Foolish Wives
and
Greed
director
Erich Von Stroheim
briefly considered directing a film version in the 1920s.
Dreiser strongly disapproved of the
1931 film version
directed by
Josef von Sternberg
.
In April 1929, Dreiser agreed that German director
Erwin Piscator
should produce a stage
version of
An American Tragedy
. Piscator's stage adaptation premiered in
Vienna
in April 1932,
and made its US debut in April 1935 at the
Hedgerow Theatre
,
Rose Valley
. The play was
produced as well by
Lee Strasberg
at the
Group Theatre
in March 1936. A revival was
produced by the Hedgerow Theatre in September 2010 (the original adaptation was wrongly
credited to Piscator's wife
Maria Ley
).
In the 1940s, the novel inspired an episode of the award-winning
old-time radio
comedy
Our
Miss Brooks
, an episode known as "Weekend at Crystal Lake", or "An American Tragedy". The
episode revolved around the characters' misinterpreting the intentions of biology teacher
Philip Boyton (played by
Jeff Chandler
), Connie Brooks's (
Eve Arden
) high school colleague
and love interest. The characters fear that Boynton plans to kill Miss Brooks during a leisurely
weekend at their boss's lakeside retreat. The episode was broadcast twice, on September 19,
1948, and on August 21, 1949. The episode was also repeated in 1955, when the show was a
hit on both radio and
television
.
[8]
The 1951
Paramount Pictures
film
A Place in the Sun
, directed by
George Stevens
and starring
Montgomery Clift
,
Elizabeth Taylor
, and
Shelley Winters
, is based on the novel.
[9]
Further television or film
adaptations of
An American Tragedy
have been produced in Brazil
(
Um Lugar ao Sol
, TV series, 1959, director: Dionísio Azevedo), Italy (
"
it:Una tragedia
americana
"
, Rai 1, 1962, regista: Anton Giulio Majano), Czechoslovakia (
Americká tragédia
, TV
Adaptations
series, 1976, director: Stanislav Párnicky), Philippines (
Nakaw na pag-ibig
, film, 1980, director:
Lino Brocka
), USSR (
Американская трагедия
, 4 parts, Lithuanian Film Studio, 1981, director:
Marijonas Giedrys), and Japan (
Hi no ataru basho
, TV series, 1982, director: Masami Ryuji).
Composer
Tobias Picker
adapted the material as an
opera of the same name
, with a libretto
by Gene Scheer. It premiered at the
Metropolitan Opera
starring
Nathan Gunn
in New York on
December 2, 2005.
Critics and commentators have compared elements of
Woody Allen
's film,
Match Point
(2005),
to the central plot of the novel.
[10][11]
The novel was adapted as a musical of the same title by three-time
Tony Award
-winning
composer and lyricist
Charles Strouse
. It premiered at
Muhlenberg College
, located in
Allentown, Pennsylvania
, on March 24, 2010.
In Cuba, the novel has been adapted and broadcast by Radio Progreso national broadcasting
twice: in 1977 and 2001. The first of the versions starred such renowned actors as Raul Selis
(as Clyde), Martha del Rio (Roberta), Miriam Mier (Sondra), Julio Alberto Casanova (Gilbert),
and Maggie Castro (Bertine).
Jennifer Donnelly
's 2003 young adult novel,
A Northern Light
, recounts the events from the
narrative viewpoint of a young woman working at the local camp.
In 2021, the classic crime novel was re-imagined in the form of a fictional investigative
docuseries in
The Anatomy of Desire
by L. R. Dorn, the pen name of screenwriting team Matt
Dorff and Suzanne Dunn.
Awards
In 2005, the book was placed on
Time
magazine's
list of the top 100 novels
written in English
since 1923.
[12]
Controversy
In 1927, the book was banned in Boston, Massachusetts due to sexual content, abortion, and
murder.
[13]
In 1933, it was burned by Nazis in Germany because it "deals with low love affairs".
[13]
Reception