Dante's Inferno | |
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Theatrical poster.
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Directed by | Henry Otto |
Produced by | Fox Film |
Written by |
Edmund Goulding (screenplay) Cyrus Wood (story) |
Based on |
Inferno by Dante Alighieri |
Starring |
Pauline Starke Ralph Lewis Josef Swickard Gloria Grey |
Cinematography | Joseph August |
Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date
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Running time
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60 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language |
Silent English titles |
Dante's Inferno (1924) is a silent film released by Fox Film Corporation, and adapted from Inferno, part of Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy.
The tactics of a vicious slumlord and greedy businessman finally drive a distraught man to commit suicide. The businessman is tried for murder and executed, and is afterward taken by demons to Hell where he will spend the rest of eternity
The UCLA Film and Television Archive has an incomplete print, three reels out of a total of five reels. A print of the film reportedly also survives at the Museum of Modern Art. Some of the original prints of this film had the scenes in hell tinted in red.
This film, like several previous Fox Films such as The Queen of Sheba, A Daughter of the Gods and some Theda Bara films, featured full nudity in some sequences. Actress Pauline Starke is completely nude in the Hell sequences, with the exception of a large flowing black wig that covers her nether regions. Some bit players and extras are fully nude. The different prints of the film were more than likely edited according to the attitudes of the different regions or parts of the world they played in. The film also features popular comic actor Bud Jamison in blackface as a butler; he is easily recognizable under the makeup, and his initial appearance has caused some laughter by knowledgeable film buffs at its occasional screenings.