| The Great Gatsby | |
|---|---|
1926 theatrical poster |
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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]
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This was the first filmed version of the novel. Two more films, in 1949 and 1974, and a television adaptation, in 2000, were to follow.
This version was based on the stage play by Owen Davis, adapted from the novel, which was directed by George Cukor and opened on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre on Feb. 2, 1926. F. Scott Fitzgerald received US $45,000 for the film rights. The film was entrusted to a contract Paramount director, Herbert Brenon, and the screenplay to Becky Gardiner and Elizabeth Meehan, who supplied the adaptation.
The cast featured Warner Baxter as Jay Gatsby, Lois Wilson as Daisy Buchanan, Neil Hamilton as Nick Carraway, Georgia Hale as Myrtle Wilson, and William Powell as George Wilson.[1]
The film had a running time of 80 minutes, or 7,296 feet, and was designed as lightweight, popular entertainment, playing up the party scenes at Gatsby's mansion and emphasizing their scandalous elements.[1]
No copies of the film are known to survive.[1]
Professor Wheeler Winston Dixon, James Ryan Professor of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, made extensive but unsuccessful attempts to find a copy. 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 called 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]
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