Main Cast: Betty Bronson, Ernest Torrence, Cyril Chadwick, Virginia Brown Faire, Anna May Wong
Release Year: 1924
Country: US
Run Time: 10rl minutes
Plot
When Paramount bought the rights to the delightful James M. Barrie story, every actress in Hollywood wanted the role of Peter Pan, made famous on the stage by Maude Adams. Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and even Gloria Swanson thought they were perfect for the role, but Barrie's own choice was Betty Bronson, a virtual unknown. The story is familiar to nearly everyone. When Mr. and Mrs. Darling (Cyril Chadwick and Esther Ralston) go to a party, they leave their children -- Wendy (Mary Brian), Michael (Philippe de Lacey), and John (Jack Murphy) -- in the care of their dog, Nana. But Peter (Bronson) shows up with the fairy, Tinker Bell (Virginia Brown Faire), and they take the children to Never Never Land. They have a series of adventures with the Lost Boys and defeat Captain Hook (Ernest Torrence) and his band of pirates. Finally, the children return home to Mrs. Darling, who is overjoyed to have them back. She adopts the Lost Boys and offers to take Peter in too, but he refuses to grow up and flies away after promising to visit Wendy every year. An interesting side note -- although she had no involvement in casting Brian as Wendy, Ralston had discovered her a couple of years earlier while judging a beauty contest. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Peter Pan (film). The celebrated British play of 1904 has rarely been tackled by the cinema. For the major silent version (USA, 1924), the author J. M. Barrie himself approved the casting of boyish 18‐year‐old newcomer Betty Bronson as Peter. The Chinese‐American actress Anna May Wong, playing the redskin princess Tiger Lily, was only 17 but had appeared on screen before, notably in Fairbanks's The Thief of Bagdad. Complementing these youngsters were veterans such as the eye‐rolling Ernest Torrence as Hook, and George Ali who, inside a dog costume, repeated a performance as Nana the nurse that he had given many times on stage. Most other elements of the film, including the use of wires to accomplish the flying scenes, also followed the stage production closely. The only significant difference is that whereas on stage Tinker Bell the fairy is represented simply by a darting spot of light, in the film she is fleshed out by Virginia Brown Faire, who was miniaturized by photographic multiple‐exposure techniques. In the UK the film's director was praised for not having Americanized the play, but in fact some scenes were shot with alternative versions: for British audiences the flag the Lost Boys raised was the Union Jack, while in the USA it was the Stars and Stripes.
The film closely follows the plot of the original play, and even goes so far as to incorporate much of its original stage dialogue in the intertitles. Peter Pan, a magical boy who refuses to grow up, brings the Darling children (Wendy, John, and Michael) from London to Neverland, where they have adventures that include a confrontation with the pirate Captain Hook and his crew.
Background
Barrie selected Bronson for the role, and wrote additional scenes for the film, but Brenon stuck largely to the stageplay.
The film was celebrated at the time for its innovative use of special effects (mainly to show Tinker Bell) according to Disney's 45th anniversary video of their adaptation of Peter Pan. In 2000, the United States Library of Congress deemed it "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
