Dante's Inferno (1935 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Dante's Inferno is a 1935 film starring Spencer Tracy and loosely based on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. The film remains primarily remembered for a 10-minute depiction of hell realised by director Harry Lachman, himself an established post-impressionist painter. This was Fox Film Corporation's last film before the company merged with Twentieth Century Pictures to form 20th Century Fox.
Plot
Jim Carter, a former stoker, takes over a fairground show, run by 'Pop' McWade, which depicts scenes from Dante's Inferno. He marries Pop's niece Betty and they have a son, Alexander. Meanwhile, the show becomes a great success, with Carter making it larger and more lurid. An inspector declares the fair unsafe but Carter bribes him into silence. There is a partial collapse at the fair which injures Pop. Recovering in hospital, he admonishes Carter and we see a lengthy vision of the Inferno. Undeterred, Carter establishes a new venture with an unsafe floating casino, only for disaster to strike again at sea.
Cast
- Spencer Tracy as Jim Carter
- Claire Trevor as Betty McWade
- Henry B. Walthall as Pop McWade
- Alan Dinehart as Jonesy
- Scotty Beckett as Alexander Carter
- Rita Hayworth (credited as Rita Cansino) as Dancer
- Willard Robertson as Building Inspector Harris
- Morgan Wallace as Chad Williford
- Robert Gleckler as Dean
- Don Ameche as Man in Stoke-Hold (uncredited)
- Jack Mower as Court Bailiff (uncredited)
- George Irving as Judge (uncredited)
This was Spencer Tracy's last film for Fox before moving to MGM.
