Kismet (1930 film)

Infobox Film
name = Kismet (1930)


producer = Robert North
director = John Francis Dillon
writer = Howard Estabrook
based on the play by Edward Knoblock
starring = Otis Skinner
Loretta Young
David Manners
Sidney Blackmer
music = Leon Rosebrook
Edward Ward
cinematography = John F. Seitz
editing = Alexander Hall
distributor = First National Pictures: A Subsidiary of Warner Bros.
released = October 30, 1930
runtime = 90 min.
language = English
country = USA
budget = $600,000
imdb_id = 0021029|

"Kismet" is a 1930 costume drama photographed entirely in an early widescreen process using 65mm film that was called Vitascope. The film was based on Edward Knoblock's play. It had previously been filmed as a silent picture in 1920.

Production

Warner Bros. spared no expense in making this picture. They spent $600,000 in producing this picture 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.

Trivia

At the time he played Hajj in the sound version, Otis Skinner was 72. This was his only feature-length sound film.

Preservation

The film is believed to be lost. The enormous amount of Pre-Code content (especially in the sequences in the harem) probably contributed to this loss, as the film was condemned by the censors in 1935 and consequently became illegal to exhibit or view in the United States. Two considerably cleaned-up 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 sequences. The complete soundtrack survives on Vitaphone disks.