Prince of Players

Once past the dated nature of a movie like this from the days when movies had more wordy scripts, we see Richard Burton as a classical actor in his youthful prime.

There is more than one script for this relatively obscure movie. The story of the two Booth brothers, Edwin and John Wilkes, during the Civil War is interwoven frequently with full recitations of Shakespearean excerpts, centuries older. As a skilled movie actor of the mid-20th Century playing Edwin, a leading 19th Century stage actor, young Burton imbues the role with a darkness that became his hallmark in later years.

For an actor known for bringing a more natural style to the Bard's works, Burton had to feel challenged to incorporate exaggerated gestures and profound speech characteristic of an older dramatic age into Shakespeare's lines. At times a play's lines are delivered with a different meaning in the context of the movie.

Maggie McNamara's performance as Mary Devlin, the wife who tames Edwin's darker spirit, should not be overlooked. She has a delicate but assertive quality in this production very different from her role as Maria Williams in Three Coins in the Fountain from the year before.

Overall, an excellent showcase piece for Burton early in his career.

Except for the 1937 John Ford movie, THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND, this film is the most centered on the story of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. But that said, it misses the effectiveness of being definitive like Stone's interesting (if flawed) JFK. The film is based on Eleanor Ruggles biography (of the same name) of Edwin Booth's career. So the central figure is Edwin, probably the greatest American actor of the 19th Century. Richard Burton, as a growing Shakespearean actor, was perfect as the talented Edwin. His father, the talented but eccentric and alcoholic Junius Brutus Booth Sr, is played by Raymond Massey (ironically the same actor who played Lincoln in ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS, and John Brown in SANTA FE TRAIL and SEVEN ANGRY MEN). As the egotistical John Wilkes Booth we have the young, still promising John Derek.

The movie only goes from 1852 (when Junius Booth died) through 1866, when the American public showed Edwin Booth that it did not hold him or his family guilty for the stupid, vicious act of his brother. It does not carry the story down to Booth's death in 1893, with his success as the definitive Hamlet of his age, and his failure as a theatrical producer. Edwin Booth worked until about 1891, due to the debts he accumulated. But his last years were stable, with his second wife. He also found time to create the Player's Club (still located in his Gramercy Park brownstone). Only the tragedy of the President's death at his brother's hands left a really brutal mark on him.

Derek does the most with his role - showing the strong desire for "real fame" that took control over John Wilkes. As his character kills the character played by Massey in one film, he ironically also attends the hanging of John Brown - historically correct. But his intricate plot to first kidnap Lincoln and then kill him, and his relations with other conspirators is not really gone into. Still, the assassination, chase, capture, and death of the assassin are done fairly correctly. But to get the tone of the government's prosecution of the conspirators, see John Ford's film.

The story of the Booth family of actors with the heavy drinking and mad father, Junius Brutus, played by Raymond Massey who is accompanied on his tours out west to the mining camps by son Edwin, a child actor who morphs into Richard Burton), while John Wilkes (John Derek) hones his acting skills and soaks up secessionist fervor in the South. The various stages are set for the young actors, with John Wilkes choosing to act on a bigger stage, as he says to his brother in one scene. The movie focuses on Edwin played by Richard Burton who takes over the Shakespeare roles his father leaves behind when he (the father) cannot carry on any longer. The big dramatic question is if Edwin will follow in his father's footsteps. Who rescues him from the same fate of his father but the beautiful Juliet to his Romeo played by Maggie MacNamara. It may seem a little contrived, but actually the film captures the times really well, portraying the pivotal roles of the theater, the stage, and the actors.

I first saw this when I was in high school and thinking of becoming an actor. Burton's performance and the film's highly romantic vision of Booth as the brooding "natural" Hamlet hooked me. Although it has the outlines of a typical biopic, The Prince of Players offers an extraordinary display of the kind of acting that, at its best, dominated the 19th century stage. Burton was one of the few 20th century artists who knew how to balance a ringing declamatory style with honest, full bodied emotions. It is so different from the typical modern understatement that some audience won't be able to adjust to it. But for those who relish language along with fire in the blood, this is as good as it gets on film. The portrait of the actor Edwin Booth, a man overburdened with the cares of the world, as impetuous, self-indulgent, and nearly batty, is a bit overheated. But it's a typical view of the artist in the mad tradition of Poe. Very 19th Century--and well worth knowing.

Prince of Players is a movie that was a near-miss when it premiered in the Box Office and was considered to be rather dull. Even so, the title of the film is somewhat looks to be misleading as it is actually Burton as Edwin Booth, the brother of the infamous John Wilkes Booth. As well his usual early on-screen performances, Burton himself also did Booth "on-stage" in those Shakespearean plays.

The film received some poor reviews around the time it hit the big screens and was Burton's first failure in the Box Office and Burton may have been miscast as the leading character. In the whole, the film's saving grace should be Burton's superb voice and over the years, should perhaps lead to a slow change in attitudes from the critics choice.