Thursday, December 7, 2023

Watch the Trailer for the Lengthy-Misplaced First Movie Adaptation of The Nice Gatsby (1926)


Regardless of being a perennial contender for the title of the Nice American Novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Nice Gatsby has eluded an entirely satisfying cinematic adaptation. The newest such try, now a decade outdated, was primarily a Baz Lurhmann kitsch extravaganza showcasing Leonardo DiCaprio; nor did its predecessors, which put within the title function such basic main males as Robert Redford and Alan Ladd, ever distinguish themselves in a permanent method. However these photos all met with happier fates than the very first Gatsby movie, which got here out in 1926 — only a yr and a half after the novel itself — and appears to not have been seen since.

The primary actor to painting Jay Gatsby on the silver display was Warner Baxter, who would develop into the highest-paid star in Hollywood a decade later (and a fixture of Westerns, crime serials, and different B-movie genres half a decade after that). Within the function of Daisy Buchanan was Lois Wilson, an Alabama magnificence queen turned all-American silent-era starlet (who would later flip director); in that of Nick Carraway, Neil Hamilton, whom tv audiences of the nineteen-sixties would come to know as Batman‘s Commissioner Gordon. However none of The Nice Gatsby‘s casting selections will please the old-Hollywood connoisseur as a lot as that of a younger, pre-Skinny Man William Powell as George Wilson.

“The reckless driving that ends in the dying of Myrtle Wilson serves to deliver out a sterling trait in Gatsby’s character,” New York Occasions critic Mourdaunt Corridor wrote (in 1926) of a memorable scene within the novel that appears to have develop into a memorable scene within the movie. “Powell, whereas not fairly in his factor, offers an unerring portrayal of the chauffeur.” Although Corridor pronounced The Nice Gatsby “fairly leisure” on the entire, he additionally identified that “it might have benefited by extra imaginative route” from Herbert Brenon, who “has succumbed to quite a few bizarre film flashes with out inculcating a lot in the best way of subtlety.”

For Brenon, a prolific auteur who directed no fewer than 5 photos that yr, this criticism might solely have stung a lot. However as later got here to gentle, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald judged this primary adaptation of the novel way more harshly. “We noticed The Nice Gatsby within the motion pictures,” Zelda wrote to their daughter Scottie. “It’s ROTTEN and terrible and horrible and we left.” Solely its trailer survives at this time, and the glimpses it affords give little indication of what, precisely, would have spurred them to stroll out. However now that the unique Nice Gatsby has entered the general public area, any of us might strive our hand at making an adaptation with out having to shell out for the rights. Possibly our interpretations wouldn’t please the Fitzgeralds both, however then, what ever did?

Associated content material:

Free: The Nice Gatsby & Different Main Works by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Gertrude Stein Sends a “Evaluation” of The Nice Gatsby to F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

83 Years of Nice Gatsby E book Cowl Designs: A Photograph Gallery

The Nice Gatsby Is Now within the Public Area and There’s a New Graphic Novel

Haruki Murakami Interprets The Nice Gatsby, the Novel That Influenced Him Most

Revealed: The Visible Results Behind The Nice Gatsby

Based mostly in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and tradition. His initiatives embrace the Substack e-newsletter Books on Cities, the e-book The Stateless Metropolis: a Stroll by way of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles and the video collection The Metropolis in Cinema. Comply with him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Fb.



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