The Great Gatsby (1926 film)

The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
	1926 Lobby card
Directed by	Herbert Brenon; Ray Lissner (assistant)
Written by	Becky Gardiner (scenario) ; Elizabeth Meehan (adaptation)
Produced by	Jesse L. Lasky ; Adolph Zukor
Starring	Warner Baxter; Lois Wilson; Neil Hamilton; Georgia Hale; William Powell
Cinematography	Leo Tover
Production; company	Famous Players-Lasky
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	November 21, 1926;
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	Silent film ; English intertitles

The Great Gatsby is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Herbert Brenon. It is the first film adaptation of the 1925 novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Warner Baxter portrayed Jay Gatsby and Lois Wilson as Daisy Buchanan.^[1]

The film was produced by Famous Players-Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The Great Gatsby is now considered lost.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Cast

Warner Baxter as Jay Gatsby
Lois Wilson as Daisy Buchanan
Neil Hamilton as Nick Carraway
Georgia Hale as Myrtle Wilson
William Powell as George Wilson
Hale Hamilton as Tom Buchanan
George Nash as Charles Wolf
Carmelita Geraghty as Jordan Baker
Eric Blore as Lord Digby
Gunboat Smith as Bert
Claire Whitney as Catherine
Claude Brooke - Bit part (uncredited)
Nancy Kelly - Uncredited role

Background and production

The screenplay was written by Becky Gardiner and Elizabeth Meehan and was based on Owen Davis' stage play treatment of The Great Gatsby. The play, directed by George Cukor, opened on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre February 2, 1926. Shortly after the play opened, Famous Players-Lasky and Paramount Pictures purchased the film rights for $45,000.^[5]

The film's director Herbert Brenon, designed The Great Gatsby 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.^[2]

Survival status

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.^[2]

However, 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.^[2] It was featured on the Blu-Ray release of director Baz Luhrmann's 2013 adaptation of The Great Gatsby as a special feature.

References

^ Tredell, Nicolas, ed. (2007). Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: A Reader's Guide. A & C Black. p. 96. ISBN 0-826-49011-5.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Winston Dixon, Wheeler (2003). "The Three Film Versions of The Great Gatsby: A Vision Deferred". Literature Film Quarterly. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
^ The Great Gatsby at silentera.com database
^ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog:The Great Gatsby
^ (Tredell 2007, pp. 94–96)

External links

[1] Tredell, Nicolas, ed. (2007). Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: A Reader's Guide. A & C Black. p. 96. ISBN 0-826-49011-5.

[LFQ-2] Winston Dixon, Wheeler (2003). "The Three Film Versions of The Great Gatsby: A Vision Deferred". Literature Film Quarterly. Retrieved March 9, 2013.

[3] The Great Gatsby at silentera.com database

[4] The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog:The Great Gatsby

[5] (Tredell 2007, pp. 94–96)

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