Romeo and Juliet
by George Cukor
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Basil Rathbone, Edna May Oliver, John Barrymore, Leslie Howard, Norma ShearerDirector: George Cukor
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 119 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-08-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Romeo and Juliet
Movie Review: A Jewelry Box Treasure of The Bard's Classic Romance
Summary: 5 Stars
Very few people are familiar with this lavish, Old Hollywood production of Shakespeare's ROMEO & JULIET, but it is a gem of a movie. It has, in my opinion, the finest cast ever assembled in the history of Shakespeare on film. Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard are both far over the usual age limit for Romeo and Juliet respectively, but they give such beautiful performances that one doesn't notice. In fact, if I hadn't known the ages of the stars (Howard was in his early 40s and Shearer in her mid 30s) I wouldn't have thought either of them to be out of their 20s, so young do their faces look and how vivacious and youthful their performances are. Norma Shearer is my favorite Juliet on film because her tears over Romeo are so genuine and so moving and she perfectly portrays youthful vigor and womanly grace. Leslie Howard, likewise, is probably my favorite Romeo - no other Romeo is so sure of his words or as much of a true gentleman as Howard's Romeo. Edna May Oliver as the Nurse is simply a delight through and through and is easily the best actress on film to play the role, and Basil Rathbone is a wonderful Tybalt in that he portrays him as a bold nobleman with a fierce devotion to family and its honor rather than a hot-headed conventional jerk as the character tends to be portrayed. John Barrymore as Mercutio is also smashing, lending the character a sarcastic, joking energy that I had never seen before. Barrymore also plays Mercutio as a womanizing flirt, which I found refreshing because so many directors lend an unnecessary homosexual undercurrent to Romeo and Mercutio's friendship.
Probably the greatest asset of this production, however, is that director George Cukor and his cast all rely on Shakespeare's language to tell the story, whereas other adaptations, namely Baz Luhrmann's version of the tale, don't, and overcompensate for their butchering of the text with post-modern agendas that do not fit Shakespeare well at all. This version contains more of the original text than both the 1968 version (which is good but falters slightly given that the two lovers, although young, don't always understand what they are saying) and the Baz Luhrmann version (MTV's Diet Shakespeare). Also, the film is lavish without being gaudy or garrish, the costumes, although not exactly historically accurate all the time, are still beautiful to behold, Norma Shearer's Juliet gowns moving gracefully about her as she frolicks in her garden. The meeting of Romeo and Juliet is also the most beautiful on film, complete with an Elizabethan dance to highlight the arrival of Juliet to what is essentially her introduction to Verona society.
All in all, my FAVORITE film version of ROMEO & JULIET, but if you tend to dislike the films of the 1930s, I would still watch this version but remember what age and studio system it is a product of. Enjoy!
Summary of Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare's classic tale of love and youth ruined by a family feud. The Montagues and the Capulets, two powerful families of Verona, hate each other. Romeo, a Montague, crashes a Capulet party, and there meets Juliet. They fall in love and secretly marry. After killing a nephew of Lady Capulet in a fight, Romeo is banished from Verona. Capulet tries to marry Juliet to Paris, a prince. Juliet seeks the counsel of Friar Laurence, who married her and Romeo. He suggests a daring plan that ends tragically.The lovers of Shakespeare's tragi-romance are brought to suitably quivering life by Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard in this glossy 1936 MGM take on the play. And yes, they're a tad older than the headstrong youths of Shakespeare's story (Howard was 43!), but they make up for that with sheer fervor. Shearer's performance looks like Great Lady acting at times, but she commits completely to Juliet's passion, and Howard is a delight. Basil Rathbone and Edna May Oliver are slam-dunk casting as Tybalt and the Nurse, respectively, and if John Barrymore is too weathered for Mercutio, he nevertheless works up an antic, sarcastic energy in the role. The production was supervised by MGM boy wonder Irving Thalberg (Shearer's husband), and it's an utterly lavish affair; the courtyard for the balcony scene looks exactly as expansive and studio-moon-drenched as your romantic imagination tells you it should. The film went the way of many such prestige productions: director George Cukor later said it lost a million dollars. (This was the same year he made Sylvia Scarlett, another box-office flop that has aged well.) It may be Shakespeare Lite, but the film zips along on the back of a love story that has been, to say the least, quite durable over the years. --Robert Horton
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