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An American Tragedy, the 1931 Josef von Sternberg romantic love triangle murder courtroom lawyer legal melodrama ("Based upon the novel 'An American Tragedy' by Theodore Dreiser"; about a working class man with a working class girlfriend, but then he acquires a rich girlfriend, and it seems that he will have a wonderful life, but his first girlfriend turns up pregnant, and he is sorely tempted to do anything to get her out of the picture) starring Phillips Holmes, Sylvia Sidney, Frances Dee, Irving Pichel, Frederick Burton, and Charles Middleton. Note that this movie was re-made in 1951 under the title "A Place in the Sun", with Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters in the lead roles. Note that Phillips Holmes had made an impression in some movies in the late 1920s. In 1931, he would get the lead in the first version of this movie, which made it seem like he would become a major star, but that didn't materialize. He had a major affair with Libby Holman, but that was certainly complicated, and when they broke up, she immediately married his brother! Oddly, years later, Holman would have another very complicated affair with Montgomery Clift, who played the same part in the remake of "An American Tragedy", re-titled "A Place in the Sun". Sadly, Holmes died in a plane crash in 1942. I am very surprised no one has made a movie about his life, or a joint movie about him and Libby Holman!
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Important Added Info: Note that this is the Horace Liveright photoplay edition in its original dust jacket (one of a collection of such books we are auctioning in this set of auctions). Here are some more details about these books: World Publishing (like Grosset & Dunlap) was a publisher that made a deal with some studios to publish "movie edition" hardcovers of novels that were currently adapted into movies. They would republish the original novel as the movie came out (or soon after), and they would put a dust jacket on the book that showed the stars of the movie, and they would include several pages of images from the movie scattered in the book. Oddly, in the case of this movie edition, they did not include any images from the movie within the book, but the stars' images are on the cover of the dust jacket. Perhaps it was published before the movie even was ready, so they did not have access to images from the film. These books were incredibly popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Note that we have pictured the front cover, the title page, and the interior page that shows the publishing information, and one or more interior 2-page spreads. Because we know that the dust jacket is an important part of the value of this book, we also pictured the entire dust jacket opened up. Between that image and our other images, you should be able to get a good sense of the overall condition of this book.

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