Pride and Prejudice
Short description
In early nineteenth-century England, the Bennet family has five unmarried daughters, and their mother is determined to see them settled with suitable, preferably wealthy husbands. When the eligible Charles Bingley and his friend Fitzwilliam Darcy take up residence nearby, the household is thrown into excitement. Bingley is drawn to the eldest daughter, Jane, while the proud, reserved Darcy quickly clashes with the second-eldest, Elizabeth.
Released in 1940, the film was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, whose earlier work includes The Divorcee, Susan Lenox and The Great Ziegfeld; Ziegfeld Girl followed in 1941. Greer Garson plays Elizabeth and Laurence Olivier plays Darcy, with Mary Boland as Mrs. Bennet, Edna May Oliver as Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane and Ann Rutherford as Lydia. The screenplay was written by Jane Murfin and Aldous Huxley, and Hunt Stromberg produced for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The film holds an IMDb rating of 7.4 from nearly 9,000 votes, a TMDB rating of 6.9 from a much smaller number of votes, and a critics' rating of 7.7 from twelve reviews. The pattern suggests a well-regarded adaptation whose reputation among critics is solid, while general audiences on IMDb rate it slightly higher than the smaller TMDB sample does.
What's left behind the scenes
- It is claimed that costume designer Adrian (1903-1959) asked director Robert Z. Leonard (1889-1068) to set the film in a later period than that described in the source novel, in order to showcase more lavish costumes than those of the author’s described period.
- So many English people were involved in the filming that a tea break precisely at 4 p.m. became a daily ritual.
- According to actress Ann Rutherford (1917-2012), the producers intended to start filming on a specific day, but there was a delay when it turned out that producer David O. Selznick (1902-1965) had used all existing Technicolor film stock for the filming of Victor Fleming (1889-1949), George Cukor (1899-1983), and Sam Wood (1883-1949)'s "Gone with the Wind" (1939). This is why the film features lavish sets and dazzling costumes, but was not shot in color.
- MGM Studios assumed that, unlike the source novel (1813) by Jane Austen (1775-1817), this would be a romantic comedy (whereas 'Pride and Prejudice' was a sharply focused social satire). As a result, scenes with dancing were added to the plot, a key scene unfolding at a manor house was removed, and some of Elizabeth’s pointed remarks were softened.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
