The Great Gatsby: Midnight in Manhattan

Frances Kroll Ring, F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s secretary for the last two years of his life (he wanted someone outside of Hollywood to assist him with his film studio- based novel, The Last Tycoon), begins this BBC documentary by entering, for the first time in decades, the apartment room (of Fitzgerald’s lover, Sheilah Graham) where Fitzgerald died of a heart attack, at the tragic age of 44. This scene, alone, makes watching Midnight in Manhattan worthwhile to a Fitzgerald appreciator like myself. (The fireplace shown, alongside which Fitzgerald suffered his fatal heart attack, is the same I drew for the death scene in my own Fitzgerald fantasia, “Michael Neno’s Dream”.) This BBC DVD has nearly two hours of Fitzgeraldian lore to soak in.

Midnight in Manhattan is a rumination on what some consider to be the greatest American novel of the 20th century. Of its many fine qualities are its attempts to communicate, in an artful and compelling way, the folly of aspiration of wealth, the yearning for a flawless romantic relationship, the uselessness of trying to recreate a past – all (and more) attributes that apply to Fitzgerald himself, who squandered much time drinking and partying, Gatsby being the one great novel he was able to muster. The documentary demonstrates the various ways the book can be interpreted, from a love story, to a depiction of a specific time and place, to a nihilistic tragedy.

Although the DVD was released in 2013 (presumably to take advantage of director Baz Luhrmann’s concurrent abomination of an adaptation), it was made in 2000 (on the 75th Anniversary of The Great Gatsby) – lucky for us, because many of the authors it interviews have now passed on. Foremost among those are gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson (who one wouldn’t immediately take for a Fitzgerald fan), William Styron (The Confessions of Nat Turner), George Plimpton, and Budd Schulberg (What Makes Sammy Run?), who collaborated with Fitzgerald on the 1939 comedy film Winter Carnival.

Also interviewed and sharing great insight are professor Matthew J. Bruccoli, (author of perhaps the best Fitzgerald biography, 1981’s Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald) and professor James L. W. West III, whose Cambridge Edition of the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald is scholarly publication at its best, and highly recommended. Midnight in Manhattan also interviews Fitzgerald’s granddaughter, Eleanor Ann Lanahan.

Filling out the DVD is a 1975 British teleplay written by Robert Muller, “Private Affairs: A Dream of Living”. Set in 1925 in Paris, the hour-long performance features F. Scott (David Hemmings), wife Zelda (Annie Lambert) and Ernest Hemingway (Charles Keating). The (presumably) videotape recording gives the presentation no favors, but if you’re invested in the characters (as I am), the story will hold your attention.

—Michael R. Neno, 2019 Apr 011