Dante's Inferno (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dante's Inferno
Directed by	Harry Lachman
Produced by	Sol M. Wurtzel
Written by	Philip Klein
Starring	Spencer Tracy Claire Trevor Rita Hayworth
Cinematography	Rudolph Maté
Editing by	Alfred DeGaetano
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 31, 1935 (New York City, New York) August 30 (wide) November 3 November 15
Running time	88 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$748,900 (estimate)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Dante's Inferno is a 1935 motion picture that draws for inspiration on The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. It is primarily remembered for a ten minute depiction of hell realised by director Harry Lachman, himself an established post-impressionist painter.

[edit] Production

Rita Hayworth appears as a dancer under the credit Rita Cansino.

[edit] Cultural impact

The film uses a conventional story of greed and dishonesty to project an image of the Inferno conjured up in Dante's 14th century epic poem. Director Lachman had established a substantial reputation as a painter before embarking on a Hollywood career and he summoned his artistic vision to realise Dante's work in cinematographic form, drawing on the engravings of Gustave Doré.

The film's reputation pivots on the 10 minute vision of the Inferno and reception has been mixed. Leslie Halliwell described it as "one of the most unexpected, imaginative and striking pieces of cinema in Hollywood's history," while Variety held that it was, "a pushover for vigorous exploitation."

[edit] Plot summary

Jim Carter (Tracy) takes over a fairground show illustrating scenes from Dante. An inspector declares the fair unsafe but is bribed by Carter. There is a fatal disaster at the fair during which we see the vision of the Inferno. Carter establishes a new venture with an unsafe floating casino.

This 1930s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.