized that there wasn’t a single heroic black character — Wolfe’s book had been derided for its racism many times — so they made Judge Kovitsky into Judge White and got Morgan Freeman to play him.

What’s even wilder is that De Palma allowed author Julie Salamon to follow him on the set and gave her unlimited access. Did he know that this would be a flop? Or was he excited to share the world of making films? Her book The Devil’s Candy goes deep to break down everything that went bad.

Oh the problems, from Melanie Griffith showing up with new breasts ruining a lot of continuity to Bruce Willis telling other actors how they should play their scenes, often at the expense of De Palma. But even though it was a rough shoot, the studio still thought it was going to be a hit. It tested well, it did better with reshoots and then it made $15 million on a $47 million budget.

Salamon told The Guardian that the book was the end of her movie critic career. “For me personally, writing about Bonfire really was the beginning of the end of my career as a film critic, because after spending the time, day in and day out for almost a year watching this process, I found it harder and harder to write negative film reviews.”

Leonard Maltin gave it a BOMB rating but hey, I’m sure that De Palma could not give a shit. He’s always maintained that he was making his version of the story and if you want the book, read the book. He owes up to the mistakes he made, but it certainly didn’t end his directing career.