The Great Gatsby | |
---|---|
1926 Lobby card
|
|
Directed by |
Herbert Brenon Ray Lissner (assistant) |
Produced by |
Jesse L. Lasky Adolph Zukor |
Written by | Becky Gardiner (scenario) Elizabeth Meehan (adaptation) |
Based on |
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald |
Starring |
Warner Baxter Lois Wilson Neil Hamilton Georgia Hale William Powell |
Cinematography | Leo Tover |
Production
company |
|
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date
|
|
Running time
|
80 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language |
Silent film English intertitles |
The Great Gatsby is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Herbert Brenon. It is the first film adaptation of the 1925 novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Warner Baxter portrayed Jay Gatsby and Lois Wilson as Daisy Buchanan.
The film was produced by Famous Players-Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The Great Gatsby is now considered lost.
The screenplay was written by Becky Gardiner and Elizabeth Meehan and was based on Owen Davis' stage play treatment of The Great Gatsby. The play, directed by George Cukor, opened on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre February 2, 1926. Shortly after the play opened, Famous Players-Lasky and Paramount Pictures purchased the film rights for $45,000.
The film's director Herbert Brenon, designed The Great Gatsby as lightweight, popular entertainment, playing up the party scenes at Gatsby's mansion and emphasizing their scandalous elements. The film had a running time of 80 minutes, or 7,296 feet.
Professor Wheeler Winston Dixon, James Ryan Professor of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, made extensive but unsuccessful attempts to find a surviving print. Dixon noted that there were rumors that a copy survived in an unknown archive in Moscow but dismissed these rumors as unfounded.