Hamlet

Difficult to find since it is essentially a video taping of a Broadway performance, but this is a Hamlet not to be missed! Under the firm directorial hand of John Gielgud, Richard Burton creates one of the memorable Hamlets. He rivals Olivier in a very different interpretation. It is important to remember when watching this one that it is not a movie! Still, Burton vividly demonstrates that he could have been the first classical actor of his generation had he focused on that phase of his career. Gielgud appears as the Ghost of King Hamlet and is magnificent in the role. Hume Cronyn is perfection as Polonius. The remainder of the cast is good but not breathtaking. Trivia Buffs!! Who plays the Player Queen in this version (yes, Player Queen)-- a very young Christoper Culkin. Long before he shortened that first name to Kit and fathered MacCauley.

Burton had instructed that after a limited theatrical release all copies of this were to be destroyed. It is fortunate for those of us who love this play and love great classical acting that somewhere someone failed to follow instructions. If you can find a copy by all means rent it.

Filmed, or rather videotaped, performance of the Broadway production of Shakespeare's play. Richard Burton stars as the Danish prince who plots revenge against his mother and uncle for the murder of his father. Also featuring Hume Cronyn as Polonius, Alfred Drake as Claudius, Eileen Herlie as Gertrude, Linda Marsh as Ophelia, John Cullum as Laertes, George Voskovec as the Player King, William Redfield as Guildenstern, Clement Fowler as Rosencrantz, and Barnard Hughes as Marcellus. John Gielgud, who staged and directed the play, also provides the off-stage voice of the Ghost.

Running a cool 3 hours and 10 minutes, this presentation is the opposite of the Russian version I watched last night. This strips away the visual, and focuses completely on the text. It's presented as a sort of dress rehearsal, with the performers wearing street clothes, and the sets bare and virtually nonexistent. Burton is good, although he's said to have detested this recording, made over several days from several performances in front of live audiences, and then edited together seamlessly. I thought Hume Cronyn stole the show, and wasn't surprised to learn that he won the Tony that year for his performance. For some reason, there was a contractual stipulation that after the theatrical run, all prints and negatives of this were to be destroyed, and the film was thought lost for a long time, until a single copy was found in the possession of...Richard Burton.

I didn't know a record of this famous production existed until I found it on DVD at the library. What a find! John Gielgud directed Richard Burton in "Hamlet," an acclaimed production in modern dress that was eventually recorded with a process called Electronovision and released in movie theaters. What's fascinating is that this is a record of an actual Broadway performance before an audience; the actors make no concession to the cameras and change nothing. The black-and-white process is crude, far inferior to that of recent stage shows presented on PBS. Yet I was amazed how compelling the show was anyway. Maybe the crudeness helped. It felt like a shadow retrieved from the past: I thought of the filmed dream from "Quatermass and the Pit."

Richard Burton makes a fine Hamlet, more virile and physical than most; his intellectual side is de-emphasized but far from lost; and he's funny. The rest of the cast is uniformly good, but Hume Cronyn stands out as Polonius. He's so good, so funny, so able to bring out both the wisdom and the foolishness of the character that until he's dispatched, the play feels like the "Hamlet and Polonius Show."

Happily a year ago, I found at a thrift store a book by Richard L. Sterne (one of the minor players in this production) called "John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton in Hamlet." It includes transcripts of Gielgud directing the cast, the prompt script Gielgud created, and Sterne's interviews with Burton and Gielgud. I've only looked into it, but I can highly recommend it based on what I've read. Anyone who finds this DVD may want to seek out the book as well.

I suppose, provocative is the fair term to define it. For rehearsal, street clothes. For splendid acting of Richard Burton , deserving , no doubts, his Hamlet. For the high loyalty to text. For Hume Cronyn as impressive Polonius.

Sure, many adaptations, some more than ambitious.

Indeed, I see as the best Gamlet of Kuznetsov and the acting of Innokenti Smoktunovski remains, for me, the unique one to perfect. But this version has the precious gift of entire honesty , the wise perspective of Sir John Gielgud and a smart driven minimalism .

Each of them works in admirable manner and, in essence, this is the main virtue of it.

Looking at this stage performance on dvd (and thank goodness it is available !!!) you will probably start with thinking: well, this is a relic, and so it will be great. The start will confirm that. Lighting is crude, and camera-angles give purely the idea of being inside a theatre (which is marvelous !! why don't they do this more often ? Why not make more dvd's of glorious stage performances ?!) After a while though, the performance takes over. This is Shakespeare, but quick-paced and lucid, never heavy or dull. This is Shakespeare in the 60ies. And it is true magic. It is just what we need nowadays ! Magnificently acted and paced and just that touch of humor, openness and charm ... All what we are lacking today. Look around us !! We can do with another shot of the cocktail we call 60ies ! Look around us ! Within this HAMLET, so classical and so brilliantly played, breathes the 60ies. Only the undertone, yes. But is there. How refreshing.