The Great Gatsby

This is a pretty good movie that seems to be lost. It contains possible Alan Ladd's fine performance, and is far better than the vapid 1974 remake with Redford.

This 1949 version was beautifully restored fairly recently but has been hard to find. Here in the US the dvd set is entitled The Great Gatsby Double Pack and costs less than $20. It was thrilling to see the restored version at last! Though this version has its flaws, Alan Ladd creates exactly the Gatsby described by F Scott Fitzgerald. He has that dazzling smile and that intriguing rather opaque personality. This outer persona contrasts with the vulnerable inner Gatsby, again beautifully interpreted by Ladd who seems so natural in the part. None of the other versions have a Gatsby who is so believable. (Toby Stephens perhaps comes closer than the other recent Gatsbys in the year-2000 version also included in this set.)

Unfortunately no version, including this 1949 version, has a completely satisfying Daisy. The only actress I can think of who would have been a perfect fit would be Norma Shearer (assuming a version had been made about 1932-34!) She had a gift for playing glamorous jazz-age debutantes, and she also had the skills to bring out the other sides of Daisy's character.

At the end of the 1949 version a narrator "cleans up" some of the plot elements and re-interprets some of the characters' deeds. It is very odd, obviously connected to the Production Code, and probably a rewrite -- as it does not fit with the original script. (Ditto a brief prologue at the beginning of the film.) Also it is likely Shelley Winters's part was written larger but was left on the cutting room floor. She actually played the part brilliantly, but it was so truncated that only someone familiar with the book and with Shelley Winters's other work would see what the part was meant to be.

So yes, this movie is imperfect but so worth seeing, especially now that it has been restored!

ALAN LADD was the perfect actor for THE GREAT GATSBY, and his performance in this film captures F. Scott Fitzgerald's tragic hero with every nuance, every movement, every hidden torment. Ladd wanted to do this role, although he had his anxieties (as was noted by my friend Geraldine Fitzgerald). Nonetheless, he succeeds splendidly as Gatsby - a definitive characterization that should be seen. Redford had the right stuff, to a large extent, but the Redford-Farrow version is far too overblown with far too many missing, and important, elements in the plot. As for the Ladd version, it is true that Betty Field, a superb actress, was not right for Daisy -- there is far too much intelligence in her interpretation. Nor are Barry Sullivan, Ruth Hussey, and Macdonald Carey altogether satisfactory either. BUT the adaptation is closest to Fitzgerald, and the Ladd, of the later scenes in particular, is a tragic figure - truly reaching the heights of one of America's finest novels. And one that is ageless...

There have been 4 major film adaptations of GATSBY to date. The 1926 silent version made right after the novel was published is currently a lost film. Too bad as, if nothing else, it would have been authentic. That was also the case with this one until a clean print was discovered in 2012. The 1974 version with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow and the 2013 Baz Luhrman/Leonardo diCaprio magnum opus were both mega budget affairs with the former focusing on fashions while the latter overindulged on lavish CGI settings. Both also had inflated running times (1974-143 min, 2013-163 min) that led to pacing problems which made me wish they had ended a lot sooner.

Due to its lesser running time of 91 minutes, this version focuses more on the characters and their interaction with each other which captures the essence of the book better than 1974 or 2013. Wholesale story changes were made due to the Hollywood censors of the day. The Jazz Age was considered to be the epitome of sinful behavior therefore fashions had to be 1940s, Nick and Jordan had to get married, Tom's affair with Myrtle is barely hinted at, and a prologue with religious overtones had to be added,. In spite of all that, the movie works thanks to several committed performances and a tightening of the plot which makes the story easier to follow.

Alan Ladd is an ideal Jay Gatsby as he captures not only his self confident belief that money can buy anything but also his underlying romantic vulnerability that leads to his downfall. Betty Field gives a low key performance as Daisy which makes her sudden breakdown at the end all that more effective. MacDonald Carey is a solid Nick Carraway while Ruth Hussey is just right as Jordan Baker. A young and svelte Shelley Winters is underused as Myrtle but she makes the most of her limited screen time. Top acting honors go to Howard da Silva as George who is both pitiable and surprisingly powerful as he transitions from a sick husband to a vengeful one while Henry Hull's devilish Dan Cody (Gatsby's mentor) is great fun to watch.

As I mentioned at the outset, this first remake was considered lost for years as Paramount removed it and the 1926 film from their vaults to make way for the 1974 release The 1926 version remains lost but this one survived in low quality pirated VHS copies that were later converted to low budget DVDs which even then were hard to come by. The picture quality was soft and the sound a little muffled but that's all there was...until now. Universal, who owns the rights to all pre-1960 Paramount movies, got together with Via Vision Entertainment to produce this officially sanctioned edition that has superior sound and picture quality. Too bad it doesn't come with subtitles. While many others prefer the bigger, longer adaptations, I'll take this one as my preferred version...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

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.