Dante's Inferno

Dante's Inferno (1935)

It will burn itself in your memory forever!

A carny builds a gambling empire at the expense of his family's wellbeing.

Date of release
1935-08-23
TMDB
6.2 / 10 (12)
Runtime
1h 29m
Genres
Drama, History, Horror
Director
Harry Lachman

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: The Divine Comedy

Dante's Inferno is a 1935 American drama 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 realized by director Harry Lachman, himself an established Post-Impressionist painter. This was Fox Film Corporation's last film to be produced under the Fox Studios banner before the company merged with Twentieth Century Pictures to form 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation.

Production

The film uses a conventional story of greed and dishonesty to project an image of the Inferno conjured up in Dante's 14th-century epic poem. Director Lachman had established a substantial reputation as a painter before embarking on a Hollywood career and he summoned his artistic vision to realise Dante's work in cinematographic form, drawing on the engravings of Gustave Doré.

The 1935 film was produced by Fox Film Corporation just before the May 31, 1935 merger that created Twentieth Century-Fox, and so it was released as a Twentieth Century-Fox film.

In Philadelphia, the red-tinted hell scenes were projected in Magnascope, an early widescreen process.

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