As You Like It (1936) User Reviews

"All The World's A Stage...."

[theowinthrop · 7/10 · 17 October 2005]

AS YOU LIKE IT is an odd duck among the major plays of Shakespeare that have been filmed. It is one of the three top romantic comedies (with MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING and TWELFTH NIGHT) that Shakespeare wrote, but none of them have been favorites for film (not like A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM). MUCH ADO recently was redone by Kenneth Branagh, but not as well received as his HAMLET and HENRY V. AS YOU LIKE IT was done a few times on television, but not as a film - except for this 1936 version.

AS YOU LIKE IT is set in the forest of Arden. Most of the characters are in hiding there or have been exiled there. The local Duke has been overthrown by his brother (Duke Frederick / Felix Aylmer) and exiled there. His courtiers followed. Lawrence Olivier is the son of a favorite of the old Duke, so he is not in favor with Aylmer. He is also finding life difficult with his older brother Oliver (John Laurie), who is consumed with jealousy. So Orlando (Olivier)flees to save his own life, and is soon at the court in the forest of Arden. The true Duke's daughter, Rosalind (Elisabeth Bergner), has also fled with her cousin Celia (Sophia Stewart), because Aylmer is unhappy at his niece's continuous appearance at the regular court.

Rosalind (in the plot) pretends to be a young boy, who tries to teach Orlando what real love is. He is full of the courtly love that percolated in European intellectual circles at the time, and Rosalind slowly makes Orlando realize how it is artificial (listen to her dismiss the idea of dying over a broken heart). Slowly she makes Orlando a fit lover - a real lover - for herself in her genuine person.

The forest becomes a place where truth keeps emerging out of the trees and bushes. One of the old Duke's closest friends, Jacques, gives the most famous speech of the play, "the seven ages of man". In it he describes the seven different roles played by men in life, from infancy to old age. Jacques is a melancholic figure, and he is balanced in the plot by Rosalind and Celia's servant, the fool Touchstone, who also demonstrates what makes a real lover in his easy dismissal of his rival William (Peter Bull, as a rather dumb rustic) over a shepherdess. Eventually even Oliver / Laurie ends up in the forest (Laurie is sent there because he is blamed for Duke Frederick's daughter's fleeing with Rosalind).

A bare recital of the play's plot is not as good as watching it. In truth, even with Bergner's accent, she gives one of the most charming performances in Shakespearean film. The personality that made her the leading actress in Austria and Germany carries well in her English films. Olivier, for an early film, does a good job - his youth aiding the character's education in the plot, and his good looks being shown to advantage. Aylmer, Laurie, Bull, Mackenzie Ward (Touchstone), and Leon Quartermain (Jacques) do the most with their parts. One wishes more of the play had been included, but the reduced size is not a big problem for the viewer. As an introduction to reading the play, and seeing a complete production, the 1936 film is pretty good.

Two Babes in the woods

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 29 September 2005]

Poor Elizabeth Bergner, she's the daughter of a deposed Duke who's now living in the Ardennes forest. She's living in the palace where her father's brother, the new Duke has kept her on as a companion for his daughter.

But one fine day she catches sight of young Laurence Olivier and when he wins a wrestling match with an airplane spin the folks in the WWE would envy, her eyes are for him only. Trouble is, he's the son of a knight the current Duke also didn't like. And Olivier has had a spat with his older brother. Off he goes to the woods. And Bergner follows him.

Pretty soon everybody's hanging out in the Ardennes and it's kind of like Shakespeare's other forest story, A Midsummer Night's Dream with people darting hither, thither and yon, the pursued becoming the pursuers and vice versa.

Elizabeth Bergner who plays Rosalind charmingly albeit her Teutonic accent, requested Olivier to be opposite her as Orlando. What Bergner wanted, Bergner got as her husband Paul Czinner produced the film. According to the book The Films of Laurence Olivier, Bergner and Olivier had some creative differences and relations were a bit chilly on the set.

This was the first time Olivier did Shakespeare for the screen or television and the only time he did not have creative control over what went out. He thought that the part of Orlando was as a dull romantic horse's patoot and not much could be done with it. When it came time to do Shakespeare again for the screen, Olivier would see it done right.

Still and all As You Like It is a charming antique and any time you can see Olivier do Shakespeare is time well spent.

Merely Players

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 10 September 2012]

In his first Shakespearian film, handsome nobleman Laurence Olivier (as Orlando) is tricked into a wrestling match by nasty brother John Laurie (as Oliver). Assumed to be the doomed underdog, Mr. Olivier surprises everyone by winning. He also catches the eye of Duke's daughter Elisabeth Bergner (as Rosalind), who is enamored with the younger man in tights. Olivier is likewise attracted to Ms. Bergner. They are banished, separately, to the animal-friendly Forest of Arden, where Bergner is disguised as a man...

This is a serviceable retelling of the Shakespearian comedy. Today, people may watch it for Olivier, but it's made for Bergner, who received "Best Actress" praise for previous performances in "The Rise of Catherine the Great" (1934, New York Times) and "Escape Me Never" (1935, Academy Awards nomination). All three pictures were directed by her husband Paul Czinner. Bergner is most appealing, but not convincing, in her scenes as the young man "Ganymede" with cousin Sophie Stewart (as Celia).

***** As You Like It (9/3/36) Paul Czinner ~ Elisabeth Bergner, Laurence Olivier, Sophie Stewart, John Laurie

Adequate, If Somewhat Aged, Adaptation of the Play

[Snow Leopard · 8 January 2002]

This is a decent adaptation of Shakespeare's "As You Like It", with the main reason to watch being a young Laurence Olivier as Orlando. The rest of the production is adequate, although some aspects of it are a bit routine. The story follows the play closely, except that of course a good proportion of the lines, plus occasional scenes, are deleted to bring it down to its movie length of about 90 minutes. You can definitely see its age at times, even more so than with most movies of the era, but it does have some positives too.

Very few performers come near Olivier's standard when it comes to doing Shakespeare, and even though this was one of his earliest efforts, he is still pretty good, delivering the lines well, although perhaps more brooding than necessary. The other lead, Elisabeth Bergner as Rosalind, does give her character a distinctive turn, but it does not always work as well. Still, she has plenty of energy, and that helps a lot. The production actually seems to highlight her performance more so than Olivier's. The rest of the cast is OK, but does not always have a lot to do.

The best productions of Shakespeare enable even those not familiar with the play to appreciate it, and this one probably does not do that. It will be best enjoyed by those who like the play and who also are already used to movies of the era.

Uneven but Likable, Especially Bergner as Rosalind

[richlandwoman · 7/10 · 20 February 2005]

The main role, Rosalind, is well-played by the cute, vivacious Bergner. Olivier is good with the physical stuff (very graceful) and the repartee. He tends to fall flat on the soliloquies and extended reveries, though. (And he's wearing way too much makeup, including at times some very crooked lipstick.) The costumes and sets are vivid, probably meant to suggest a fairy-tale, and thus account for the ridiculous plot devices.

And despite the comments of another reviewer, the camera-work is not all "point-and-shoot." It is a bit static by today's standards, but not by those of 1936.

The biggest liability is the muddy, distant sound.

All in all, I liked it more than the average filmed Shakespeare, though it's not great by any means.

As You Like it: Valid document of how Shakespeare was performed

[chrismark · 6/10 · 6 September 2021]

Famous for being the first British film adaptation of a Shakespeare's play, the movie is focused primarily on the tour de force of Elisabeth Bergner, who, German accent aside, succedes to give the character a genuine enthusiasm and lightness. Laurence Olivier is good-looking and elegant, but not yet as captivating as in his future memorable interpretations. Probably, the real interest of the film lies in the impressive technical cast, made up of greats such as David Lean (brilliant editing), Jack Cardiff and Harold Rosson (photography) and William Walton (music). Anyway, with a good cast to watch, the film stands as a valid document of how Shakespare was performed at the time.

Perdera Commedia

[drgarnett · 4/10 · 21 May 2011]

Unfortunately, Shakespeare's comedy 'As You Like It' has much of its comic aspects drained in this particular film version of the play, because of the sodden performances of a couple of players, Mackenzie Ward as Touchstone and Elizabeth Bergner as Rosalind.

The part of the Fool was an important part of Shakespearean plays, delivering pointed messages in the guise of witty remarks and jests. In this film, Touchstone's lines are breezed through so quickly and leadenly that the messages are lost. Bergner's Rosalind, was far worse. Rosalind was supposed to be disguised as a youthful man delivering acquired wisdom to men. I would have expected mainly a mock-serious performance, at most. Instead, Bergner performs Rosalind in a kind of giddy glee throughout, which must have marred her delivery of lines through that toothy grin combined with her Austrian accent.

Laurence Olivier, while performing in the more naturalistic way we would expect of a modern film actor, seems at times as if he's trying to get over with the whole thing, as might be expected if the rumors of artistic conflicts are true.

Sophie Stewart as Celia delivers probably the truest performance. Henry Ainley, Felix Aylmer, Leon Quartermain, and Dorice Fordred give nice performances as the two dukes, Jacques, and Audrey in minor parts. Peter Bull (the Russian ambassador from 'Dr. Strangelove') makes a very recognizable appearance in the second half.

I feel I ought to comment on the many complaints about the 'staginess' of the diction. My opinion is that these complaints have mainly to do with a couple of minor characters (e.g., Charles the Wrestler). Keep in mind that this is 1936, when many stage and silent actors were still adapting to the motion picture. Many films based on stage plays at that time appeared stagy, and many did even later (consider 'A Long Day's Journey Into Night' or 'A Streetcar Named Desire'). Few of Shakespeare's plays had been adapted to the sound motion picture by 1936. Cut them a little slack!

Fanciful family fun

[miss_lady_ice-853-608700 · 7/10 · 25 September 2012]

Nothing actually happens in As You Like It. Basically, characters hang around in a forest, moaning and pining, and there's the obligatory cross-dressing. However, it is a charming piece of whimsy (well, with some saucy humour) and this adaptation is the whimsiest of all.

Poor Elisabeth Bergner. Her interpretation of Rosalind is lovely; she is a Puck-like figure, toying with hearts but never in malice. JM Barrie had a hand in the film, and there is something Peter Pan-like about Rosalind. In her disguise, she is androgynous, both male and female. So contrary to other viewers, I like her Rosalind. The problem is Bergner's German accent is quite strong and shrill, making it hard to hear the words. However, if you watch a captioned version (there's one on YouTube), you can get past the accent and appreciate the performance.

This is Laurence Olivier's first Shakespeare on screen, as Orlando, Rosalind's love interest. Olivier is at his most dashing and smouldering here, every inch the romantic hero. He can't really do comedy, but in a way his very serious portrayal of Orlando works. Not only does it make the film more romantic, it contrasts nicely with Bergner's playful Rosalind and makes sense of Rosalind's taunting Orlando. She's basically telling him to lighten up.

This is a mercifully streamlined version of the play (after all, there's only so many forest romps we can take). Jaques basically says nothing except the seven ages of man speech, Touchstone has less scenes but is funny in them. This version is really just about Rosalind, Orlando, and maybe Celia, Rosalind's gal pal played endearingly by Sophie Stewart.

Perhaps we'll never get a perfectly faithful version of the play but this lovely bit of old-fashioned fluff is probably the best we'll get.

Didn't like it all that much

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 12 March 2021]

Honestly really, really wanted to like it. Shakespeare is one of the all-time great and most important playwrights and even in his lesser plays (such as 'As You Like It') his mastery of language and emotions and complex characterisations shone. Am a big admirer of Laurence Olivier, 'Rebecca', 'Brideshead Revisited' and all his succeeding Shakespeare roles. Am not the biggest of fans of this particular play, love the characters and text but the story is far from great.

Which is accentuated in this early film adaptation. It is primarily to be seen for seeing an early Shakespeare film and to see early career Olivier in his first Shakespeare role, also to be seen if you want to see every Shakespeare film posible and all available versions of 'As You Like It'. Sadly, beyond being a curio this is to me and quite a number of others seemingly is not a good film and another adaptation to show that 'As You Like It' is very hard to do well. Have yet to see a great version, the best available to me is the 1978 BBC Television Shakespeare adaptation and that had major shortcomings as well.

This adaptation of 'As You Like It' does have good things. There are a few good performances, Sophie Stewart is very endearing and sincere and Leon Quartermaine is suitably pompous as Jacques, his speech is one of 'As You Like It's' best moments which Quartermaine delivers more than believably (lives it actually). Felix Aylmer was always reliable and gives another strong performance. Olivier definitely went on to much better things and was more comfortable in his other Shakespearean roles, but already he showed a lot of understanding of Shakespeare's language, is in command of it and delivers his lines beautifully, didn't detect any awkwardness here.

A couple of other good things as well. The sets are both rustic and lavish enough and there is some nice whimsy here and there.

On the other hand, there are a lot of drawbacks. Starting with the near-universally, and unsurprisingly so in my view, panned performance of Elisabeth Bergner, Rosalind is a taxing and complex role and Bergner was clearly taxed. She doesn't look comfortable and a lot of her line delivery is unintentionally hilarious and not always comprehensible. Mackenzie Ward for my tastes was also very bland as Touchstone. Shakespeare's text itself is wonderful, but the delivery here varies. Great with Stewart, Olivier and Quartermaine but disastrous with Bergner. While there is some nice whimsy, 'As You Like It' is very comedic, here there actually is not enough emphasis on it and it's downplayed.

Direction tends to be too stagy, even for the time, and lacks distinction, the action also feels static. The storytelling is poorly done, the thinness of the play's story itself is very obvious through the pedestrian at best and often creaky pacing and the film does nothing to improve upon the problems of the play's ending, it's still incredibly absurd and comes out of nowhere. Other than the sets, 'As You Like It' doesn't look particularly good, the photography is too static and over simple and the costumes are as unflattering and unintentionally bizarre as they come.

Concluding, didn't like this very much sad to say. 4/10

I do desire we may be better strangers

[GusF · 6/10 · 6 September 2015]

One of Shakespeare's best known comedies, this could have been a great film if not for one absolutely fatal flaw. It is an adaptation of a Shakespearean play that I was only familiar with by its reputation so I don't know how much or how little is left out of the film. In any event, the play is a great tale of love and injustice but I don't think that it is one of the Bard's better works. The film is generally well directed by Paul Czinner and there are several famous names behind the camera: the screenwriter J.M. Barrie, the cameraman Jack Cardiff, the editor David Lean and the composer William Walton.

The aforementioned fatal flaw is the casting of Elisabeth Bergner, who just so happened to be the director's wife, as the protagonist Rosalind. Now, I have nothing against nepotism in films when it works but it certainly doesn't here. She is an absolutely atrocious actress who, rather impressively, manages to go through the entire film without delivering a single line in an even remotely convincing manner. You'd think that even by the law of averages she would manage it once or twice but she doesn't. Her performance, for lack of a better word, is one of the worst that I have ever seen in any film whatsoever and I'm afraid that that is not an exaggeration. Her horrendously over the top screeching and stilted delivery of all of her lines is incredibly painful. I actually yelled, "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" at the screen at one point. The annoying thing is that Rosalind is one of the strongest female characters that I have across in Shakespeare and she deserved better.

On the bright side, when Czinner looked beyond his family, he managed to assemble a great cast who make the film watchable. In his first on screen Shakespearean role, the 29-year-old Laurence Olivier is excellent as Rosalind's lover Orlando. He almost always makes acting, Shakespearean or otherwise, look so natural and this film is no exception. The scenes between him and Bergner are both a masterclass in how to act and how not to act, which is worth something I suppose. In terms of acting, they were like the agony and ecstasy. She was the agony. The film has a very strong supporting cast such as Sophie Stewart as Celia (who would have been far better in the role of Rosalind but, then again, who wouldn't?), Felix Aylmer as Duke Frederick, John Laurie as Orlando's brother Oliver, Leon Quartermaine as "Monsieur Melancholy" Jacques who delivers the famous "All the world's a stage" speech wonderfully and Henry Ainley as Duke Senior. Aylmer and Laurie later turned up in Olivier's Shakespearean films as a director. Bergner didn't, incidentally.

Overall, this had the potential to be a great film but the casting of the female lead was an utterly insurmountable problem. I'd probably have given it as much as 9/10 if someone who could act was cast as Rosalind. In 1949, the film was re-released with the tagline "Today's most lauded and applauded star." They didn't mean Elisabeth Bergner, unsurprisingly.

As They Used to Like It

[Bologna King · 3/10 · 17 May 2001]

There used to be a thing called the classical method of delivering Shakespearean dialogue. And while this method may help an actor or actress be heard and understood from the back of a theatre when on stage, it is not necessary in a film where artificial amplification is available. Olivier was one of the first to realize this as his gentle, natural, and easily understood delivery of the lines here shows. Leon Quartermaine, as Jaques, is similarly easy to follow, and his rendition of the most famous speech from this play is thoughtful and easy to get along with.

You also get a fair bit of the more pompous formal style. In reviews of other films you may read that modern actors mumble their lines, don't know how to speak Shakespeare and so on. Watch this movie and find out what they wish everyone sounded like.

The costumes, which have a fourteenth century feel to them, are highly unflattering. One feels that the costumes and settings were devised to match people's expectations of what Shakespeare ought to look like. A little imagination would have paid big dividends.

What makes this film really difficult to watch, however, is the most important person in the whole play. As You Like It centres on Rosalind. What possessed the producers to cast for this part a woman who couldn't act, spoke English with an accent so thick you could spread it on toast, has no feel for Shakespeare and doesn't even look good is beyond the comprehension of this mere mortal. Trying to comprehend Elisabeth Bergner is practically impossible. The old-fashioned and unimaginitive approach to the play might be tolerable, but not without a Rosalind.

A new treatment of this play is long overdue.

One of Shakespeare's most delightful plays made more than justice

[clanciai · 10/10 · 27 July 2020]

This is very much in the same style as Max Reinhardt's ambitious rendering of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" a few years earlier, it's the same playfulness, the same fantastic imagination and innovations, the same good humour and the same kind of gorgeous sets with a number of sumptuous crowd scenes, and instead of Mendelssohn's music you have William Walton, who actually proves just as appropriate. This is one of those plays that are almost impossible to fail in, as it is so ingenious and well written with such adorable characters, and both Elisabeth Bergner and Laurence Olivier do credit to them indeed, Bergner actually almost outshining Olivier, whose fírst Shakespeare film this was. In comparison with Kenneth Branagh's version 70 years later, this is actually so much more enoyable, although it's without colours and much shorter, but Branagh's production is heavier, he has the tendency to always overdo everything in his films, and in this version everything is convincing and true to the original character of the play, while Branagh always must modernize and almost screw it up. The doiminating trait of the film is a very playful direction, you feel throughout that the director enjoyed doing this, perhaps even more than Reinhardt in the midsummer night play with Mickey Rooney as Puck and James Cagney as Bottom, and later on Paul Czinner made some of the best ballet films ever made. In brief, in spite of its early age and lack of technical maturity, this is a perfect Shakespeare film.

As You Like It

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 7 June 2023]

Elizabeth Bergner looks something akin to "Peter Pan" stuck in the headlights of an approaching armoured car in this really rather dry interpretation of one of William Shakespeare's lighter comedies. In theory, the cast ought to have been able to deliver far better than they did - and that seems largely down to Paul Czinner's character prioritisation. Anyone who reads the bard's work will realise that the "Fool" is always a crucial character for the narrative and the humour. "Touchstone" (played here competently by Mackenzie Ward) seems to be on the clock the whole time. His lines are delivered pell mell without leaving us the chance to absorb the wit, subtlety - and the information - contained in his lines. This really starves us of much of the nuance and fun, frankly, of the piece. What we are left with is Olivier being, well, Olivier - big eyes and grand gestures with pitch perfect delivery and all the emotion of a coal sack; and Felix Aylmer taking the imperious role of "Frederick" from the stage and making no real effort to adapt it at all for the cinema. The production whistles along with fine attention to the costumes and sets and I did quite like the epilogue - but that may have just been relief. A bit like "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - some things belong on the medium for which they were originally conceived. This, I'd say, is one such example.

I Love Shakespeare, but...

[binaryg · 2/10 · 17 April 2011]

Oliver's first cinematic Shakespeare, David Lean as editor, J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan author) credited for "treatment" of the play, Jack Cardiff (the great cinematographer) as camera operator. With all of that talent it should be great. I'm not some kind of purist when it comes to cinematic Shakespeare.

Given that "As You Like It" is not one of my favorite plays this experiment of bringing the Bard's work to the masses could be enough to keep this viewer away from ever wanting to see any more of this. The most damaging part of this version is the poor choice by director Paul Czinner of turning over the pivotal role of Rosalind to his wife, Elisabeth Bergner. For me the thickness of her German accent bleeds all of the life and poetry out of the production. She is quite attractive but just not right for this part. The beautiful photography, the fairy tale sets, the play itself, and the beautiful Oliver (whose performance is far from classic) can not salvage this abomination. It's everything Shakespeare should not be.

A very mixed bag. Beautiful Olivier.

[john-lauritsen · 3/10 · 29 May 2018]

Some of the actors could deliver the Shakespeare lines well. Olivier was fine in a limited part. Elizabeth Bergner was very wrong for the part of Rosalind -- too old and not able to pronounce English well, let alone do justice to the Shakespeare poetry. With plucked eyebrows and lipstick, she looked nothing like an adolescent youth. Bergner had energy, but the part calls for more complexity and intellectuality than she could muster.

With misgivings, I enjoyed this film.

Rosalind is not Peter Pan

[dscan · 2/10 · 20 March 2007]

I don't think it's Elisabeth Bergner's fault that her performance so completely obscures the character of Rosalind. She is the focus and heart of the play, probably the most admirable woman character in all of Shakespeare's plays. But this production turns the role into farce and misses the point that she is a powerful personality. She is a person in control of herself and of the other characters and the plot. Thanks to the "treatment" of the play by J. M. Barrie who appears to have consulted and unfortunately controlled the production we have Peter Pan playing the role. Mr. Barrie did a wonderful thing in creating Peter Pan but it was a dreadful mistake to try to transplant him/her to this play.

The other characters were OK and it is interesting to see Olivier so young. Too bad he didn't have the vehicle he deserved. It might have been a very memorable production.

You'd be better off attending a school play

[munroeriedlav · 2/10 · 10 August 2007]

Many consider Shakespeare's plays to be masterpieces of entertainment, while many others think them an archaic institution kept alive only by the force of tradition. The 1936 movie adaptation of "As You Like It" lends support to the latter view and will make proponents of the former cringe in embarrassment. This film was put together with no art: the lines are delivered in such a way that one suspects the actors forgot they were on film and not in a theater, the costumes and sets are almost a parody of the floweriest of Shakespeare performances, and the acting is atrocious. To better throw these failures into sharp relief is the movie's almost total lack of musical scoring. In this poor man's Shakespeare, it is fitting that the main character Rosalind should be played by a poor woman's Garbo, the ever-giddy Elisabeth Bergner. As her love interest Orlando, Laurence Olivier is young, pretty, and very athletic, but his athleticism is the only life in this picture, just as his low-key delivery of his lines is the only acting in this movie not appallingly overwrought. The jester and his lass also have some charm, however, even if they are stagy and melodramatic, which convinces me that some weak approximation of entertainment could be made of this sad piece of film-making if it only had a Rosalind who could carry it. I wonder whether this film would even exist had the director not been Bergner's husband.

Fun Shakespeare film of a fun Shakespeare play

[elisereid-29666 · 10/10 · 18 November 2020]

Adapting Shakespeare is hard. Adapting a comic work of literature is hard. Adapting a comic Shakespeare work is a challenge of a tremendous magnitude, especially when you were limited to the technology of the 1930s and the staginess of the film technique of that period. It is like brushing your teeth with one bristle.

And yet...this may be my favorite of all the Shakespeare films I've seen. Which is no small feat because "As You Like It" is my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, so I'm downright picky about how it is adapted.

Yes, the play has been shortened. But the essence of it is there, and most of what people like about the play is intact. I did not feel like anything worthwhile was missing, even though it had been a while since I'd read the intact play.

The elements that make a good comedy are here as well, which is so hard to do when you're in the twentieth century doing a Shakespearian play. Most of all, it is that the performers (especially Bergner) look like they are enjoying themselves. Even if we don't get all the jokes and references that were understood in Shakespeare's day (or we can't understand the words because the 1930s soundtrack is muffled at times), we don't mind because the performers are having a good time and, by osmosis, so are we. It would have been so easy for less-talented performers to be so reverent to the material that they fail to understand that it is meant to be a comedy, and therefore spend their screentime memorizing lines rather than inhabiting their characters.

Making Shakespeare come alive in a movie is not easy, and I'll admit I did not have high hopes for this film. But I was won over by its unique charm, and it makes every farce ever made that came after look derivative.

For Olivier Fans Only

[michaelf · 3/10 · 7 June 2000]

Here is a great chance to see a young Laurence Olivier when he was still in his developmental stage. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is unworthy and forgettable. Olivier, in a supporting role, seems to try to carry the film as best he can. But at this early point in his career, he was not strong enough an actor.

this is why people don't like shakespeare

[lukas-5 · 2/10 · 19 March 1999]

dreadful, bloodless, cobwebbed version of shakespeare's comedy. one couldn't imagine a worse version. it misses everything that is essential to shakespeare. it is utterly tame and well behaved, the actors standing and intoning their lines in almost comically formal british accents. most high school productions would put the sets and costumes to shame. they look like some leftovers from a fairy tale project. this is most notable for featuring a young olivier. it is perhaps time to reconsider his reputation as "greatest actor of his generation". i'm sure he was brilliant on stage, but here (& in w. heights, p. & prejudice, henry v, etc.) he is listless & unconvincing. he does every line in the exact same voice, with the exact same emphasis. he might as well be reading the evening news. shakespeare's language is trampled on, then drained of all pith and marrow by the so-called actors. a terrible film (all point & shoot camera work) & a terrible interpretation of shakespeare.

nice efforts

[Kirpianuscus · 14 May 2023]

Laurence Olivier in his first Shakespeare adaptation on screen. This is the first motif to see this old film , good kick to discover the root of classic performances from Shakespeare universe.

The second virtue - the noble effort of Elizabeth Bergner to create a beautiful Rosalind portrait , using her experience in polish of it on German scene. Her accent ? I saw it as good point , defining exactly the determination to propose a professional performance.

Yes, not great but profound charming, offering a seductive return to the connection between rosalind and Orlando and decent solutions for a real seductive adaptation.

wow

[dane-70 · 5/10 · 1 March 2015]

As long as Olivier in on stage in what appears to be a classical ballet costume, it's quite nice to look at and even listen to. He's one fine-looking dude, so what's really the problem with stuffing him into some 19th-c trousers? Other than that, I can't remember ever seeing a play or a movie whose most memorable feature is the costumes. These are easily the worst, most anachronistic, and bizarre ones I've ever seen on stage or on the screen, and, besides Olivier (did I mention Olivier?) about all that saves this. How did they do it? Did they really steal them, as it appears, through some unexplained and inexplicable time-travelling, from the sets of that amusingly juvenile TV-series, Robin Hood? I see no other explanation. (Did I mention that Olivier is one damn-fine-looking dude? Oh yes. I see I did.)

As I didn't.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 16 August 2023]

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.

Come Dally In Arden's Forest

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 26 June 2003]

Dressed as a boy, a banished noblewoman meets her equally unfortunate suitor in a forest and teases with his affections.

In AS YOU LIKE IT, a young, virile Sir Laurence Olivier leaps & cavorts his way through his first appearance in a Shakespearean feature film, his magnificent voice cajoling every line. To those viewers only aware of his late career before his 1989 death, an elderly lion enfeebled by terrible long-standing diseases, his athletic performance here will be a wonderful revelation. Although the plot requires him to behave blindly inane at times, fancifully wooing the boy who is actually his disguised ladylove, the future Lord Olivier is never anything less than compelling. Still nearly a decade away from the first of his own filmed Shakespearean productions - HENRY V (1945) - Sir Laurence here shows he is already a complete master of the Bard's verse.

As Rosalind, and earning top billing, Austrian actress Elisabeth Bergner more than holds her own against Olivier. Her strong Teutonic accent is at variance with everyone else in the cast and she probably would not have received the role had she not been married to the director/producer, but this in no way should disparage her skills as an actress. Fetching & lovely and with a thorough grasp of her lines, Miss Bergner is a constant delight to watch. The comedy keeps her in male costume most of the time and it is important to remember that she is not really supposed to be a convincing boy. Bowing to the plot's absurdities, she is to provide some laughs and moments of reflection at the expense of the other characters and this Miss Bergner accomplishes most handily.

A very fine collection of British character actors supply their ample talents to the proceedings. Sir Felix Aylmer is wonderfully wicked as the usurping Duke. John Laurie oozes evil as Olivier's murderous elder brother. Lovely Sophie Stewart provides playful fun as Miss Bergner's faithful cousin. Beefy Lionel Braham scores as a braggadocio wrestler. Mackenzie Ward is properly impertinent as Touchstone the Fool. Peter Bull is hilarious in his only scene as an idiotic youth. As in the play, the sardonic Jacques (well played by Leon Quartermaine) is given one of Shakespeare's loveliest soliloquies, the famous Seven Ages of Man speech.

The entire film is given a sumptuous production which is most pleasing to the eye. A glance down its credits reveals something of its fine pedigree: Sir James M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, suggested the treatment - which meant he helped in the adaptation of Shakespeare's play to the screen; Sir David Lean, later to be a director of great importance, was responsible for the film's editing.

Enjoyable, like a trip to an antique store.

[WendyOh! · 10/10 · 4 September 2001]

This film is clearly of it's time, in that almost no one acts

Shakespeare like this anymore. While I found the sound quality quite

poor, I enjoyed the almost amateur style of it. The woman playing

Rosalind, it turns out, was married to the director/producer- but I

still enjoyed her performance. She was lively and fun and always

interesting to watch. Olivier is stuck with the dull as paste role of

Orlando, and acquits himself quite well. This is a 96 minute version of

a 130 minute play, so it's a bit like reading the cliff notes. The

filming style is dated and base, the acting stilted and dated, and yet-

I found the whole thing kind of enjoyable.