Found in the translation?

[Hannah High]

A few questions really...



What did Barrie think of the many actresses who played Peter Pan? Or any of them? I know he was displeased with the statue...but I was wondering...



Did he see the first movie version...the silent film (sorry, I can't remember the year it was made)..do you know what he thought of it?





Besides Ian Holm and Johnny Depp are there any other actors that potrayed Mr. Barrie...I don't mean on stage (I know there's The Man Who Was Peter Pan) but on film?



Besides in The Lost Boys, do you, Mr. Birkin, feel that any actor/actress and (or) film has captured the true Peter?



Sorry if it seems a little much, but I'm just filled with questions tonight!

[Rebecca]

I think I can answer your first two questions. The black-and-white silent movie was made in 1924, with 17-year-old Betty Bronson in the title role. I read in The Peter Pan Chronicles, by Bruce Hanson, that Barrie was very impressed by Bronson's performance but not with the movie as a whole. I think I remember reading on this message board that the studio completely ignored the screenplay he offered for it ... or something along those lines.
I think Hanson taints The Peter Pan Chronicles with his own preferences -- his favorite Pan, Mary Martin, gets two whole chapters to herself, while many British leading ladies like Jean Forbes-Robertson, Maggie Smith, and Hayley Mills are all crammed into one skinny chapter -- but I still really recommend you read it if you can. It discusses how Barrie felt about almost all of the actresses who played Pan in his lifetime, and there's a funny exchange between him and one actress who asked something like, "Where did Peter get these high boots? Did he go down to Herrod's and buy them?" Oh, and Cynthia Asquith shares an anecdote about the silent movie in her JMB biography, Portrait of Barrie. Apparently, she and her son Simon had been offered the roles of Mrs. Darling and Michael, but Barrie had refused to let them appear in the movie. "Shattering collapse of my castles in the air!" writes Cynthia.
I've seen the silent movie, and I like it, but it loses major points in my book for being set in America! Don't get me wrong: I love my country, and I think it's a great place for many things, but it is not a setting for Peter Pan! What's supposed to sub for Kensington Gardens -- Central Park??