The Pagan

The Pagan
1929 lobby poster
Directed byW. S. Van Dyke
Written byJohn Russell (story)
Dorothy Farnum (scenario)
John Howard Lawson (intertitles)
Produced byLouis B. Mayer
Irving Thalberg
StarringRamon Novarro
Renée Adorée
Donald Crisp
Dorothy Janis
CinematographyClyde De Vinna
Edited byBen Lewis
Music byWilliam Axt (music score)
Nacio Herb Brown (theme song)
Arthur Freed (theme song)
Distributed byMGM
Release date
  • April 27, 1929 (1929-04-27)
Running time
9 reels; 7,459 feet
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSound (synchronized)
English intertitles

The Pagan is a 1929 synchronized sound romantic drama filmed in Tahiti and produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. Both director W. S. Van Dyke and cinematographer Clyde De Vinna had previously visited Tahiti in 1928 to film White Shadows in the South Seas. The Pagan stars Ramón Novarro.

The film has a slight resemblance in story to an earlier Novarro silent, Where the Pavement Ends (1923), directed by Rex Ingram and now lost.