Le prince des acteurs

I've been known to say Richard Burton is the only person who can speak Shakespeare with the ability to get me to understand what he's saying. In Prince of Players, I got a real treat as he showed Hollywood audiences for the first time his talent in the difficult Shakespearean language. Hamlet's soliloquy, the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, and Richard III's winter monologue are all performed by Richard as his character tours the country acting in various shows.

He plays the brother of John Wilkes Booth (portrayed by John Derek) and the son of a famed Shakespearean actor who already built up a great reputation with his fans. Ever since he was a little boy, he idolized his father's (Raymond Massey) talent and passion for Shakespeare. Raymond often drank too much and had trouble with his performances, and young Richard would help him. Sometimes he recited the lines alongside his father from backstage, so it's no wonder he would grow up and follow in his footsteps, aided by his manager Charles Bickford.

You might think this movie would be about the presidential assassination and how the Booth family was affected, but that's a very short part of the movie. The vast majority follows Richard during his acting tours across the country and his romance with a fellow actress, Maggie Magnamara. They enjoy a whirlwind courtship, but that's the only cutesy part of the movie. This is a drama with family tension, tears, fears, and a heartbreaking score from Bernard Herrmann. If you don't reach for your Kleenex during the opening credits, you must not be a classic music lover. It tells you everything you need to know about the story, and it's beautiful. And with Richard Burton and John Derek to look at, there's no end to the beauty in this movie.

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.

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.

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.

I've seen this movie on late-night TV and taped it from satellite. Burton is one of my favorite actors and is very under rated. When Burton is doing the scenes from the Shakespeare plays it is nothing short of stunning. The only reason I didn't give the movie a "10" rating is there were not enough scenes from the plays. John Derek who plays Edwin's infamous brother John can't begin to hold a candle to Burton simply speaking with him in a simple scene. The only other actor in the movie even close to matching Burton's talent is the great Raymond Massey. I haven't seen this movie available on DVD or even VHS. It's a shame hardly anyone has seen this fine film. When I recorded the movie onto S-VHS tape from C-Band satellite, it was the best source available. Far superior to crummy cable. It looked like the film was shot in Technecolor. Big budget for 1953. Maybe IMDb could get a word to someone in Hollywood that this is worthy of at least a special edition DVD. Heck, they released a "Superbit" of Anaconda. If J.Lo can get a hi-res DVD I think Burton deserves one too.