Maître Will

MGM shorts come in several varieties. There are the CRIME DOES NOT PAY series, in which a grim story is told. There is the Robert Benchley short, which is very funny and nothing is learned. There is the Pete Smith special, in which we may or may not learn anything, but there will be smirking, and there is the Carey Wilson short in which you will learn something dull and good for you and. This is one of them: earnest, short and not very interesting, sort of like Cliff Notes.

Interesting yes but you still don't know enough about Shakespeare this is the same true that if you want to know anything about the man for real you should go visit this thing and then read and read and read like read all good studies and discover the truth about what life can tell us about the greatest writer of lift the Moby huge short movie just functions two teachers of bits of high life goddess it's not that great inshallah.

My guess is that this MGM short was done as part of a promotion campaign for MGM's Romeo and Juliet which was coming out that year. Remember it would be starring the MGM Queen Norma Shearer so that no expenses was spared for her films.

Oddly enough no really known players appeared in this short, maybe deliberately so to make it look authentic. The short plays like an episode of You Are There.

Anthony Kemble-Cooper makes a competent Will Shakespeare to put it as he did, in his salad days. And in the tradition of the studios at the time, when you build sets get as much use out of them as you can.

Hollywood has long been criticised for its rather cavalier approach to historical accuracy. Usually this isn't much to get worried about as Hollywood's primary goal is to entertain, and a bit of artistic license doesn't go amiss if it makes a good story. Sometimes however, Hollywood sought to inform its audiences. Master Will Shakespeare was a promotional short made to accompany MGM's 1936 production of Romeo and Juliet, to introduce the bard to the less well-informed members of the audience. But don't go thinking that this necessarily makes it any more factual than its feature-length cousins.

Very little is known for certain about Shakespeare's life, so for the purposes of this short writer Richard Goldstone has apparently filled in the gaps from his own imagination. The idea of the young bard working as a theatre prompter is pure speculation, as is the rather twee idea that a timely adlib set him on the playwright's path. Given its purpose, the short naturally attempts to draw focus towards Romeo and Juliet, claiming that this was the bard's personal favourite of his own works. Again this is all fanciful guesswork. There is even an attempt to put an "A Star Is Born" type spin on Shakespeare's life, telling of how he dreamed of stardom on the stage. Incidentally, if you're interested, look up "Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship" for a rather more enlightening view.

MGM did at least know how to do these things effectively. Anthony Kemble-Cooper, a stage actor who actually has a tiny role in the Romeo and Juliet movie, does a fairly decent job in the title role. It's nice to see rotund character actor Lionel Belmore getting a brief outing here, even if it is a little sad for this lovable and once ubiquitous figure to now be strutting his stuff in relative obscurity. The general cheapness of the cast does show up, in particular an unidentified actress playing a rather shop-worn Elizabeth I. The short was directed by a young Jacques Tourneur. Tourneur shows early on his love of tight compositions with foreground clutter looming over the actors. Largely however his focus here is on swiftly moving through the material, his constantly roving camera and lively staging keeping things suitably dynamic for a whistle-stop tour of information.

Master Will Shakespeare is not badly made by any means, and more or less does what it sets out to achieve. However its casual cooking up of the facts in a short that presents itself as an educational piece is really quite naughty.

Carey Wilson narrates a short film about William Shakespeare. It falls far short of being a full biography of the famous writer born in 1564 and whose boyhood ambitions had him dreaming of fame and fortune once his plays were staged in London.

He was an actor, writer and stage director whose richest triumph was having his plays win the approval of Queen Elizabeth I, at a time when all of the roles were played by men--a period covered quite authentically in "Shakespeare in Love." A very brief tribute to Shakespeare that was obviously an MGM promotional short timed to appear in connection with its forthcoming production of "Romeo and Juliet" ('36) starring Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard. Scenes from the film are briefly viewed.