From Headline to Novel to Screen: An American Tragedy – The Classic Literature on Film Blogathon

In 1925, writer Theodore Dreiser released An American Tragedy – it was his sixth novel and followed such popular fare as Sister Carrie in 1900 and Jennie Gerhardt in 1911. The novel was, as they say, ripped from the headlines; it was based on the well-known 1906 Gillette murder case, which involved Chester Gillette, a manager in a Cortland, New York, skirt factory, and Grace Brown, a fabric presser at the factory. Gillette and Brown began a romantic relationship, even while Gillette was striving to climb the area’s social ladder and reportedly pursuing Harriet Benedict, a banker’s daughter. When Grace became pregnant, her pleas for Gillette to marry her were ignored until he could no longer avoid dealing with the situation. Unfortunately for Grace, Chester’s plan for addressing the dilemma resulted in her death at a local lake. Chester was ultimately charged with Grace’s murder, convicted, and executed in the electric chair.

Dreiser, who reportedly had been fascinated with the case for years and had saved news clippings from the trial, started his novel in 1920, abandoned it after a year, then resumed work on it in 1923 and finished it two years later. His novel was developed into a play in 1926, starring a then-unknown Miriam Hopkins. Two Paramount Studios motion picture productions followed: An American Tragedy (1931), starring Phillips Holmes (who, like in the novel, played a character named Clyde Griffiths), Sylvia Sidney, and Frances Dee; and A Place in the Sun (1951), starring Montgomery Clift (whose character was named George Eastman), Shelley Winters, and Elizabeth Taylor. Dreiser was unhappy with the 1931 film; he claimed that the studio had turned his novel into an “ordinary murder story” and that “instead of an indictment of society, the picture is a justification of society and an indictment of Clyde Griffiths.” Dreiser sued Paramount for misrepresentation of his story and sought to prevent Paramount from releasing the film, but Paramount emerged the victor. The studio was sued over the movie again, however, when the mother of Grace Brown filed a $150,000 libel suit; this time, the studio settled the case out of court.

— Sylvia Sidney and Phillips Holmes in the pre-Code adaptation of Dreiser’s novel.

Of the two Paramount adaptations of Dreiser’s novel, A Place in the Sun is the better known and appreciated, but An American Tragedy is more closely aligned with the novel – ironic, since Dreiser had objected so strenuously to the 1931 film. Dreiser died in 1945, several years before the release of the second film; it would have been interesting to know his take on this one. (I suspect he would have been even less pleased.) An American Tragedy provides a clearer picture of Clyde’s life before he moved from his home and began working in the factory, not only portraying his experience with his family’s street missionary work, but also showing his work as a bellman in a local hotel, his increased cravings for life’s finer things, and the fatal car accident that prompted the flight from his home. From the start, Clift’s George Eastman is depicted in a far more sympathetic light; rather than stemming from a desire for societal prominence and financial mobility, George seems to simply become caught up in circumstances that he’s unable to control.

— Alice didn’t have a chance – with George or the audience.

The other major difference between the pre-Code version of the Dreiser novel and the glossier later version is the depiction of the factory worker who winds up pregnant – Sylvia Sidney’s Roberta in the earlier film, and Shelley Winters’s Alice in the 1951 release. Like Roberta in Dreiser’s novel, Sidney’s character is a rather shy, simple, and sweet girl. She is thrilled by Clyde’s interest in her and quickly falls in love with him, swayed into a sexual relationship by the combination of her feelings and his smooth talk. Winters’s Alice is equally impressed by George’s attention and is similarly reluctant to sleep with him. The distinction is in the demeanor of the women; while Roberta has a more sorrowful, victim-like affect, Alice is portrayed as sullen and unpleasant, not to mention rather dowdy and unattractive, all of which contributes to the viewer’s sympathy toward George – you’re practically ready to blame Alice for so thoughtlessly getting herself into such a fix.

— Such beauty. How can you not root for these two?

If you get the chance to see the 1931 adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s novel, I encourage you to check it out – it’s not easily accessible, but it does air on TCM from time to time and it’s definitely worth a look. It certainly doesn’t have the star power (or sheer beauty!) of A Place in the Sun, but it’s a pretty good interpretation of the original novel.

Even if Theodore Dreiser didn’t think so.

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This post is part of the Classic Literature on Film Blogathon, sponsored by Paul over at Silver Screen Classics. Click here to check out some fabulous posts! 

~ by shadowsandsatin on July 16, 2023.