PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1940) B/W 117m dir: Robert Z. Leonard

w/Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver, Maureen O'Sullivan, Ann Rutherford, Frieda Inescort, Edmund Gwenn, Karen Morley, Heather Angel, Marsha Hunt, Melville Cooper, Edward Ashley, Bruce Lester, E.E. Clive, Vernon Downing, Marjorie Wood, Marten Lamont, May Beatty, Gia Kent

From The Movie Guide: "We may be prejudiced, but MGM can be proud. A remarkable example of Hollywood's not choking on the prestige adorning the filming of a classic, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is an unusually successful adaptation of Jane Austen's most famous novel. Although the satire is slightly reduced and coarsened and the period advanced in order to use more flamboyant costumes, the spirit is entirely in keeping with Austen's sharp, witty portrait of rural 19th century social mores. ...

"The screenplay, by Aldous Huxley and old hand Jane Murfin, retains much of the novel's famous dialogue .... They have also added a few scenes to 'open up' the action a bit; our favorites are the hilarious carriage race and the enchanting archery lesson. The sets and costumes are lovingly rendered, and the cinematography by Karl Freund evokes a glorious sense of period. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE represents the finest directorial work by MGM perennial Robert Z. Leonard. Liked by actors whom he indulged, Leonard generally crafts his work smoothly but it often lacks personality or imagination. Here, however, the pacing is perfect and the details just right. For personality, all one has to do is turn to that amazing cast. Garson never did anything better than her Elizabeth Bennett. Genteel but not precious, witty yet not forced, spirited but never vulgar, Garson's Elizabeth is an Austen heroine incarnate. Olivier, too, has rarely been better in a part requiring the passion of his Heathcliff from WUTHERING HEIGHTS but strapping it into the straitjacket of snobbery. As Mr. Bennett, Gwenn makes a wonderfully wry and composed foil for his wife's antics, and Cooper rarely had the chance to huff and fluff quite so amusingly again."

From the Turner Classic Movies website (www.tcm.com), this article about the film by Rob Nixon:

"Jane Austen's second sharply drawn comedy of manners, Pride and Prejudice (originally titled First Impressions), was published anonymously (a standard practice for female authors in that period) in 1813; some scholars actually place the date of its authorship nearly 20 years earlier. Although sometimes mistaken for a Romantic writer, Austen, in fact, was a keen observer of the social structures of her time, particularly the predicament of unmarried genteel English women in the face of inheritance laws and customs that dictated the bulk of a family's fortune must go to male heirs. Her work was well received in its day and enjoyed praise from such notable writers as Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Macaulay, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Austen was also a favorite of the Prince Regent and her ranking by critics and scholars as one of England's greatest writers has kept her work constantly in the public and academic eye.

"Playwright Helen Jerome specialized in stage adaptations of literary classics. Her version of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre toured in 1936 and 37, with Katharine Hepburn in the lead. A year earlier, her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice ran on Broadway for 219 performances. The theatrical version stayed fairly faithful to Austen's novel, which in its style and structure lent itself readily to dramatization.

"MGM production chief Irving Thalberg originally bought the rights to Jerome's play in January 1936 for $50,000. The book was by then in the public domain and could have been filmed for free. Thalberg, however, felt that the general public was no longer familiar with the book, and hoped to cash in on the publicity generated by the play and its purchase as a possible vehicle for his wife, Norma Shearer. After Katharine Cornell had a great stage success with a revival of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Thalberg shifted his attention to that play as Shearer's next project and the Austen project was temporarily put on a back burner.

"According to Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan, Harpo Marx was the one who suggested to Thalberg that he buy the rights after seeing the play on Broadway.

"While Shearer's name was still attached to the project, MGM announced it would be produced with Clark Gable as Mr. Darcy. With Shearer on a six-month vacation in Europe, the studio handed Jerome's play over to Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason, the husband and wife team that had recently written successful adaptations of Golden Boy (1939) and Stella Dallas (1937). But Thalberg died before the movie went into production, and Shearer was no longer in the running.

"At various times Robert Donat, Robert Taylor and Melvyn Douglas were considered for the role of Darcy. By the time the project was approved for filming, Laurence Olivier was the only one considered for the part. The young British actor had recently established himself in Hollywood with impressive work in Wuthering Heights (1939) and Rebecca (1940).

"Olivier wanted his soon-to-be wife Vivien Leigh as his co-star, a choice supported by director Robert Z. Leonard. Although Leigh had just made a big splash as Scarlett O'Hara, Mayer decided to cast his discovery Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett. Mayer first saw Garson on stage in London and put her under contract. Her first MGM role was as the title character's wife in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), and she made a favorable enough impression on audiences to lead MGM into giving her a big star build-up.

"As many as nine other writers were brought in to work on the script of Pride and Prejudice before MGM hired veteran writer Jane Murfin and famed British novelist Aldous Huxley, who had recently moved to California.

"Huxley was less than hopeful about the outcome, writing to one friend that the task was 'an odd, crossword puzzle job. One tries to do one's best for Jane Austen, but actually the very fact of transforming the book into a picture must necessarily alter its whole quality in a profound way.'

"Scholars analyzing the process of adapting literature to film have noted that Austen's novel, with its absence of metaphorical language in favor of direct clarity of story, its omniscient point of view, and dependency on dialogue to reveal character were all ideally suited to the task of transferring the story to the screen."

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE was awarded an Oscar for Best B&W Art Direction (Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse).