Peter Pan (1924)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Herbert Brenon

Writers:

J.M. Barrie (play)
Willis Goldbeck (screenplay)

Release Date:

29 December 1924 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Fantasy | Family

Plot:

Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefarious Captain Hook.

Plot Keywords:

Children | Peter Pan | Pirate | Shadow | Nursery

Awards:

1 win

Cast

George Ali	...	Nana the Dog
Esther Ralston	...	Mrs. Darling
Cyril Chadwick	...	Mr. Darling
Mary Brian	...	Wendy Moira Angela Darling
Jack Murphy	...	John Napoleon Darling
Philippe De Lacy	...	Michael Nicholas Darling (as Philippe deLacy)
Virginia Brown Faire	...	Tinker Bell (as Virginia Browne Faire)
Betty Bronson	...	Peter Pan
Anna May Wong	...	Tiger Lily
Maurice Murphy	...	Tootles
Mickey McBan	...	Slightly
George Crane Jr.	...	Curly
Winston Doty	...	First Twin
Weston Doty	...	Second Twin
Terence McMillan	...	Nibs

Runtime:

105 min | Spain:101 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Santa Catalina Island, Channel Islands, California, USA

Company:

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

Trivia:

Nearly all of the intertitles are taken directly from J.M. Barrie's dialogue for the play.

Quotes:

[first title card]
Title Card: A NOTE / On the Acting of a Fairy Play / The difference between a Fairy Play and a realistic one is that in the former all the characters are really children with a child's outlook on life. This applies to the so-called adults of the story as well as the young people. Pull the beard off the fairy king, and you would find the face of a child.
Title Card: This, then, is the spirit of the play. And it is necessary that all of you ~ no matter what age you may have individually attained ~ should be children. PETER PAN will laughingly blow the fairy dust in your eyes and presto! You'll all be back in the nursery, and once more you'll believe in fairies, and the play moves on. / J.M. Barrie

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Susan Slept Here (1954)

Very Entertaining Adaptation, & A Rather Impressive Production For Its Time

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.