''Kismet'' is a 1930 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

costume drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swa ...

film photographed entirely in an early

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

process using 65mm film that

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

called Vitascope. The film, now considered lost, was based on Edward Knoblock's play '' Kismet'', and was previously filmed as a

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

in 1920 which also starred Otis Skinner.

Plot

Hajj, a rascally beggar on the periphery of the court of Baghdad, schemes to marry his daughter to royalty and to win the heart of the queen of the castle himself.

Production

Warner Bros. spared no expense in making this picture. They spent $600,000 in producing it, and the extravagance of the film was noted by every reviewer. The film played in ten cities across the United States in the wide-screen Vitascope (65mm) version, while the rest of the country (which did not yet have theaters capable of playing widescreen films) were provided with standard 35mm prints. Otis Skinner was 73 years old while lead actress Loretta Young was 17 years old.

Box office

According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $315,000 domestic and $147,000 foreign.

Preservation status

The enormous amount of pre-Code content (especially in the sequences in the harem) has probably contributed to the film's "lost" status. Two remakes, both in color, were made of the film, one in 1944 and the other in 1955. The 1955 version was an adaptation of the hit Broadway musical based on the play. Some sources claim that the original 1930 film featured

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

sequences. The film is considered lost, while the complete soundtrack of the film survives on

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...

disks. An outtake of the production does exist and can be seen.

Foreign-language versions

One

foreign-language version A multiple-language version film, often abbreviated to MLV, is a film, especially from the early talkie era, produced in several different languages for international markets. To offset the marketing restrictions of making sound films in only one ...

of the 1930 version of ''Kismet'' was made. The German version, also titled ''Kismet'', was directed by William Dieterle, and was released in 1931. 1893-1993

References

External links

* * * 1930 films 1930s musical drama films 1930s fantasy films American musical drama films American multilingual films American films based on plays Films directed by John Francis Dillon Lost American films First National Pictures films Warner Bros. films Films produced by Robert North 1930 multilingual films 1930 lost films Lost drama films 1930 drama films Films scored by Edward Ward (composer) 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{musical-drama-film-stub