Film Appropriations of The Great Gatsby Although Paramount's 1974 version of The Great Gatsby - the one starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow - is probably the most famous, there have actually been six attempts to flatten Fitzgerald's novel into two dimensions. The first was a silent film released in 1926. The second version, starring Alan Ladd as Gatsby, appeared in 1949. Two television adaptations followed, one starring Robert Montgomery in 1955 and the other starring Robert Ryan in 1958. The controversial adaptation of 1974 rings in at number five. The sixth version of Gatsby will air on the A&E cable network early next year: Mira Sorvino will play Daisy and Toby Stephens will play Gatsby. Six! Everything missing. All critical failures. [1] So why do they do it? What is it about the novel that tempts Hollywood producers, directors, and the occasional ingénue? Hollywood screenwriter DeWitt Bodeen wrote in the foreword to Gene Phillips' Fiction, Film, and F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Youth is the keynote of every Fitzgerald tale - his carefree ecstasy in his twenties and the inevitable loss of it in their thirties. Its characters are all sad young people whose flame of life has shrunk to a bright glow by the time they are in their twenties becomes the fundamental problem of translating F. Scott Fitzgerald's stories to the screen: very few actors. who have a name are young enough to play them believably." [2]Bodeen sees youth as a necessity to play Gatsby. I would agree, but for a different reason. Hollywood is in love with the Great Gatsby. Every leading man wants to play Jay Gatsby and every starlet Daisy Buchanan. But every subsequent Jay G... at the center of the newspaper... fiction, film and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1986 (117).[6] Irene Kahn Atkins, “In Search of the Greatest Gatsby,” Literature/Film Quarterly, 3, Summer 1974 (217).[7] DeWitt Bodeen. “Preface: Hollywood and the Screenwriter,” Fiction, Film, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1986 (xviii).[8] Elliot Nugent. Events preceding the play: an autobiography. New York: Trident Press, 1965. (213-214).[9] Clinch Mint. Roberto Redford. Kent: New English Library, 1989 (114).[10] Ibid. (116).[11] Ibid. (116).[12] Ibid. (119).[13] “Wanted: Aristocrats, $1.65 an Hour,” Time. July 23, 1973. (87)[14] Minty Clinch. Roberto Redford. Kent: New English Library, 1989 (118).[15] Ibid. (122).[16] F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1991 (116).