Did anyone watch the Reinhardt version broadcast last night? I saw the first half hour or so, but I just couldn't stick with it, and I didn't think to record it.
It was, on the whole, really on the pretentious side, so overblown. The short self-laudatory WB promo shown before the movie said it all: let's give 'em some "Kultcha." About the time in the film that night fell and the fairies came dancing into the forest (and dancing, and dancing, and dancing, and . . . . . ) I had had enough. It was too much.
It's a pity, though, because I thought the actors were quite nice, and I even believed Dick Powell as a young Shakespearean swain. I liked the very young (about 19) Olivia de Havilland in this - she is an actress I normally don't care for, but in this early film she hadn't yet developed all the grande dame mannerisms that totally turn me off to her.
I especially liked the peasant actors, led by Frank McHugh and James Cagney (and the really funny turn of Arthur Treacher as a slack-jawed yokel). It was a very nice departure for all of the actors concerned, and I think they acquitted themselves well, if not necessarily up to Royal Shakespear Company standards.
Then there was Mickey Rooney (about 15 at the time, as Puck). This man has had such a long and successful career, and yet there were so many other acting avenues he could have pursued with equal success. This interpretation of Puck as a little man-animal was certainly over-the-top in places (whether it was Rooney's idea or the directors I don't know). Nevertheless, remarkable.
Any thoughts?
A Midsummer Night's Dream
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movieman1957
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I didn't see it last night but I saw it along time ago. I couldn't get past Rooney. I remember thinking he was most annoying. I think it was the first time I saw Cagney (which was why I was watching it in the first place) in something other than a "usual" role. I thought he was ok.
Chris
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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Mr. Arkadin
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jdb1
I was a bit taken aback by Rooney's Puck at first, but I think I understand what he (or more likely the director) was trying to accomplish: raw, animal energy - more like Pan than Puck.movieman1957 wrote:I didn't see it last night but I saw it along time ago. I couldn't get past Rooney. I remember thinking he was most annoying. I think it was the first time I saw Cagney (which was why I was watching it in the first place) in something other than a "usual" role. I thought he was ok.
In most of the more contemporary film versions I've seen, Puck is played by an older actor (Iam Holm in Peter Hall's 1968 film, and Stanley Tucci in the more recent one with Kevin Kline [c. 1999]). Their Pucks were mischievous, but more like devious, comic Executive VPs than like animal-spirit pukkas. I suspect that Rooney's reading was more in line with what Shakespeare had in mind for Puck.
By the way, the 1968 filming of MSND is by far the best I've ever seen.