Word: macbeth
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Macbeth (Mercury Production; Republic), as Actor-Director Orson Welles tells it in this movie, is not quite the great tragedy of a noble man gone wrong; it is more the story of a dead-end kid on the make. Like an energetic small boy tinkering with an alarm clock, Orson breaks down the drama into bits and pieces-and cannot seem to fit it together again. Nonetheless, it is an interesting, unconventional...
...humorist Iva Kitchell is currently performing at Jordan Hall. The world of the cinema offers a little of everything this weekend, with a selection from Sabu to Shakespeare playing in the vicinity. The latter is represented with two productions, Laurence Oliver's magnificent Hamlet, and Orson Welles' less successful Macbeth, playing at the Astor and Esquire respectively. Sabu gets in his licks with the return to town of his ancient classic Drums, which is billed with yet another tale of the Black Heart of Africa, Alexander Korda's Four Feathers...
...results of such an undertaking: a Lady Macbeth that lacks physical majesty and fire and seems instead frenzied and common; a supporting cast that is uniformly excellent, particularly Macduff; a set that gives no feeling of being a habitation at all but does add immeasurably to the rawness of the theme (the hero, as Welles interprets him, is too uncivilized to live in a human dwelling); and finally, an exciting, superior movie with moments of startling brilliance...
...Though "Macbeth" was filmed well over a year ago, coming out at this time has prompted unfavorable comparisons with Olivier's "Hamlet." This is quite unreasonable, in view of the above given information and more; the two Shakespearean heroes were of a completely different emotional and intellectual nature, so is the poetry they speak, and so are the two motion pictures. Olivier's reserve would be as out of place in "Macbeth" as would Welles' turbulence in "Hamlet...
...Macbeth" is an unparalleled achievement for American motion pictures and another bright, if somewhat unpreened, feather in the cap of Mr. Wellcs...