SHAKESPEARE

Synopsis

Feature film. ` A serious case of this-is- Shakespeare-so it-must-be art’. Anthony John is a great but unbalanced classical actor. Outwardly gentlemanly, he is taken over by any role that he plays, and playing Othello he becomes insanely jealous. In a manic fit he strangles Pat Kroll, a waitress, Bill Friend, a publicity agent, ties the unsolved murder to a production of Othello. A furious John attacks Friend. Friend sets up John with a Kroll look-alike, and the police decide from his reaction that he is the murderer. They decide to arrest him after a performance of Othello. On stage, knowing that he has been found out, he is overtaken by the role and nearly strangles Desdemona, his former wife. He pulls back just in time, stabs himself and dies in the wings’. (McKernan, Luke & Terris, Olwen Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film & Television Archive (London: bfi, 1994), p123.

Language

English

Country

United States

Medium

Film

Technical information

Black-and-white / Sound

Year of release

1947

Duration

105 mins; 9,396 feet

Credits

Director

George Cukor

Producer

Michael Kanin

Cinematographer

Milton Krasner

Screenplay

Garson Kanin; Ruth Gordon

Music

Miklos Rozsa

Cast

Ronald Colman	Anthony John (Othello)
Edmond O’Brien	Bill Friend
Ray Collins	Victor Donlan
Shelley Winters	Pat Kroll
Signe Hasso	Brita

Additional Details

Production type

Fiction Films

Plays

Othello

Subjects

Drama

Keywords

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Related items

Jack Benny Show, The [01/02/1948]

Notes

General

The cast of Othello: Guy Gates Post, David Bond, Leslie Denison, Virgina Patton, Thayer Roberts, Fay Kanin, Arthur Gould-Porter, Frederic Warlock, Boyd Irwin, Percival Vivian.

Some way down the cast, cast as ‘girl in a wig shop’, is Betsy Blair, one of several actresses who almost became Desdemona in Welles’ OTHELLO (1952). She also appears as Emily in the Othello derivative ALL NIGHT LONG (1961).

Awards

Academy Award 1947 - Best Actor - Ronald Colman. Best Score for a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Rozsa.

Reviews

`Whether Colman’s rich performance is on the greatest or one of the worst-ever recorded on film seems a matter of taste. Overall a silly but suspenseful melodrama that would convince far more if the scenes from Othello were not so poorly staged’. (McKernan & Terris, Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film and Television Archive. (London:bfi, 1994), 123). Tony Howard in his essay Shakespeare’s Cinematic Offshoots in Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film edited by Russell Jackson (Cambridge: CUP, 2000) believes that in this film and MEN ARE NOT GODS (1936), both Othellos act better when they are insane.

Production Company

Name

Kanin

Name

Universal International