This version of Romeo&Juliet might have worked better had Marlon Brando and Pier Angeli done the leads as originally intended. Brando had certainly proved himself able to deal with the Bard in Julius Caesar. Laurence Harvey and the unknown Susan Shentall who stayed unknown after playing Juliet were adequate and nothing more.
Possibly the mix of Italian and English players might have had something to do with it. Such key roles as Mercutio and Tybalt were given short shrift here and they are integral to the story. Especially Tybalt. One thing I absolutely did not like was the dueling scenes between first Tybalt and Mercutio and then Romeo and Tybalt. This is always to me the high point of Romeo and Juliet where matters come to a head between the two feuding families, Montagues and Capulets. Here it's almost tossed off matter of factly. Really ruins the story.
A pair of secondary characters in the play are who you notice. Flora Robson as the nurse and confidante of Juliet and Lord Capulet played with passion by Sebastian Cabot stand out. Especially Cabot. In this version he tells his daughter off in no uncertain terms he's picked out a nice husband for her with this Paris kid and she's marrying him or else. I never saw any other actor get so much out of that scene as Cabot did.
The film is shot in Italy for authenticity and the cinematography is nice, as nice as Franco Zeffirelli's version. The acting for the most part is not as good as that over the hill gang version that MGM did with Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer.
Possibly the mix of Italian and English players might have had something to do with it. Such key roles as Mercutio and Tybalt were given short shrift here and they are integral to the story. Especially Tybalt. One thing I absolutely did not like was the dueling scenes between first Tybalt and Mercutio and then Romeo and Tybalt. This is always to me the high point of Romeo and Juliet where matters come to a head between the two feuding families, Montagues and Capulets. Here it's almost tossed off matter of factly. Really ruins the story.
A pair of secondary characters in the play are who you notice. Flora Robson as the nurse and confidante of Juliet and Lord Capulet played with passion by Sebastian Cabot stand out. Especially Cabot. In this version he tells his daughter off in no uncertain terms he's picked out a nice husband for her with this Paris kid and she's marrying him or else. I never saw any other actor get so much out of that scene as Cabot did.
The film is shot in Italy for authenticity and the cinematography is nice, as nice as Franco Zeffirelli's version. The acting for the most part is not as good as that over the hill gang version that MGM did with Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer.