The Great Gatsby (1926 film)
| The Great Gatsby | |
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 1926 Lobby card |
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| Directed by | Herbert Brenon |
| Produced by | Jesse L. Lasky Adolph Zukor |
| Written by | F. Scott Fitzgerald (novel) Owen Davis (play) Becky Gardiner Elizabeth Meehan |
| Starring | Warner Baxter Lois Wilson Neil Hamilton Georgia Hale William Powell |
| Cinematography | Leo Tover |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 21 November 1926 |
| Running time | 80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
The Great Gatsby (1926) is a silent film adaptation of the novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film was directed by Herbert Brenon, produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky at Famous Players-Lasky, and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is a famous example of a lost film.[1][2]
This was the first filmed version of the novel. Three more films, in 1949, 1974 and 2013, and a television adaptation, in 2000, were to follow.
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Background and production [edit]
The screenplay was written by Becky Gardiner and Elizabeth Meehan and was based Owen Davis' stage play treatment of The Great Gatsby. The play, directed by George Cukor, opened on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre Feb. 2, 1926 and soon after, the film rights were purchased, with F. Scott Fitzgerald receiving US $45,000.
The film was entrusted to a contract Paramount director, Herbert Brenon who designed the film as lightweight, popular entertainment, playing up the party scenes at Gatsby's mansion and emphasizing their scandalous elements. The film had a running time of 80 minutes, or 7,296 feet. No copies of the film are known to survive.[1]
Lost film [edit]
Professor Wheeler Winston Dixon, James Ryan Professor of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, made extensive but unsuccessful attempts to find a surviving print. Dixon noted that there were rumors that a copy survived in an unknown archive in Moscow but dismissed these rumors as unfounded.[1]
It appears, however, that the trailer has survived and is one of the 50 films in the 3-disk boxed DVD set More Treasures from American Film Archives, 1894-1931 (2004), compiled by the National Film Preservation Foundation from five American film archives. It is preserved by the Library of Congress (AFI/Jack Tillmany collection) and has a running time of one minute.[1]
Cast [edit]
- Warner Baxter - Jay Gatsby
- Lois Wilson - Daisy Buchanan
- Neil Hamilton - Nick Carraway
- Georgia Hale - Myrtle Wilson
- William Powell - George Wilson
- Hale Hamilton - Tom Buchanan
- George Nash - Charles Wolf
- Carmelita Geraghty - Jordan Baker
- Eric Blore - Lord Digby
- Gunboat Smith - Bert
- Claire Whitney - Catherine
unbilled
- Nancy Kelly - ? child
References [edit]
- ^ a b c d Winston Dixon, Wheeler (2003). "The Three Film Versions of The Great Gatsby: A Vision Deferred" ([dead link] – Scholar search). Literature Film Quarterly. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- ^ The Great Gatsby at silentera.com database
See also [edit]
External links [edit]
- The Great Gatsby 1 minute trailer of 1926
- The Great Gatsby at the Internet Movie Database
- The Great Gatsby; allmovie.com
- Lobby card for The Great Gatsby
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