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Osric, Peter Cashing; Gnvo^rcr, St **nley Holloway,
When Laurence 01ivierfs Henry Y reached the screen it seemoa that no theatre .-vino 8 Shake spear 8rs own had hcus sd the work of the Bard with such plasticity, such aptitude and grace. Nov/ his Hamlet has appeared, alive with evidences of this affinity of film for Shakespearean. presentation, -^nd yet if the latter picture falls short of its hopes, the fauifc must he laid at least in part to the medium itself. Hamlet,' in contrast to Plenry V, is an inward drama; its movement, such as it is, lies more in the changing shadow of a mood, in the rise and fall of a passion* in the sweep of a poet's insight and diction, than in the panoply and display df outward actions. Yet thanks to the camera *s restless hunger for movement and change, this Hamlet is as urgently compelled to action as the young Prince himself inhibited from action by the defects of his own nature* Event's which were merely reported in the play, must new be acted out on the screen. While the text describes the murder of Hamlet's father, or Ophelia fs watery death* or that curious episode earlier in the play vrhen Hamlet corals to Ophelia's chamber with his piteous looks and sighs and his clothing in disarray* the film uuas visual images to Shakespeare 1 j word images. The mixture is too rich; aesthetic indigestion sots in. Still, the camera must he fed. Sometimes that instrument takes off on its own, leaping up stairs to battlements overlooking the sea, or sweeping along through the enaless urcuus that vault this cinema palace at Blsinore. As Mr. Olivier uses it, this is a camera shrewdly informed, Sensitive to dramatic nuances and the shadowy beauty of the seene. But it is an imperious instrument and restive.
Hven Mr, Olivier 's concept of the leading role is a little more than film ana less than Shakespeare. His Hamlet is a charming prince of palpable energy ensnared in the toils of a murder mystery; Did Claudius kill 'his father as the ghost on the battlements claimed? Vengeance waits only on confirmation and then on the propitious moment. Thus his tragudy is that of a youth nought up in events beyond his control, instead of tho deeper and more absorbing tragedy .that Shakespeare saw in a young man whoso inability to act was lodged within himself. *0h, what a rogue and peasant slave am I J1 Hamlet. cries out, in one of the soli 1 oquies-'hich are significantly absent from the film. The Fortinbras speech, which echoes these thoughts is also notable by its absence.
Hot all of the alterations that Mr. Olivier and his editor, Alan Dent, have worked on the original are as lacking in felicity as these. With a blend of their respective skills, they give a polished flow to the drama's freoj.vant changes of sce.no. For the multiple playing areas of