Tonight's Saturday Night Cinema feature is Pride and Prejudice. My kingdom for a great love story! You know they destroy me. And this is one of the very best. I am a huge Austen fan. If you still haven't read this book, stop depriving yourself of this rare jewel.
I have yet to see a bad screen adaptation of Austen's classic "Pride and Prejudice." The 2005 remake with Keira Knightley was superb. It really took my breath away; it was brilliantly done. This stars Greer Garson and Sir Laurence Olivier. How wonderful. Old movie aficionados will enjoy it enormously. I cannot believe I unearthed this classic. Get the popcorn and the dry white :)
New York Times review excerpt from 1940:
It isn't often that a cast of such uniform perfection is assembled. Greer Garson is Elizabeth—"dear, beautiful Lizzie"—stepped right out of the book, or rather out of one's fondest imagination: poised, graceful, self-contained, witty, spasmodically stubborn and as lovely as a woman can be. Laurence Olivier is Darcy, that's all there is to it—the arrogant, sardonic Darcy whose pride went before a most felicitous fall. Mary Boland is a completely overpowering Mrs. Bennet, a silly but determined mother hen to a brood of exquisitely fluffy chicks, which includes Maureen O'Sullivan, Ann Rutherford and Heather Angel. And Edmund Gwenn, Edna Mae Oliver, Frieda Inescort and Bruce Lester do handsomely in their respective roles. Only Melville Cooper as Mr. Collins and Marsha Hunt as Mary Bennet permit their characterizations to degenerate into burlesque. Robert Z. Leonard's direction is the touchstone.
Pictures played in costume often have an artificial air. But for pure charm and romantic diversion, for bubbling and wholesome life, we most heartily recommend this exquisite comedy about the elegant young gentleman who was proud and the beautiful young lady who was prejudiced. Both are as real as any two young people you know today.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, from a screen play by Aldous Huxley and Jane Murfin; based on the dramatization of Jane Austen's novel by Helen Jerome; directed by Robert Z. Leonard; produced by Hunt Strombereg for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. At the Music Hall.
Elizabeth Bennet . . . . . Greer Garson
Mr. Darcy . . . . . Laurence Olivier
Mr. Bennet . . . . . Mary Boland
Lady Catherine de Bourgh . . . . . Edna May Oliver
Jane Bennet . . . . . Maureen O'Sullivan
Lydia Bennet . . . . . Ann Rutherford
Miss Bingley . . . . . Frieda Inescort
Mr. Bennet . . . . . Edmund Gwenn
Charlotte Lucas . . . . . Karen Morley
Kitty Bennet . . . . . Heather Angel
Mary Bennet . . . . . Marsha Hunt
Mr. Bingley . . . . . Bruce Lester
Mr. Wickham . . . . . Edward Ashley
Mr. Collins . . . . . Melville Cooper
Mr. Denny . . . . . Marten Lamont
Sir William Lucas . . . . . E. E. Clive
Mrs. Phillips . . . . . May Beatty
Lady Lucas . . . . . Marjorie Wood
Click below to view the film:
