A teenage girl played the title role in Paramount Pictures' 1924 film version of J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan." A young boy supplied his voice in Disney's 1953 cartoon treatment. Musical stage versions, usually with women or girls in the role, invariably crop up around this time each year.
First performed on Dec. 27, 1904, Barrie's play about the boy who won't grow up has become a kind of holiday tradition in the same way that Charles Dickens' novels have. On Nov. 23, the two best film adaptations will be released to video -- the silent version starring Betty Bronson (Kino on Video is selling it for $25 on VHS and DVD) and the more famous Disney treatment ($40 on DVD).Paramount's "Peter Pan," which features a new orchestral score composed and conducted by Philip Carli, has never been on video before. Kino's 75th-anniversary restoration is taken from an original nitrate print and features color tinting that was used during its Christmas 1924 theatrical release.
Once considered a lost film, it was directed by Herbert Brenon (who also made Barrie's "A Kiss for Cinderella" and the first movie versions of "The Great Gatsby" and "Beau Geste") and handsomely photographed on Catalina Island by the Oscar-winning cinematographer, James Wong Howe ("Hud," "The Rose Tattoo").
Bronson, who would play the mother of Jesus just two years later in Fred Niblo's version of "Ben-Hur," was chosen by Barrie himself to play Peter (Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford had been mentioned as possibilities). Ernest Torrence was cast as Captain Hook, Anna May Wong as Tiger Lily, Louise Dantzler as Wendy and Virginia Browne Faire as Tinker Bell.
During its successful late-1924 release, when it earned back its costs during its first three days in theaters, the movie had considerable impact on the young Walt Disney, who made his own cartoon version nearly 30 years later.
Disney's version, which features Bobby Driscoll as the voice of Peter, has been on tape and laserdisc before, but this is the first time it's been available on DVD. The disc features an alternate French-language soundtrack.
Both Kino and Disney are releasing other classics on DVD for the holidays. For $25 apiece, Kino has silent versions of Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1927), with James B. Lowe as Uncle Tom, George Siegmann as Simon Legree and Margarita Fischer as Eliza, and Zane Grey's epic about the betrayal of American Indians, "The Vanishing American" (1925), with Richard Dix as a Navajo war chieftain and Noah Beery as a corrupt government agent. Information: 212-629-6880.
For $40 apiece, Disney has already released discs of its cartoon treatments of "101 Dalmatians," "Pinocchio" and "Hercules." Coming Nov. 23 is "Lady and the Tramp"; following on Dec. 7 are "The Jungle Book" (1967 version) and "The Little Mermaid."
Disney, which has seen its video revenues drop by 30 percent this year, has been criticized for not including many extra features on these relatively pricey discs (and for limiting their availability to 60 days).
But there are a few compensations: "Lady and the Tramp" is letterboxed for its original CinemaScope aspect ratio; "Lady," "Jungle Book," "Mermaid" and "101 Dalmatians" all feature optional French and Spanish soundtracks; and the "Hercules" DVD includes a documentary about the making of the film and a Spanish soundtrack with Ricky Martin as the singing voice of Hercules.
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