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Features
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Silent, NTSC
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 1
Rating: 
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Release Date: June 6, 2000
Run Time: 89 minutes
Average Customer Review:
  (4 customer reviews)
Reader Reviews
I was hoping that this DVD would include some footage of famous Shakespearean actors and actresses caught on camera. I know that Sarah Bernhardt's Hamlet is available on VHS, for instance. I was hoping there may be some footage of an early John Barrymore in Richard III, or a glimpse of Ellen Terry or Henry Irving in the twilight of their illustrious careers. Maybe there's an early Kinescope of Edwin Booth out there somewhere. Such is not the case here. This DVD doesn't even include the rather well-known 1913 Cecil Hepworth production of HAMLET, featuring Johnston Forbes-Robertson in the title role. The only actor of any stature featured here is Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as King John. But the excerpt is so brief (a bit over two minutes) that it really doesn't have any impact. The only thing significant about it is that it's the earliest filmed version of a Shakespeare play (1899) and it gives one a visual understanding of the broad gesturing that was a part of the prevalent acting method of the era. Suffice it to say that this was the mannered school of acting that Stanislavsky reacted against. The rest of the DVD features nondescript performers in footage that just looks silly and childishly quaint from a modern perspective. There is good reason that the names of the actors or directors involved have dissapeared beneath the sands of time. They were terrible then, and they're terrible now. And the truncation involved calls to mind an antic reworking such as "Twenty Plays in Thirty Minutes," or the very funny "The complete works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) ASIN: B00008US5Q . THE TEMPEST, for instance, takes all of 12 minutes. In KING LEAR, conveniently enough, Edmund, Edgar and Gloucester don't even put in an appearance. There is no plot, much less a subplot. Lear divides up his kingdom and rejects daughter number three. Daughters number one and two reject the old man. Old man goes nuts but is restored to sanity by daughter number 3. Daughter number two kills daughter number three, which KOs the old man. The only highlight of LEAR is the actress who plays Regan (daughter number 2). She looks like Python trooper Terry Jones in full dress up mode. The same actress appears as Portia in the same Italian company's production of THE MERCHANT of VENICE, included later on the DVD. She really doesn't have to do much to disguise herself as a man in the courtroom scene. None of the scenes in any of the plays make much sense, but some directing choices are downright egregious. For instance, in the famous scene in Richard III when Richard seduces the grieving Lady Anne, a whole host of the court retinue are standing around gawking at the two of them. The production quality is uniformly poor in all instances. These were low budget movies and it shows. RICHARD III, for instance was simply filmed onstage at the Shakespeare Memorial Theater in Stratford. Fixed camera, no imaginative staging or even blocking, for that matter. Even Shakespeare scholars and historians would have a difficult time sitting through more than one viewing of this collection. As silent film goes, it's staggeringly dull. Much better off spending your money on NOSFERATAU or some vintage Mileus or Buster Keaton. This is one for the GOLDEN TURKEY Hall of Fame. BEK
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Silent Shakespeare
List Price: $29.99
Available from Amazon
Price: $26.99
Updated on 11-27-2008.
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