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An American Tragedy Overview:

An American Tragedy (1931) was a Romance - Drama Film directed by Josef von Sternberg and produced by Josef von Sternberg.

SYNOPSIS

A young man gets a job at his uncle's factory, where he seduces an innocent co-worker, getting her pregnant. Wanting to climb the social ranks, he also gets involved with a wealthy debutante with whom he falls in love. Faced with the disgrace of impregnating the factory girl and in fear of losing his rising social status, he kills the young factory girl and faces a sensational murder trial.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

An American Tragedy BlogHub Articles:

From Headline to Novel to Screen: An American Tragedy – The Classic Literature on Film Blogathon

By shadowsandsatin on Jul 16, 2023 From Shadows and Satin

In 1925, writer Theodore Dreiser released An American Tragedy – it was his sixth novel and followed such popular fare as Sister Carrie in 1900 and Jennie Gerhardt in 1911. The novel was, as they say, ripped from the headlines; it was based on the well-known 1906 Gillette murder case, which involve... Read full article

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An American Tragedy Quotes:

No Quote for this film.
An American Tragedy Facts
Theodore Dreiser sued Paramount for misrepresenting his novel by transforming it into an ordinary murder story. The judge ruled in favor of Paramount; Dreiser's motion to prevent release of the film was denied.
The mother of Grace Brown, the real-life murder victim, filed a $150,000 libel suit against Paramount in 1934. The suit was settled out of court.
Theodore Dreiser's novel was based on the actual 1906 murder case of Chester Gillette, convicted of drowning his girlfriend Grace Brown in Big Moose Lake in upstate New York. Gillette was executed in the electric chair on 30 March 1908.
One of the very few feature films to be dubbed in Swedish. The audience, however, did not take to Swedish voices in an American film and preferred the subtitled version. Since then, subtitling has been the general practice in Sweden, with the exception of animated films and children's films (even then, an option of seeing the original version is usually available).
Writer Theodore Dreiser was dismayed to find that director Josef von Sternberg and Paramount had taken so many liberties with his book, and he successfully sued, which forced von Sternberg to add many scenes that had been edited out of the movie. The resulting final cut was so far from what von Sternberg had intended, he disowned the picture.
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