This movie had everything going for it. Clearly, visibly a big budget, with some very impressive production numbers. Some very fine actors - John Barrymore may have been drunk much of the time, but he still gives a memorable performance as Mercutio. Edna May Olliver is great as the Nurse. Basil Rathbone is evil as Tybalt.
But for reasons I can't really explain, this movie just didn't hold me. I kept thinking of the Midsummer Night's Dream that Max Rinehardt did for Warner Brothers about the same time, in many ways a magical movie. This movie is often impressive, but, for me, it was never magical.
Some will criticize the casting of Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer as Romeo and Juliet. Yes, they are clearly much too old to be taken as adolescents. But they don't try to be adolescents, so the play becomes the story of two middle-aged people in love, which didn't bother me at all. I find Shearer to be a very mannered actress, good in some things stilted in others. She very much overdoes Juliet, to my eyes, though I could see a teen-age girl acting just the same way.
If you like the play, or even if you don't, watch this movie once. I don't know that I could sit through it again a second time myself.
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Well, I watched it again tonight on TCM - there was nothing else on that interested me - and I found that, while some parts did not hold me at all, others did, largely because of the way some of the actors delivered Shakespeare's text. I don't know that I could sit through this in a theater, but at home, where I can do other things until they get to the next scene that interests me, this worked well for me. And I found myself reveling in the language of Shakespeare.
But for reasons I can't really explain, this movie just didn't hold me. I kept thinking of the Midsummer Night's Dream that Max Rinehardt did for Warner Brothers about the same time, in many ways a magical movie. This movie is often impressive, but, for me, it was never magical.
Some will criticize the casting of Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer as Romeo and Juliet. Yes, they are clearly much too old to be taken as adolescents. But they don't try to be adolescents, so the play becomes the story of two middle-aged people in love, which didn't bother me at all. I find Shearer to be a very mannered actress, good in some things stilted in others. She very much overdoes Juliet, to my eyes, though I could see a teen-age girl acting just the same way.
If you like the play, or even if you don't, watch this movie once. I don't know that I could sit through it again a second time myself.
-------------------------------------------------------
Well, I watched it again tonight on TCM - there was nothing else on that interested me - and I found that, while some parts did not hold me at all, others did, largely because of the way some of the actors delivered Shakespeare's text. I don't know that I could sit through this in a theater, but at home, where I can do other things until they get to the next scene that interests me, this worked well for me. And I found myself reveling in the language of Shakespeare.