Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gasby is the fifth film version made from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel. A disappointing seller on its initial release, it was nevertheless turned into a Broadway play early the following year with James Rennie (Dorothy Gish’s husband) and Florence Eldredge (Fredric March’s soon-to-be wife). The first film version, now lost, was released later that year with Warner Baxter and Lois Wilson.

The novel did not become popular until after Fitzgerald’s 1940 death when it was widely read by U.S. servicemen during World War II. It wasn’t taught in schools until the 1950s after which it became a literary staple.

The seldom seen 1949 film version with Alan Ladd and Betty Field is a poorly conceived version that simplifies the story. While Ladd is properly moody as Jay Gatsby, Field is out of her league as Daisy Buchanan, emphasizing the character’s shallowness, but possessing none of the charisma that made her such a captivating figure on the written page.

The previous version most filmgoers are most familiar with is Jack Clayton’s diffident 1974 version with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. Redford, like Ladd, was properly moody as Gatsby, but lacked spark. Farrow was an annoying Daisy, making the character unlikeable from the start. Acting honors in that version went to Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, Daisy’s cousin and the book/film’s narrator and Karen Black as the tragic Myrte Wilson, Daisy’s husband’s mistress. Bruce Dern as Daisy’s husband Tom and Scott Wilson as Myrtle’s husband George were also more impressive than the leads.

Robert Markowitz’s 2000 TV movie was the most faithful version with an excellent Toby Stephens (Maggie Smith’s son) as Gatsby and a fairly good Mira Sorvino as Daisy. There were also excellent contributions from both Paul Rudd as Nick Carraway and Martin Donovan as Tom Buchanan.

Luhrmann’s version is a mixed bag. The first hour and a half or so of the two hour and twenty-two minute film is overwhelmed by the party scene glitz with its anachronistic techno rap music that numbs the film’s narrative. It doesn’t come dramatically alive until the melodrama and woe that inform the film’s last fifty minutes.

Leonardo DiCaprio is excellent in those scenes as are Carey Mulligan as Daisy and Tobey Maguire as Nick. The usually fine Joel Edgerton is a bit of a stick as Tom Buchanan, but Isla Fisher’s Myrtle and Jason Clarke’s George Wilson are fine.

Baz Luhrmann’s film of The Great Gatsby is available in three versions: 3D Blu-ray; 2D Blu-ray and standard DVD. Extras include the trailer for the lost 1926 version directed by Herbert Brenon.

Criterion has released a long overdue restored version of Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be complete with numerous extras.

The film divided critics in 1942. Many loved it, but the better known critics of the day hated it, especially the N.Y. Times’ influential Bosley Crowther who wrote that he was “unable even remotely to comprehend the humor”.

Long since hailed as the signature masterpiece of the man who gave us such beloved films as Ninotchka; The Shop Around the Corner and Heaven Can Wait, To Be or Not to Be deftly mixes bedroom farce, the Nazi invasion of Poland and theatricality with the emphasis on comedy. The screenplay, which was largely dictated by Lubitsch himself, contains numerous scenes in which the stage Nazis’ hilariously delivered lines are later repeated in all earnestness by the real Nazis rendering the villains themselves absurd.

Vaudeville and radio star Jack Benny had been in films since 1930, but had not a major starring role on film until the 1941 remake of Charley’s Aunt. Already signed for the film, it could not get financing without a major film name to appear opposite him. Enter Carole Lombard who had slowed down her career in an attempt to become pregnant by her husband, Clark Gable. To Be or Not to Be, however, was a film she couldn’t resist. Although she received billing over Benny, her role was secondary giving her significant time off. The film appealed to her because it was a slapstick comedy, her favorite genre, allowed her to wear glamorous clothes, was anti-Nazi and gave her an opportunity to work with Lubitsch who she knew when he was chief of production at Paramount but had never directly worked with. Lombard’s death in a plane crash while on a War Bonds tour in January, 1942 put a pall over the film that along with its questionable critical reception kept it from being the hit at the time it deserved to be.

The film’s stellar supporting cast includes Robert Stack, Felix Bressart and Sig Ruman as “Concentration Camp Ehrhardt”. It was successfully remade by Mel Brooks in 1983 with Brooks, Anne Bancroft, Tim Matheson and Charles Durning who was Oscar nominated for reprising Ruman’s role. Lubitsch’s film’s sole Oscar nomination went to Werner Heymann for his score. Cinematographer Rudolph Maté was nominated instead for that year’s The Pride of the Yankees.

One of the extras on the Criterion release, which is also available on standard DVD, is a 1942 radio adaptation with William Powell, who had been Lombard’s husband in the early 1930s, and Powell’s third wife, Diana Lewis.

A funny thing happened on the way to the 1941 Oscars. Cary Grant who had given Oscar worthy performances in such films as The Awful Truth; Bringing Up Baby; His Girl Friday and The Philadelphia Story without being nominated looked like he might get his first nomination for Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion but was actually nominated instead for George Stevens’ Penny Serenade.

Rescued from public domain hell by Olive Films which re-mastered it in HD for Blu-ray and standard DVD release, the George Stevens classic has finally been given the classy treatment it always deserved.

Grant’s performance may be quite the equal of his mesmerizing turn in Suspicion, but it’s a good one especially in the scene in which he begs the judge to allow him to adopt the baby he and his wife have had for over a year despite his lack of income. Ironically just as Grant was unfairly left off of the 1937 nominations list for The Awful Truth while Irene Dunne was properly nominated, this time it was Dunne who was unfairly left off. Told from her perspective, she is sublime as Grant’s long suffering wife in this romantic drama which is often mistakenly categorized as a tearjerker. Although there are certainly very some sad moments, there are also some hilarious ones as well, most of them involving the two stars and supporting player Edgar Buchanan as a family friend. Beulah Bondi makes her usual fine contribution as the sympathetic head of the adoption agency and Eva Lee Kuney is adorable as Grant and Dunne’s adoptive daughter at the age of six.

The Blu-ray release of René Clair’s superlative 1945 version of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None was unfortunately not available for my review this week, but will hopefully be available next week.

This week’s new releases include Now You See Me and The English Teacher.