Hamlet

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.

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.

For those looking for a strictly cinematic version of "Hamlet" you should probably look elsewhere, but for a theatrical experience of the classic tale of the Melancholy Dane, you could do worse than pick up this version of the 1964 Broadway production starring Richard Burton.

Essentially a photographed performance of a stage production, this "Hamlet" was directed by John Gielgud with the concept of being a dress rehearsal (to pacify Richard Burton's dislike of wearing period costume) with actors in street clothes and bare bones set and props. The concept falls flat but Gielgud does a fine job of staging the action (the convention of showing the ghost as a massive shadow voiced by Gielgud works wonderfully well), making one wish that he'd used a more conventional look for the show. The cast is decidedly uneven, ranging from brilliant (Hume Cronyn in his Tony-winning role as Polonius) to incompetent (Alfred Drake as a rather hopeless Claudius). While Burton is hardly the definitive Hamlet, frequently resorting to vocal pyrotechnics which are ultimately meaningless, there is no doubting his intelligence or brooding charisma in the role. He may not have hit a bull's eye, but he is so far beyond such recent mediocre Hamlets as Ethan Hawke, Kenneth Branagh and Mel Gibson that his performance truly gives the viewer a splendid example of what a distinguished classical actor is capable of. His handling of the soliloquies (especially "Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I") are very effective indeed.

Those who quibble with the lack of close-ups or iffy cinematic qualities are missing the point of the experience: the faraway perspective makes the viewer fell like they are seated at an actual live performance at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre in 1964, and gives a much more uniquely theatrical experience than attempts to "cinemize" the play such as Branagh's vulgar and miscast film version or Olivier's celebrated bowdlerized adaptation (whose gutting of the text frequently plays like "Hamlet's Greatest Hits").

Not much thought was given to the Special Features of the DVDs: the listing of the awards won by Burton, Cronyn and Gielgud are laughably incomplete, and it seems to me that the producers missed an opportunity by not including observations by a living cast member on a second voice track (cast members William Refield and Richard L. Sterne each wrote books on the production, and it might have been rewarding to hear the remembrances of Hume Cronyn or John Cullum or Alfred Drake on this DVD).

But despite it's faults, this is a valuable little treasure for anyone with serious interest in Shakespeare's play and a unique opportunity to see a memorable theater production without leaving your living room.

The fact that you are even thinking about watching this means that there is a high probability that you will like it, since you either like the play or like Burton or both. Any fan of Burton will delight in his performance and any lover of the play should appreciate the no-frills approach. The text is closely followed and not much is deleted. This is not really a movie, but the filming of an actual stage performance presented in front of an audience. By design the production is carried out as though it were a dress rehearsal, with minimal props and most actors appearing in street clothes.

The filming was done in "Electronovision" which appears to be an early method of filming directly from an electronic camera. Several of these cameras were used, providing scenes viewed from different angles and distances. The quality is much higher than the kinescopes of early TV (which were obtained by filming from a camera monitor) but markedly lower than black and white film of the period. Close-ups are good and actually have a quality that is reminiscent of certain contemporary independent films, but shots of the stage filmed at a distance are not as satisfactory. In any case, since Electronovision seems to have met an early death, you are not likely to see anything like this again.

Burton's Hamlet is not so melancholy, but rather angry, sardonic, and impish. He also brings a nimble athleticism to the role. The sword play is well done; it made me nervous watching it. It's hard to think of a contemporary actor who could pull this off. Hume Cronyn turns in a memorable performance as Polonius.

It is interesting to contrast this with Branagh's complete-text film which is in color and very much a movie and not the filming of a stage play. Burton's Hamlet is another example of how every production of this play is unique.

The DVD is available from Amazon.

Whereas it is true that this version of "Hamlet" with Richard Burton in the title role was a hit on Broadway, that's just part of the story behind the video release.

Burton had become an immensely popular actor after his scandalous marriage to Elizabeth Taylor during the rigors of filming "Cleopatra," in which he played the love-crazed Mark Anthony. After that film's long-delayed release (late 1963), the pair became "Hollywood royalty" with a world-wide following.

Developers/producers of Electronovision capitalized on their phenomenal popularity by arranging the taping of a dress rehearsal. It was released theatrically during the course of the play's Broadway run.

Electronovision was another version of closed-circuit TV; hence, the master videotape is in black-and-white.

A later try with Electronovision was the 1965 closed-circuit, theatrical release of "Harlow," which starred Carol Lynley as 1930s movie actress Jean Harlow. It barely preceded the 1965 film of the same name (Carroll Baker in title role). Although that film was forced to rush through production, it didn't finish in time to be the "first."

Critics of that period, who were not all impressed with this "new medium," really lashed out at this one, which they claimed went "against all ethics."

To my recall, that controversy ended Electronovision.