Shake, Mr. Shakespeare
- Synopsis
- Musical short. Created as a tie-in for Dieterle and Reinhardt’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (1935) the film imagines a hybrid between Shakespeare and swing music. An assistant director is told to read all Shakespeare’s works in order to mine them for potential film plots. Falling asleep on the job, he dreams of various Shakespearean characters coming to life from the pages of giant books and singing and dancing in celebration of their "goin’ Hollywood." The characters appearing include Romeo, Juliet, Juliet’s Nurse, Puck, Peter Quince, Hamlet, Old Hamlet’s Ghost, Falstaff, Antony, Cleopatra, and Macbeth. Shakespeare appears toward the end of the film to object, but he is quickly convinced by his characters to join a big song and dance routine. Includes passing references to a number of familiar Shakespearean scenes including Hamlet’s "to be or not to be" soliloquy, Romeo and Juliet’s balcony scene, Hamlet with Yorick’s skull, and Enobarbus’ speech on Cleopatra’s barge.
- Language
- English
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Film
- Technical information
- Black-and-white / Sound
- Year of release
- 1936
- Duration
- c20
Credits
- Director
- Roy Mack
- Screenplay
- Cyrus Wood
- Cast
Allan Mann Amira Sessions Cleaning woman Carolyn Nash Juliet Frank Jaquet Sir John Falstaff Harry Shannon Macbeth Richard Lane Mr Smith William Hall Mark Antony
Additional Details
Notes
- Notes
- The short is included in the dvd extras on Dieterle’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (1936) available from amazon.ca (region 1 only).
The film is made available only to students and faculty of the University of Wisconsin. Researchers should contact the librarian to enquire about the possibility of an on site viewing.
Production Company
- Name
Vitaphone Corporation
- Address
- USA
Archive
- Name
University of Wisconsin-Madison
- http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/reference/email/
- Phone
- (608) 265-2357
- Fax
- (608) 265-2754
- Address
- General Library
System Administration Offices
Memorial Library, Room 380
728 State Street
Madison W1
53706-1494
USA
Distributor (Sale)
- Name
Retail outlets
How to cite this record
Shakespeare, "Shake, Mr. Shakespeare". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av37962 (Accessed 12 Nov 2024)