Pride and Prejudice

Though doubtless the emphasis of this film must be on the two leading stars, I found that an huge degree of the richness of this Jane Austen story came from the wonderfully characterful supporting cast: Mary Boland as the mother, constantly and brazenly seeking advantageous marriages for the "Bennet" brood, with Edmund Gwenn as her husband; Melville Cooper ("Mr. Collins), EE Clive ("Sir William) and the redoubtable Edna May Oliver as "Lady Catherine" all contributing splendidly to this otherwise rather loosely adapted story of "Elizabeth" (Greer Garson) and her rather complicated on/off courtship with "Mr. Darcy" (Laurence Olivier). This is certainly one of the latter's more engaging performance. Though still in ultra-ham mode, he does actu...

A first adaptation of Jane Austen's greatest work, which is riddled with problems, but is competent, pragmatic and very elegant. Thought of as a comedy, it was thought of the wrong way.

At this point, I believe that even those who have never read a Jane Austen novel will surely agree that the writer is, quite simply, one of the most distinguished in the classical pantheon of the English language. Pride and Prejudice is a novel that has been adapted to film and TV several times, and each production had its pros and cons. One cannot ignore this production, however, because it was truly the first to transport romance from paper to celluloid. Its impact, at the time, was enormous, it was a great success and even helped to make the origin...