Word: macduff
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...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...
...disappearance of Banquo's ghost. As Critic A. C. Bradley once pointed out, the fourth act of most very great Shakespeare (Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear) tends to slump. Last week's production slumps less than the play, and proceeds to a mighty laying-on of Macduff and a martial conclusion. Perhaps best of all, the new production catches an atmosphere of menace and an air of Scotland...
Hold, Enough! In Oldham, England, Actor Antony Oakley, playing Macduff in Macbeth, charged with his dagger, laid on with such vigor that Macbeth was laid up with a five-inch abdominal wound. In Toulon, France, Baritone Fernand Lagarde, carried away by the third act stabbing scene in Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles, was carried offstage with a two-inch abdominal wound...
...speeches, but that is the only large criticism of the production. To compensate for that, the treatment of the love of the Macbeths is handled admirably, making them more human and their deeds more plausible, while the inclusion on stage of the murders of Banquo and Lady Macduff intensifies the horror of Macbeth's evil deeds. All the scenes are excellently staged and the play never for a moment loses its terrifying force...