Perhaps too focused on the poetics rather than the plot, this version of the Shakespeare play is very hard to follow because where there's supposed to be movement, there's nothing but stillness. Where there's subtlety, there's nothing but bellowing. As Laurence Olivier's first Shakespeare on screen, it's a curiosity because he's so young. He definitely fits the part of Orlando in appearance, but the lack of direction works against him.
She was a terrific Catherine the Great, but Elisabeth Bergner's Rosalind is the saddest bit of miscasting since Pickford and Fairbanks as Katherine and Petrucchio in "Taming of the Shrew" right after the beginning of talkies. Characters talk far too much and make the viewer forget that they're watching a movie rather than just listening to selective soliloquies, and that has a negative impact on the film. Poor prints make it all the worst with a dull looking forest with adults just playing dress-up. Static and painful, and skippable.
She was a terrific Catherine the Great, but Elisabeth Bergner's Rosalind is the saddest bit of miscasting since Pickford and Fairbanks as Katherine and Petrucchio in "Taming of the Shrew" right after the beginning of talkies. Characters talk far too much and make the viewer forget that they're watching a movie rather than just listening to selective soliloquies, and that has a negative impact on the film. Poor prints make it all the worst with a dull looking forest with adults just playing dress-up. Static and painful, and skippable.