The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s much lauded American classic The Great Gatsby has made it to the silver screen on several occasions. It’s been given the lavish treatment by Baz Luhrmann and the lyrical with a 1970s Francis Ford Coppola adaptation starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow.

Elliott Nugent’s 1949 version, however, perhaps remains the quintessential retelling of the jazz age literary masterpiece. With its striking photography and film noir approach The Great Gatsby is a potent dramatisation of paradise lost during prohibition. Ramping up the mystery elements, the movie charts the rise and fall of the enigmatic Gatsby (Ladd) from poor fisherman to extravagant millionaire set against the sordid world of bootlegging.

The classic tale of love and betrayal in stylised art deco features Barry Sullivan, Betty Field, Shelley Winters, Elisha Cook Jnr and the Jimmy Dorsey Big band. This lovingly restored classic has resurfaced when the master thought lost for decades was discovered in 2012.

The Great Gatsby is available now.