Hamlet (1964/I)

Directors:

Bill Colleran
John Gielgud

Drehbuchautor:

William Shakespeare (play)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The highly successful 1964 Richard Burton Broadway production of "Hamlet", deliberately staged in the style of a "dress rehearsal", but performed in front of a live audience.

Plot Keywords:

William Shakespeare | Shakespeare's Hamlet | Based On Play | Character Name In Title

Nutzerkommentare:

IT WAS REALLY A DRESS REHEARSAL!

Besetzung

Richard Burton	...	Hamlet
Hume Cronyn	...	Polonius
Alfred Drake	...	Claudius
Eileen Herlie	...	Gertrude
William Redfield	...	Guildenstern
George Rose	...	First Gravedigger
George Voskovec	...	Player King
übrige Besetzung in alphabetischer Reihenfolge:
Hugh Alexander	...	Cornelius / Second Gravedigger / English Ambassador
Philip Coolidge	...	Voltimand
Christopher Culkin	...	Player Queen
John Cullum	...	Laertes
Michael Ebert	...	Francisco / Fortinbras
Dillon Evans	...	Reynaldo / Osric
Clement Fowler	...	Rosencrantz
Geoff Garland	...	Lucianus
John Gielgud	...	Ghost (voice)
John Hetherington	...	Player Prologue
Barnard Hughes	...	Marcellus / Priest
Linda Marsh	...	Ophelia
Robert Milli	...	Horatio
Frederick Young	...	Bernardo

Alternativ:

Richard Burton's Hamlet (USA) (DVD title)

Länge:

191 Min

Land:

USA

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Schwarzweiss

Tonverfahren:

Mono

Drehorte:

Lunt-Fontanne Theatre - 205 West 46th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Firma:

Theatrofilm

Dies und das:

Actor William Redfield, who appeared as Guildernstern in the John Gielgud-directed stage version of Richard Burton Hamlet (1964/I), published a memoir of the event, "Notes of an Actor", in 1967. He wrote that Gielgud had an encyclopedia knowledge of the play and could play any and all parts of it from memory for his cast as he directed the production, but he lacked the overall vision to bring the production together.

Querbezüge:

Bezug enthalten in "Saturday Night Live: Richard Dreyfuss/Jimmy Buffett, Gary Tigerman (#3.19)" (1978)

IT WAS REALLY A DRESS REHEARSAL!

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.