Anyone bothered by the changes from the novel of the versions reviewed above will enter a state of apoplexy with this one. That doesn’t mean it isn’t charming, just different.
The satire has faded away in the face of romance and humor. This is a frothy, funny take on the material, much in the style of the romantic comedies of the era. The advertisement suggested: Bachelors beware! Five gorgeous beauties are on a madcap manhunt! A bit misleading as the movie never enters the land of screwball comedy, but you are definitely working with a different tone.
Also in keeping with those times, the actresses are too old for their parts. No wonder Mrs. Bennet was panicking when she’s got an unmarried thirty-six-year-old daughter in the house. Wickham’s ability to talk a twenty-year-old into an illicit encounter also seems less scandalous.
Even age-challenged, Greer Garson makes a delightful Lizzie. Smart, sharp, and attractive, she’s more of an ideal 1940s woman than an 1820s one, but an ideal woman is an ideal woman, so let’s not get picky. Edmund Gwenn (Miracle on 34th Street) is a more than amiable Mr. Bennet and Mary Boland makes even Mrs. Bennet sympathetic. Melville Cooper (The Adventures of Robin Hood, The King’s Thief) takes on a defrocked Mr. Collins (the production code forbid disparaging men of the cloth) and simpers as only he can, and Edna May Oliver gives us the only version of Lady Catherine de Bourgh that I would like to meet. In the largest alteration of any character, Lady Catherine becomes a loving aunt to Darcy with sensibilities from another age.
As a romantic-comedy, the 1940 Pride and Prejudice works because of the changes to Darcy. Laurence Olivier does a fine job bringing him to life, but it’s the script that counts. This is the only Darcy who isn’t an ass. Yes, he’s pompous and arrogant, but in an easily forgivable way. He’s what Darcy should have been in all the films, a good, but flawed individual with a touch too much pride and his own prejudices.