The Great Gatsby (1949)

In this "adaptation" of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, a Jazz Age bootlegger learns the hard way about the wages of sin.

Director:

Elliott Nugent

Writers:

F. Scott Fitzgerald (novel), Owen Davis (play),

Stars:

Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Macdonald Carey

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alan Ladd	...	Jay Gatsby
Betty Field	...	Daisy Buchanan
Macdonald Carey	...	Nicholas 'Nick' Carraway
Ruth Hussey	...	Jordan Baker
Barry Sullivan	...	Tom Buchanaan
Howard Da Silva	...	Wilson
Shelley Winters	...	Myrtle Wilson
Henry Hull	...	Dan Cody
Ed Begley	...	Myron Lupus
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Klipspringer
Nicholas Joy	...	Drunken Guest at Party
Walter Greaza	...	Kinsella
Tito Vuolo	...	Mavromichaelis
Ray Walker	...	Real Estate Man
Diane Nance	...	Pamela

Storyline

Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifetyle of his landlord, the nouveau riche Jay Gatsby. He is drawn into Gatsby's circle, becoming a witness to obsession and tragedy.

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Plot Keywords:

tragedy | obsession | bootlegger | jazz age | flamboyance | 

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Taglines:

A Great Cast... A Great Novel... A Great Motion Picture

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 July 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

Le prix du silence

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Howard Da Silva also appeared in the 1974 film version of The Great Gatsby as the gangster Meyer Wolfsheim.

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Connections

Version of The Great Gatsby (2000)

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Soundtracks

"You Set Me Free"
(uncredited)
Music by Charles Rosoff
Lyrics by Gus Kahn

User Reviews

Best version to date

This is the second film version of the novel. I have not viewed the 1926 version, but since it is a silent film, and the novel is so chatty, I can hardly think it captures Fitzgerald's vision. The 1974 (3rd) version suffers from two or three problems that overwhelm the lovely props and costumes - an abysmal score, the debatable effect of Redford's grin, and casting mousy Mia Farrow as money-voiced Daisy - a role she cannot fill. Sam Waterson and Bruce Dern are well cast but then mostly have to stand around rather than play off their contrasting physical types. Karen Black perfectly embodies the excess vitality that motivates Tom's adultery. The 2000 A&E/Granada (4th) version comes closer with a more believable Daisy (Mira Sorvino) and an equally everyman Nick (Paul Rudd), but not a better Jay, and then focuses too much on the furniture of Gatsby's criminal activities. It boasts a real Owl Eyes, too. The 1949 version is not perfect either; we can only hope the 2012-oops!-2013 version finally nails it. The '49 version casts Nick as a bit of a dull boy, and fails most by insisting on "squaring" everything, losing in the process the essential melancholy, unfulfilled longing, and insulted morality of the novel. Perhaps it's an artifact of the period, America embracing a sanitized Freudian relativism, putting the Second WW behind it like the First, but this time too sober to try anything like the Roaring 20s. Betty Field is a convincing Daisy, though she falls pretty far from a Louisville débutante. Jordan is not nearly arch enough, Tom not nearly imposing enough. And Dr. TJ Eckleburg...well Gatsby's henchman can't resist explicating a symbol the audience should be allowed to figure out for itself. After an unsteady start, the pace of the film proceeds very well through most of the scenes of the novel, sadly failing to give Shelley Winters the screen time to better develop her Myrtle Wilson. And here's Howard da Silva suitably muted as Wilson, Ed Begley too muted as "Lupus"(Wolfsheim), and Elisha Cook, Jr in an expanded Klipspringer role. In fact, it's almost as if the film makers wanted to write Nick out and replace him with Klipsringer, but didn't dare. They should have, because Cook brings more to the screen than Macdonald Carey. All in all, a very workmanlike adaptation, making use of much of the novel's narration by transforming it into passable dialog, and though the shot composition is a bit straight-on, the camera-work is strong and the editing spot on.