A fascinating movie that was hard to see for a long time, which was a shame because there were plenty of good things about it and it was a decent enough 40s Hollywood attempt to tackle F Scott Fitzgerald. It was a passion project for writer-producer Richard Maibaum who had made OSS with Alan Ladd and became convinced he was just the guy to bring Gatsby to life - and you know what he was right. Ladd is very well cast as an insecure guy with a ruthless streak who could become a gangster and pine after a long lost love, and feel ill at ease among high society.
As an actor he had his limitations, there's no denying it - he needed a better director than Elliot Nugent, someone who could protect him more. I wish this had been directed by John Farrow who apparently left the film after a disagreement with Maibaum over casting - Farrow wanted Gene Tierney not Betty Field, and I feel he was right. Field has her moments but got on my nerves; Tierney would've been just right.
Maibaum had to make dumb script things to get this pass the censor - the opening scene at Gatsby's grave with Carraway quoting proverbs, Nick Carraway doing a lot of "voice of conscience" acting. Others are simply shoddy writing such as the exposition when we first meet Daisy and they talk about Tom's past.
Other bits of this are clunky too - Ruth Hussey got on my nerves as Jordan (all that female golfing and apparent cynicism; I never believed she was into MacDonald Carey for a second); I wasn't sure what was the point of Gatsby's lustings over the wife of his mentor Henry Hull (it cheapened his love for Daisy showing this). (I would've loved to have seen more of Gatsby's rise to riches via being a gangster).
But much of it is superb - MacDonald Carey is perfect as Nick Carraway, Howard da Silva moving as George Wilson, Tom Sullivan is very good as Tom, Shelley Winters perfect as Myrtle, Ed Begley Jnr is great as Lupus and I always enjoy Elisha Cook Jnr. There's fantastic moments like Gatsby's reuniting with Daisy, the death of Myrtle and revenge of Wilson, and the climax. It's very much a half-good adaptation but it should've been better known and I wish Ladd had made more films along this line.
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