Pride and Prejudice (1940 film)

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Pride and Prejudice
Original film poster
Directed by	Robert Z. Leonard
Produced by	Hunt Stromberg
Written by	Jane Austen Aldous Huxley Helen Jerome Jane Murfin
Starring	Laurence Olivier Greer Garson
Music by	Herbert Stothart
Cinematography	Karl Freund
Editing by	Robert Kern
Distributed by	MGM
Release date(s)	26 July 1940
Running time	117 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) has been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations. This classic Hollywood version was released in 1940. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, Aldous Huxley served as one of the screenwriters on the production.

1 Cast and crew
2 Reactions
3 Awards
4 External links

[edit] Cast and crew

Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet
Laurence Olivier as Fitzwilliam Darcy
Mary Boland as Mrs. Bennet
Edna May Oliver as Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane Bennet
Ann Rutherford as Lydia Bennet
Frieda Inescort as Caroline Bingley
Edmund Gwenn as Mr. Bennet
Karen Morley as Charlotte Collins
Heather Angel as Kitty Bennet
Marsha Hunt as Mary Bennet
Melville Cooper as Mr. Collins

[edit] Reactions

The film was critically well received. Bosley Crowther in a 09 August 1940 review for the New York Times described the film as "the most deliciously pert comedy of old manners, the most crisp and crackling satire in costume that we in this corner can remember ever having seen on the screen." Crowther also praised casting decisions and noted of the two central protagonists, "Greer Garson is Elizabeth—"dear, beautiful Lizzie"—stepped right out of the book, or rather out of one's fondest imagination: poised, graceful, self-contained, witty, spasmodically stubborn and as lovely as a woman can be. Laurence Olivier is Darcy, that's all there is to it—the arrogant, sardonic Darcy whose pride went before a most felicitous fall." [1]. TV Guide, commenting upon the changes made to the original novel by this adaptation argues that the film was, "an unusually successful adaptation of Jane Austen's most famous novel. Although the satire is slightly reduced and coarsened and the period advanced in order to use more flamboyant costumes, the spirit is entirely in keeping with Austen's sharp, witty portrait of rural 19th century social mores." This review also comments upon the cast, stating "Garson never did anything better than her Elizabeth Bennet. Genteel but not precious, witty yet not forced, spirited but never vulgar, Garson's Elizabeth is an Austen heroine incarnate. Olivier, too, has rarely been better in a part requiring the passion of his Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights but strapping it into the straitjacket of snobbery." [2]