As You Like It

Kalem Company's rendering of this charming comedy is not what I had hoped to see. It comes so near to being a success that it is a pity it had not received the finishing touches. In filming this story the minor characters should have been eliminated and the unity of design better adhered to. The story of Rosalind and Orlando should have been brought out more strongly. Shakespeare himself here departed somewhat from the unity of design and crowded the play with characters not needed in the working out of the plot, but this should have been avoided %in filming the play, as Shakespeare intended "As You Like It" more as a "Masque," so popular in his day and long after. Of all things the "Masque" is least adaptable for moving pictures. The love scene in the forest between Rosalind and Orlando is acted in a lame manner. I have seen people hold hands in that fashion on the last Coney Island boat of a Saturday night, but in a Shakespeare play, never. -- The Moving Picture World, October 3, 1908