Oh’Phelia

Synopsis: Animated cartoon burlesque. ‘Amlet drives Ophelia mad by offering her vegetables instead of flowers, then cutting off her hair ("to bob or not to bob"). Laertes complains to the King of ‘Amlet’s behaviour, and Ophelia pelts the court with vegetables. She is banished from the court when the fruit and vegetables hit the King. ‘Amlet, remorseful, vows to join the Boy Scouts. Ophelia falls into the river while picking her favourite flower. She floats past and ‘Amlet, applying first-aid skills learnt in the Scouts, rescues her. They decide to get married.
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Film
Technical information: Black-and-white / Silent
Year of release: 1919
Duration: 90 mins; 10 feet

Notes: The complete film may be viewed by academic registered users at www.screenonline.com
Reviews: `Any connection with Shakespeare, though, is at best tenuous and at worst irrelevant - the few references to the text are there purely as punchlines to a visual joke ("A very palpable hit!" comments the King’s parrot as Ophelia pelts his master with vegetables), madness in both ‘Amlet and Ophelia is exploited purely for the purposes of knockabout comedy, Ophelia’s falling into the river is entirely down to her own carelessness, and nothing truly tragic happens to anyone beyond a temporary loss of dignity. That said, Oh’phelia has as much visual and conceptual wit as any other surviving British Shakespeare film of its era, and rather more than most’. Michael Brooke. www.screenonline.org (accessed 9/2008).

SHAKESPEARE