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In
the rural village of Meryton in early eighteenth century England, the
arrival of Mr. Charles Bingley, his sister Caroline and Mr. Darcy causes
quite a stir among the mothers of unmarried daughters because both gentlemen
are wealthy bachelors. Among the most enthusiastic is Mrs. Bennet, who
has five eligible daughters and stands to lose Longburn, the family farm, to
her husband's cousin Collins unless a male heir is produced. However,
Mrs. Bennet's eldest daughter Elizabeth, a witty and independent young
woman, is somewhat less impressed upon meeting Mr. Darcy, whom she finds
arrogant and supercilious as he voices his prejudice against the middle
class.
On the other hand, Elizabeth's sister Jane is enchanted by
Charles, who begins to court her, much to the disapproval of Caroline and
Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth's dislike of Darcy is intensified when George
Wickham, a boyhood friend of Darcy's, confides that his old friend has
betrayed him. Elizabeth's opinion of the Bingleys and Darcy seems
justified when Charles breaks Jane's heart by leaving for London without an
explanation.
Elizabeth meets Darcy again when she goes to visit her friend
Charlotte, who has just married Mr. Collins, an employee of Darcy's aunt,
Lady Catherine de Bourgh. At dinner that night, Darcy confides to
Elizabeth that he has fallen in love with her and wants to marry her, but
couches the proposal in condescending terms towards her family, and so
Elizabeth refuses him.
She returns home to find that her sister Lydia has run off
with Wickham and the family is in disgrace. Hearing of the incident,
Darcy offers to help, and confides in Elizabeth that Wickham betrayed his
sister years earlier. Darcy's vulnerability forces Elizabeth to
realize that she has fallen in love with him, but her pride prevents her
from telling him. Just as the Bennets are about to leave town, Lydia
returns with news that she and Wickham are married, thus restoring the
family honor.
As the family rejoices, Lady Catherine appears and, after
ordering Elizabeth never to see Darcy again, informs her that Darcy has paid
Wickham to marry Lydia. Catherine's interrogation clarifies
Elizabeth's love for Darcy, and he returns to her just as Charles returns to
Jane, and all ends happily.
Notes
The film is based on the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
(London, 1813), and the play of the same name by Helen Jerome (New York,
November 5, 1935).
According
to a 1936 DV news item, production on MGM's Pride and Prejudice
was initially scheduled to begin in October 1936 under Irving G.
Thalberg's supervision, with
Clark Gable and
Norma Shearer in the leading roles. Following the death of
Thalberg on September 13, 1936, pre-production activity on the film appears
to have been halted. Trade paper reports of the production's progress
resumed in mid-1937, when HR announced that Shearer wanted MGM to
borrow
Errol Flynn from Warner Bros. to co-star with her. In August 1939,
HR announced that George Cukor would direct
Robert Donat opposite Shearer, and that MGM was considering making the
film in England. The start of the war in Europe in September 1939 soon
caused the closure of MGM's operations in England, however. Cukor,
according to HR, was replaced by Robert Z. Leonard because of a
scheduling conflict with his assignment on
Susan and
God.
A biography of
Laurence Olivier notes that MGM considered pairing
Vivien Leigh and
Clark Gable for the leading roles, based on their success in
Gone With the Wind, and discussed the idea with producer
David O. Selznick. Gable, however, turned down the role of Darcy
because, modern sources note, he felt that he was not suited to the part.
Olivier's biography also indicates that MGM picked
Robert Taylor as its next choice, but Taylor was unavailable after being
cast in
Waterloo Bridge. According to his autobiography, Olivier accepted
the lead role in Pride and Prejudice with the understanding that
Leigh was to be his co-star and that George Cukor would direct. Leigh
wanted the part and tried to convince Cukor to keep her in the film, but the
studio decided to have her co-star with Taylor in
Waterloo Bridge.
An Olivier biography claims that the decision to
replace Leigh was made by MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer, who was allegedly
advised by Selznick to pull her from the film fearing that her affair with
Olivier, who was married to Jill Esmond at the time, would generate unwanted
publicity and harm the film's commercial success. Olivier and Leigh
were married in 1940 after divorcing their respective spouses. In his
autobiography, Olivier is quoted as saying "I was very unhappy with the
picture. It was difficult to make Darcy into anything more than an
unattractive-looking prig, and darling Greer seemed to me all wrong as
Elizabeth."
Although
HR production charts list actors Halliwell Hobbes and Jane Drummond
in the cast, their appearance in the released film has not been determined.
MGM took several liberties with Jane Austen's novel, among them moving the
time period of the story forty years ahead. According to modern
sources, this was done in order to allow for more ornate costumes.
Pride and Prejudice won an Academy Award for Best Black and White Art
Direction. The first dramatization of the Austen novel opened in
London on March 24, 1922 and starred Mary Jerrold, Joyce Carey and Ben
Webster.
Many subsequent stage adaptations of the novel
have been produced, including one directed by Robert Sinclair that opened in
New York on November 5, 1935 and starred Adrienne Allen and Colin
Keith-Johnson, and one entitled First Impressions (Austen's original
title for Pride and Prejudice), directed by Abe Burrows, which opened
in New York on March 19, 1959 with
Polly Bergen and
Farley Granger starring. Although HR reported in October
1947 that MGM producer Arthur Freed was preparing a musical version of the
film, that film was never produced.
There have been many film and television
adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, among them a January 23, 1949 NBC
television network broadcast of a Philco Playhouse dramatization
starring
Madge Evans and John Baragrey; a PBS network five-part Masterpiece
Theater series of Fay Weldon's adaptation of Austen's novel which aired
its first episode on a October 23, 1980 and starred Elizabeth Garvie and
David Rintoul; a 1995 A&E Television Networks Inc. and BBC mini-series
starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle and directed by Simon Langton; an
Indian film titled Bride and Prejudice, directed by Gurinder Chadha
and starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson was released in 2004.
Another adaptation starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen and
directed by Joe Wright was released in 2005. |
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