Peter Pan

The competition for the part of cinema's first version of Peter Pan was fierce. Superstars Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson, yearning for the treasured role, heavily lobbied for the part of the primary resident of Never, Never Land. Author J. M. Barrie, the author of the original Peter Pan as well as the playwright for the 1904 play based on his novel, was given the rights to select the performer for the lead role. After nine months of research and screen tests, he made a surprising choice: a little known New Jersey 18-year-old actress who recently relocated to California to play bit parts. Betty Bronson was suddenly rocketed from obscurity to the limelight when she became the lead in December 1924's "Peter Pan."

Barrie was contacted by several movie studios for the rights of his novel and play. He ultimately agreed with Paramount Pictures, under the direction of veteran Herbert Brenon. The silent movie director had a reputation of handling difficult, temperamental actors with success. His ability to handle Barrie during the pre-production was especially deft. The author wanted to incorporate additional scenes into the film, but Brenon, an admirer of the 1904 play, wanted to stick to the stage's plot where Wendy, the oldest child in the Darling household, is attracted to Peter Pan. But the flying boy who never wants to grow up instead thinks of her as his mother. "Peter Pan" is also the first work of Barrie's, which were his plays, to show Tinker Bell (Virginia Browne Faire) as a person.

The 1924 film has been praised especially for its cinematography. Under James Wong Howe, previously an assistant for the young director Cecil B. DeMill before going on his own, his photography, in particular in the Never Land scenes, are striking, especially when Peter tests his shadow. Howe earned two Academy Awards for Cinematography in 1955 for 'The Rose Tattoo' and in 1963 for 'Hud' with Paul Newman.

One highlight of "Peter Pan" was the work of George Ali, playing the dual role of Nana, the Darling's family dog, and the Crocodile, the culprit who had earlier bit Captain Hook's hand off. Ali's ability to slide into an animals' costumes and realistically act out their characteristics is striking in its believability. It's rare a person can make a living out of specializing as an animal impersonator, but Ali made a career of it.

"Peter Pan" was so successful at the box office that Brenon and Barrie decided to take on the adaptation of the author's 1916 stage play, "A Kiss for Cinderella." premiering in December 1925. Betty Bronson earned the lead as Cinderella in the film that saw 15-year-old actress Anita Page debut on the screen in an uncredited role. Unfortunately for Bronson, the picture proved to be a major flop. The young actress' career sputtered after that. Despite an appearance as Mary in 1925's 'Ben-Hur,' nothing in her acting resume approached the spotlight she received as cinema's first Peter Pan.

For Anita Page, however, it launched a relatively successful livelihood in film, especially in the 1920s and early 1930s, where she was labeled "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood." She retired in the mid-1930s, only to appear in front of the camera in the late 1990s, with her last posthumous movie in 2010. Living until she was 98 in 2008, Page was one of the last adult silent movie stars still around in the 2000s.

PETER PAN was directed by Herbert Brenon with a screenplay written by Willis Goldbeck, based on the story by J.M. Barrie. In fact nearly all of the intertitles (the words on the cards that we read to ourselves) are taken directly from J. M. Barrie's dialogue from the original play around 105 years ago! James Barrie was born in 1860, the ninth child of ten. He was a small child (he only grew to 5 feet 3 inches as an adult) and he drew attention to himself with storytelling. He is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, whom he based on his friends, the Llewelyn Davies boys. He is also credited with popularizing the name Wendy, which was very uncommon before he gave it to the heroine of Peter Pan. When he died he left the rights to this story and all it's future profits to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for children. This filmed version of Peter Pan, the very first (of eleven so far) opened Christmas week, 1924. Then, like one of the Lost Boys, it vanished into a Never Land of its own. Paramount, like every other studio, looked on its films as disposable product. Films were as ephemeral as the daily newspaper. Why bother to keep a print? No studio, museum or archive could find it, nor any of the private collectors, who could sometimes materialize copies that more legitimate sources could not. It was one of the most important of missing American films. For the children who saw it, nothing else ever compared. William K. Everson, one of the great silent film historians, never tired of rhapsodizing Peter Pan or its glowing star, Betty Bronson. James Card, curator at George Eastman House and one of the great heroes of film preservation, longed to see this childhood favorite with a desperate nostalgia. It was he who, as a young man working for Kodak in Rochester, discovered a fume-filled vault of decomposing nitrate films. Nitrate films are highly flammable, can spontaneously combust and even burn under water because they supply their own oxygen. Card convinced Kodak to call Iris Barry, the visionary film preservationist at the Museum of Modern Art to help save this title. This beautiful tinted print was restored from that one of a kind, surviving nitrate print. It stars beautiful blonde Esther Ralston as the mother Mrs. Darling. One of the best-liked silent movie stars both on and off the screen, Mary Brian plays Wendy. Philippe De Lacy, arguably the silent era's cutest child actors plays Michael. The exotic oriental actress Anna May Wong has a small role as Tiger Lily. And giant Ernest Torrence is evil and menacing as Captain Hook. Tinker Bell is played by an actress named, of all things, Virginia Faire. And the family's pet dog Nana was such a good actor that in real life he was called George Ali. As for the lead role of Peter Pan, it was the author James Barrie who selected Betty Bronson, then an unknown to play the coveted role after he turned down silent superstars Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson & Lillian Gish. Barrie selected Betty Bronson because she had trained for the Ballet Russe with famed choreographer Michel Fokine and her grace and innocence were unmatched. (And she could fly!) It is surprising when you see how lavish the sets, costumes and special effects are that the budget for this film was only $40,000 and I think this is much better than the 1991 version which cost $70 million dollars to make. I would like to read a quote from the New York Times, from MORDAUNT HALL, one of their toughest critics written Christmas week of 1924 – "That wonderful ecstatic laughter, tinkling and beautiful, just the laughter that Barrie loves to hear, greeted Herbert Brenon's picturized version of "Peter Pan" yesterday afternoon in the Rivoli. Again and again the silence of the audience was snapped by the ringing laugh of a single boy which was quickly followed by an outburst from dozens of others, some of whom shook in their seats in sheer Joy at what they saw upon the screen. It was laughter that reminded one of the days of long ago when one believed in a sort of Never Never Land, when the smiling sun on an early morning made one dance with joy over the dew-covered grass, when the fragrant Spring flowers sent a thrill through one's youthful soul, when one gazed at a real fish in a shallow rippling stream and expected to hook it with a bent pin, when one thought that after all it might be possible to fly. These jubilant outbursts from youthful throats even brought to mind some beautiful anthem one had heard the choir singing in a lofty cathedral. It was laughter that brought a tear of exuberant gladness to our eyes—laughter that makes grown-ups delighted to be alive." - Unquote. PETER PAN like the WIZARD OF OZ has helped remind adults of what innocence we all shared back when we were children. So when you are asked during the film to clap if you believe in fairies, you better clap or you may never feel young again!

When it comes to pure entertainment, there are very few silent movies that come close to PETER PAN. This whimsical story is also exceptional because I think that adults would enjoy the film at least as much as kids. Why does the film deserve such praise? Well, the biggest reason is that for a movie made in 1924, it was amazingly modern for its time and it appears as if Paramount Studios spared little expense in bringing this J. M. Barrie story to the screen. One example are the flying sequences. In almost every instance, you could see no wires and the kids really looked like they were flying! Second, when they showed the home of Peter and the Lost Boys, it was a magical and wonderful place with giant mushrooms for chairs, glowing jack-o-lanterns as lights and the coolest beds I've ever seen. The place was a magical lair in every sense. Another example was when Hook's boat began to fly--it was a great scene. In fact, the more I think about it, there were many more wonderful scenes--too many to list here. The story just looked wonderful and had among the best set designs and stunts of any silent films and I would rank it among best best of the age, such as THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, FAUST or WINGS. This was a top production in every sense--well, every sense but one. While I liked it, it was kind of silly to make Nana the dog and the crocodile people in costumes. Some might really think this is cheesy, but I really thought it was charming.

As for the story itself, it was super entertaining. The only problem I noticed and reason the movie does not earn a 10 were the embarrassing and unnecessary pro-USA comments throughout the film. While I am very happy and proud to be an American, this film was inappropriate in making everyone gung ho Americans--even though in the original, they were English. Four different times in the movie they made reference to this--such as the Lost Boys singing patriotic American songs when they were caught and another time when Wendy told her brothers to "act like proper American gentlemen". You would almost think the movie had been made during the war due to all these references, but it wasn't. Still, apart from this minor problem, it was a heck of a wonderful film.

This video was released by KINO International. The print was absolutely pristine and the accompanying music exceptional.

One of the Lost Boys warns the others: "The first who does not behave to Wendy like an American gentleman, I'll blood him severely!" And this is quite an amusing gag, indeed. The other two occurrences of the matter (I mean American chauvinism, or exceptionalism) in the film are less appropriate, useless and out of place, in my opinion: the Lost Boys, who would like to be pirates, refuse to accept the offer of becoming such because the ship would fly the pirate flag (the traditional black one with skull and crossbones) instead of the Star and Stripes, and in the end they lower the black one and put up the U. S. flag. These scenes are not particularly humorous and add nothing whatsoever to the plot.

I don't know (and I don't mean to investigate) if in the many literary works of the British novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie, who devised the character of Peter Pan, a similar treatment is reserved for the Union Jack (let me doubt it, being he a Scotsman...). But if he did it was just something natural to a man that loved his country; whereas the authors of the film either "translated" flags - in a completely motiveless motion (motiveless except for sheer chauvinism, of course) -, or invented the whole thing, for the same reason.

Having said that, I consider Peter Pan a (very) good movie. You see from the first few seconds of Peter's appearance that she is a girl, and this is in accordance with old theatre productions, in which the role of the "Principal boy" was traditionally played by a petite young woman. I loved Nana the dog.

This is a very entertaining adaptation of the story of "Peter Pan", and the production, particularly in the visual effects, is rather impressive for its time. The cast is a good one, with a lot of enthusiasm for their roles, and the whole movie has a lively pace to go along with the interesting story and plenty of good visuals.

Betty Bronson delivers everything that you could expect as Peter, and it's easy to see why J.M. Barrie himself chose her for the role. She has plenty of energy and a believably boyish appearance. The rest of the cast is also good, and in some cases (Virginia Browne Faire and Anna May Wong) you wish you could have seen more of them. It would be hard to think of a better Captain Hook than Ernest Torrance, who gives the role just the right degree of exaggerated villainy. In what seems to have been her first screen role, Mary Brian is appealing as Wendy.

It sticks mostly to the essentials of the familiar story, which is usually appealing to children while potentially quite interesting to adults, for different reasons. Peter's desire to remain a boy, and the offbeat nature of the fantasy world, make the story much more than a whimsical daydream.

The visual effects, particularly the 'flying' sequences, work very well for their time, and they must have been very exciting for the movie's original audiences. The Tinkerbell effect also works well despite its simple means. The fantasy story is combined with just enough reality (back at the Darling home) for it to fit together nicely.

"Peter Pan" is a movie and stage perennial, so there is no shortage of versions to choose from. But this one is very enjoyable, and it is certainly recommended for anyone interested in seeing a silent movie version of the story.