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Hamlet (1948)

Director:
Laurence Olivier
COUNTRY
UK
GENRE
Drama
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Hamlet
RUNNING TIME
149 minutes
Producer:
Laurence Olivier
Screenwriter (based on the play by William Shakespeare):
Alan Dent


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Hamlet Laurence Olivier ˝
Queen Gertrude Eileen Herlie ˝
King Claudius Basil Sydney ˝
Ophelia Jean Simmons
Horatio Norman Wooland ˝
Polonius Felix Aylmer ˝
Laertes Terence Morgan ˝
Osric Peter Cushing
Gravedigger Stanley Holloway
Marcellus Anthony Quayle
Spear carrier (uncredited) Christopher Lee

 

Review

A technically dazzling adaptation of Shakespeare’s famed play with an aptly overwhelming spacing and a bewilderingly devoted Laurence Olivier in the lead. The film captures the depth of the drama and the wit between the tragic lines, but still remains a tad offish in certain segments. The exclusion of the popular bit characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern might give the film a more ceremonious feel, but the performers are up to the task, with Felix Aylmer and Olivier particularly brilliant. There is understated eroticism between Olivier and Simmons, and the former portrays Hamlet's balance between sanity and madness enticingly. The film is at its best in the middle part, in which there is palpable suspense. Note the humour in the fact that 28-year-old Herlie plays 41-year-old Olivier's mother.

Copyright © 11.11.2007 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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