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USA 1949
Directed by
Elliott Nugent
92 minutes
Rated M

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
2 stars

Great Gatsby, The (1949)

This mid-budget studio-era adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic Roaring Twenties novel is far from being impressive but given that we know the subsequent 1974 and 2013 marquee productions it looks particularly like a poor relation.

The plot and characters are pretty much the same and the giant billboard advertising the services of Dr T.J. Eckleburg hovers over the doomed players but the script, based on a stage version of Fitzgerald’s novel by Owen Davis is an overly dutiful rendering of the original text (including a couple of illustrative flashbacks creating Gatsby/Gatz’s backstory) whilst studio journeyman Elliott Nugent’s direction only manages to bring out its stilted qualities.

If the production lacks much in the way of Jazz Age glamour, so well realized in the later versions, much of the problem is with the casting. Tyrone Power was originally set to star with Gene Tierney but Tierney was dropped (apparently for being too beautiful!) and Power pulled out. The result seems to have been an across-the-board cut in budget. In his place Alan Ladd, never the most compelling of actors is at best serviceable as the tragic hero whilst as Daisy, Betty Field is unremarkable. Much the same can be said for Ruth Hussey as Jordon Baker and  Barry Sullivan as Tom Buchanan. A wooden Macdonald Carey as Nick Carrawy looks older than Gatsby and whoever thought that Elisha Cook Jr would serve as Klipspringer should have been put on canteen duties although his presence does reinforce the film noirish tone of the production.  A youthful Shelley Winters appears as Myrtle Wilson.

Jazz buffs will appreciate brief appearances by Peggy Lee with Dave Barbour and his quintet, Georgie Kaye, Tip, Tap and Toe and Jimmy Dorsey and his band.

The Great Gatsby 1949 is of interest as part of the artistic legacy of Fitzgerald's novel but much less so as a stand-alone drama.

Available from: Viavision

 

 

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