I am sick and stayed home from work and TCM was having a Shakespeare festival. Having never heard of the 1936 version of this play, I decided to give it a whirl even though I am not a Leslie Howard fan. Well, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Even though I knew the actors were too old for their roles (turns out they were even older than I thought!) their delivery was great, which is important when you are delivering the Bard's lines verbatim, for the most part. Even if you couldn't catch the literal meaning of the words, the actors provided plenty of non-verbal context for you to pick things up.
I thought Norma Shearer was going to be awful at first, as one other commentary has mentioned, her first scene makes her look a little too mindlessly sweet and giddy--almost like the look is plastered on her face--but she really came through in the end. When she had to amp up the emotion, she did, especially considering the Hayes Code was now being enforced.
I have to concur that one of the best character acting jobs I have seen in thirties cinema is by the lady who plays Juliet's nurse (her name escapes me). She switches from broad comedy to contemplation effortlessly. Basil Rathbone is appropriately vile, oily and relentless. I would have liked to have seen a little more of him on screen. And I had no idea that Barrymore's turn as Mercurito was so controversial until I read the other comments here. His approach may be an eccentric, idiosyncratic one, but it is absolutely riveting (although I CAN believe he was in his cups when filming it--which somehow makes it work all the more).
I do agree that there may be a whiff of the effeminate running through the major male characters (I had to chuckle when Romeo says his love for Juliet has made him "effeminate"), but that didn't ruin the picture for me at all. The sets are great. Though limited, they are attractive and the shots are well thought out. ****SMALL SPOILERS*** I found the crypt where the final sword fight takes place something right out of a Universal horror movie, and somewhat reminiscent of Fritz Lang, too.
A modern audience may find this version of the play a little deliberate, but I thought the Franco Zeffereti version, once you get past the novelty of its modern approach to sex and passion, dull at its heart, and this is much better than seeing John Luguzamo brandishing a weapon. Check it out.
I thought Norma Shearer was going to be awful at first, as one other commentary has mentioned, her first scene makes her look a little too mindlessly sweet and giddy--almost like the look is plastered on her face--but she really came through in the end. When she had to amp up the emotion, she did, especially considering the Hayes Code was now being enforced.
I have to concur that one of the best character acting jobs I have seen in thirties cinema is by the lady who plays Juliet's nurse (her name escapes me). She switches from broad comedy to contemplation effortlessly. Basil Rathbone is appropriately vile, oily and relentless. I would have liked to have seen a little more of him on screen. And I had no idea that Barrymore's turn as Mercurito was so controversial until I read the other comments here. His approach may be an eccentric, idiosyncratic one, but it is absolutely riveting (although I CAN believe he was in his cups when filming it--which somehow makes it work all the more).
I do agree that there may be a whiff of the effeminate running through the major male characters (I had to chuckle when Romeo says his love for Juliet has made him "effeminate"), but that didn't ruin the picture for me at all. The sets are great. Though limited, they are attractive and the shots are well thought out. ****SMALL SPOILERS*** I found the crypt where the final sword fight takes place something right out of a Universal horror movie, and somewhat reminiscent of Fritz Lang, too.
A modern audience may find this version of the play a little deliberate, but I thought the Franco Zeffereti version, once you get past the novelty of its modern approach to sex and passion, dull at its heart, and this is much better than seeing John Luguzamo brandishing a weapon. Check it out.