Peter Pan
About Peter Pan
Mrs. Darling has seen a boy’s face at the nursery window. She and Mr. Darling go out, leaving Wendy, John, and Michael with the dog Nana. Peter Pan returns for his shadow with Tinker Bell and teaches the children to fly to Neverland. Jealous, Tinker Bell has a Lost Boy shoot Wendy, thinking she is a bird. The boys take Wendy as their mother. Tiger Lily’s people fight Captain Hook, who hates Peter for cutting off his hand and feeding it to a crocodile that swallowed a clock. Hook takes the children and poisons Peter’s medicine. Tinker Bell drinks it and revives when children say they believe in fairies. Peter and the Lost Boys take the ship. Wendy flies the children home. Peter will not stay and grow up. Mrs. Darling lets Wendy return each year to do his spring cleaning, and the Darlings adopt the Lost Boys.
Cast & crew
More about Peter Pan
Herbert Brenon directed Willis Goldbeck’s script from J. M. Barrie’s 1904 play. Barrie chose Betty Bronson as Peter. Paramount released it in the United States on December 29, 1924. Fred Niblo is also credited as a producer. James Wong Howe and Roy Pomeroy photographed it.
Themes
In film history
Walt Disney saw this version. It fed his studio’s 1953 animated Peter Pan.
Making
Most copies were destroyed, and the film was treated as lost. In the 1950s James Card found a print at the Eastman School of Music. David Pierce later found a 16mm copy at the Disney studio, made when Disney took the rights in 1938. George Eastman House combined the two sources in a 1994 restoration.
Look
James Wong Howe and Roy Pomeroy photographed the film, including the flying exits from the nursery and the pirate ship.
Music
Silent, with English intertitles drawn in part from the play. Philip C. Carli wrote a score for the 1994 restoration, first played by the Flower City Society Orchestra at the 1996 Pordenone Silent Film Festival.
Preservation
James Card’s Eastman print and a 16mm Disney copy were combined by George Eastman House in 1994. A WebM is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Mary Brian plays Wendy. Ernest Torrence plays Hook. Virginia Brown Faire plays Tinker Bell. Esther Ralston plays Mrs. Darling. Anna May Wong plays Tiger Lily.
- George Ali plays both Nana and the crocodile.
- Added business includes Nana pouring out Michael’s medicine and bursting into the party to warn the Darlings that the children are flying.
- A German release followed in December 1925.
Awards
- National Film Registry (2000)
Scenes
- Peter finds his shadow in a desk drawer, and Wendy wakes and sees him.
- A Lost Boy shoots Wendy after Tinker Bell says she is a bird.
- Tinker Bell drinks the poisoned medicine.
- The Darlings adopt the Lost Boys, and Peter leaves.
Influenced by
- J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan (1904)
Influenced
- Peter Pan (1953)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Peter Pan (1924).webm)
