| Pride and Prejudice | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Robert Z. Leonard |
| Produced by | Hunt Stromberg |
| Screenplay by | Aldous Huxley Helen Jerome Jane Murfin |
| Based on | Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen |
| Starring | Laurence Olivier Greer Garson Maureen O'Sullivan Edna May Oliver Mary Boland Edmund Gwenn |
| Music by | Herbert Stothart |
| Cinematography | Karl Freund |
| Editing by | Robert Kern |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | July 26, 1940 |
| Running time | 117 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,437,000[1] |
| Box office | $1,001,000 (Domestic earnings)[1] $848,000 (Foreign earnings)[1] |
Pride and Prejudice is a 1940 film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel of the same name. Robert Z. Leonard directed, and Aldous Huxley served as one of the screenwriters of the film. It is adapted specifically from the stage adaptation by Helen Jerome in addition to Jane Austen's novel. The period of the film is later than that of Austen's novel, a move motivated by a desire to use more elaborate and flamboyant costumes than those from Austen's time period. The film is relatively faithful to the novel; however, the confrontation near the end of the film between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth Bennet was radically altered, changing DeBourgh's haughty demand that Elizabeth never marry Darcy into a hoax to test the mettle and sincerity of Elizabeth's love. In the novel, this confrontation is an authentic demand motivated by Lady Catherine's classism.
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Mrs. Bennet (Mary Boland) and her two eldest daughters, Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) and Elizabeth (Greer Garson), are shopping for new dresses when they see two gentlemen and a lady alight from a very expensive carriage outside. They learn that the men are Mr. Bingley (Bruce Lester), who has just rented the local estate of Netherfield, and Mr. Darcy (Laurence Olivier), both wealthy, eligible bachelors, which excites Mrs. Bennet. After leaving to collect her other daughters, the Bennets return home, where Mrs. Bennet tries to make Mr. Bennet see Mr. Bingley, but he refuses, having already made his acquaintance.
At the next ball, Elizabeth sees how proud Mr. Darcy is when she overhears him refusing to dance with her, and also meets Mr. Wickham, who tells Elizabeth how Mr. Darcy did him a terrible wrong. When Mr. Darcy does ask her to dance with him, she refuses, but when Mr. Wickham asks her right in front of Darcy, she accepts.
The Bennets' cousin, Mr. Collins, who will inherit the Bennet estate upon the death or Mr. Bennet (Melville Cooper), arrives, looking for a wife, and decides that Elizabeth will be suitable. At ball held at Netherfield, he keeps following her around and won't leave her alone. Mr. Darcy surprisingly helps her out, and later asks her to dance. After seeing the reckless behaviour of her mother and younger sisters however, he leaves her again, making Elizabeth very angry with him once more. The next day, Mr. Collins asks her to marry him, but she refuses point blank. He then goes and becomes engaged to her best friend, Charlotte Lucas (Karen Morley).
Elizabeth visits Charlotte in her new home. There, she is introduced to Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Edna May Oliver), and also encounters Mr. Darcy again. Later, he asks her to marry him, but she refuses, partly due to the story Wickham had told her about Darcy depriving him of his rightful fortune, and also because she has just learned that he broke up the romance between Mr. Bingley and Jane. They get into a heated argument and he leaves.
When Elizabeth returns to Longborn, she learns that Lydia has eloped with Wickham. Mr. Darcy visits her and tells her that Wickham will never marry Lydia. He reveals that Wickham had tried to elope with his then 15-year-old sister, Georgiana. After he leaves, Elizabeth realizes that she loves him, but believes he will never see her again because of Lydia's disgraceful act. Lydia and Wickham return married to the house. Later, Lady Catherine visits and reveals that Mr. Darcy found Lydia and forced Wickham to marry her. Darcy reappears, and he and Elizabeth proclaim their love for each other. The movie ends with a long kiss between Elizabeth and Darcy, with Mrs. Bennet spying on them and seeing how her other daughters have found good suitors.
The film was critically well received. Bosley Crowther in a 9 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." [2]. TV Guide, commenting upon the changes made to the original novel by this adaptation, calls the film "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." The reviewer 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." Mary Boland gives one of her most brilliant comedic performances (certainly on par with her performance in The Women). [3]
The film received an 88% rating from Rotten Tomatoes (7 fresh and 1 rotten reviews). [4]
However among aficionados of Jane Austen's original novel, this movie adaptation is notorious for drastically diverging from the novel in a number of ways (most prominently in its treatment of the Darcy and Lady Catherine de Bourgh characters) and being excessively "Hollywoodized" — and for putting the women in clothes based on the styles of the late 1820s and the styles of the 1830s which were quite different from the Regency styles appropriate to the novel's setting.
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