Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

94 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST ROMEO AND JULIET — Continued "An excellent production of the play, with an excellent continuity of plot and doing full justice to Shakespeare's text. Recommended for library use. Recommended to the Committee on Exceptional Photoplays. Family-outstanding." + + Wkly Guide Je 27 '36 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "By every test of current Hollywood achievement, Metro's 'Romeo and Juliet' promises to prove one of the two or three most-discussed films of the year. . . Endlessly handsome is this pageant-like version, with its choice photography, its brilliant use of black, gray and white values as foundation for its authentic and bold design in costumes and settings. . . Miss Shearer's performance takes on variety and worth from her devotion to the story. . . She has the pliability to enter into every indicated mood of Juliet, within the scope of her own talents, never forcing the note beyond her abilities, speaking always out of the thought and emotion implied in the words. That Mr. Howard is not the best possible choice for Romeo will, in a measure, be canceled by his appeal for his following in whatever he undertakes." E. C. S. Christian Science Monitor plO Ag 25 '36 "To the uninitiated there will come an introduction to the art of the great English writer under circumstances that could hardly be more favorable. . . It is not a document of Hollywood imagination, but rather a literal translation. . . A'irtually the entire cast stands impressively realistic amid beautiful art and architecture and poetry." J. P. Cunningham + + Commonweal p446 S 4 '36 "I have seen what is probably the finest presentation ever accorded 'Romeo and Juliet'— the finest, perhaps, of the many fine things Irving Thalberg has to his credit as a film producer. . . The production reaches an artistic peak seldom seen on the screen. . . It is not box-office. Shakespeare is not box-office. His appeal is intellectual. The screen's appeal must be to the emotions. . . Of course, there is the possibility of the discovery of a director who can make Shakespeare human, who can handle the Bard's characters in a manner to make us weep over their misfortunes, something that George Cukor's direction comes a long way from accomplishing." Hollywood Spec p7 Ag 1 '36 "When M-G-M announced that it was going to film 'Romeo and Juliet,' it seemed inevitable that the picture would shock Shakespeare students and bore movie audiences. As a matter of happy fact, it does neither. . . Here is a deeply touching, scholastically faithful account of Shakespeare's romance that manages to combine an academic sincerity with robust and poignant reality. Indeed, the outstanding quality of the picture is its balance. . . Despite a somewhat tepid beginning and an atrocious performance by John Barrymore, whose exorbitant ranting and face-making ruin the prize role of Mercutio, 'Romeo and Juliet' is grand entertainment easily adaptable to camera methods. Dominating the picture is Norma Shearer's exquisite portrait of Juliet. Nothing in her lengthy career has indicated that this actress could climb to the heights she scales in this. . . As Romeo, Leslie Howard is not the traditionally fiery youth, but his stylized acting easily captures both sympathy and respect." (4 stars) Beverly Hills Liberty p35 Ag 29 '36 "Critics consider 'Romeo and Juliet' a triumph of motion-picture art, very 'possibly one of the finest pictures ever made in Hollywood.' . . The most acidulous [critics] admitted [Miss Shearer's] Juliet to be a triumph, garlanded Leslie Howard for a curbed, disciplined performance as Romeo. Also, they delighted in the Mercutio of John Barrymore. . . 'Romeo and Juliet' is Hollywood's best joust with Shakespeare to date. Skilled performances, knowing delivery of the famous lines, an acute sense that cheers would be grudged, jeers easy, combining to set alight the talents of all concerned." + + Lit Digest p20 Ag 15 '36 "On 'Romeo and Juliet' in the screen version I can only report that if you like the play as it stands and do not require something far and indefinable and somehow beyond, you will like it; if not, not. The picture is done well, but seems little more than that . . . Norma Shearer is rather unappetizingly made up, but neither bad nor good and (surprisingly enough) usually content with just being in there trying; Leslie Howard has grace, intelligence and a flair for lines but the sophomorics of Romeo are too much for him and there are times when that sensitive horse's face of his, wrapped in these disguises, must lead to unfortunate giggles. But as Mercutio, John Barrymore is the real study. I hardly know what to say about it, but am sure there will never be seen on the boards so much scenery-chewing and rubber-face trickery until the day they put 'Lear' into the Billy Minsky houses." Otis Ferguson New Repub pl04 S 2 '36 "At this stage in the development of Hollywood, and we imply no condescension, the production is the last word in what is to be expected— visual loveliness and intelligent, if not imaginative, comprehension of the text. Miss Shearer's Juliet would do honor to many a more established stage reputation. . . Compared to Reinhardt's 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' it shines like a jewel in the crown of night." Robert Stebbins + New Theatre p21 S '36 "With rare good taste and surprising resourcefulness the screen has translated Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' into a distinguished and beautiful photoplay. The singing measures of the tragedy have been framed in sumptuous pageantry. The acting, always effective rises at times to genuine brilliance. . . You will find it the cinema's most successful and engaging obeisance to the Bard. . . Of all the splendid performances in the film, that of Mr. Barrymore is outstanding. . . Miss Shearer is remarkably good. She is inclined to coyness at the start, but from the balcony scene on she plays with simple intensity and profound assurance. In her most ambitious role she does the finest acting of her career. As Romeo, Leslie Howard is almost too restrained,, although he conspires with Miss Shearer to make the lovers' meetings incidents of haunting beauty. . . The screen version of 'Romeo and Juliet' has flaws, but they are trivial when weighed against the beauty and compelling power of the production." Howard Barnes + + N Y Herald Tribune pll Ag 21 '36 "Great and still alive as is the material of which the film is made, 'Romeo and Juliet' falls somewhere short of being a great picture. It is a good picture and a distinguished one, worthy, and one no intelligent moviegoer would care to miss. Something, however, has escaped from it in the transfer from printed page, from the stage to a motion picture screen. It does not wring the heart nor start tears of sweet sympathy or bitter resentment of the tragic, needless waste of youth and love and beauty. It remains simply interesting, solid and interesting, never a film to haunt quiet moments like Katharine Cornell's stage production of last year." Eileen Creelman + NY Sun pll Ag 21 '36 "Never before, in all its centuries, has the play received so handsome a production as that which was unveiled last night. . . All that the camera's scope, superb photography and opulent costuming could give it has been given to it here. Ornate but not garish, extravagant but in perfect taste, expansive but never overwhelming, the picture reflects great credit upon its producers and upon the screen as a whole. It is a dignified, sensitive and entirely admirable Shakespearean — not Hollywoodean — production. . . Considering the performances en masse, they are splendid. Here and there we can expect imperfections: Miss Shearer was not + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; -| Fair; j Mediocre; — Poor; Exceptionally Poor