Director:                      Lord Laurence Olivier
Associate Producer:   Reginald Beck
Asst Producer:            Anthony Bushell
Script:                          Alan Dent (from Hamlet by Shakespeare)
Cinematography:       Desmond Dickinson
Editing:                        Helga Cranston
Art Direction:               Carmen Dillon
Costume Designer:     Roger Furse
Music:                           William Walton

 

Sir Laurence Olivier's 1948 version of Hamlet sets the standard for film version of the play about the Danish prince. Much as he did with Henry V, Sir Laurence cuts some significant plot points and characters from Shakespeare's play, but it is done to concentrate the focus of the film on the brooding prince. He removes as much as 50% of Shakespeare's script. Major characters, including Fortinbras, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are excised altogether. Without Fortinbras he can dispense as well with Voltemand and Cornelius. The recitation of the sack of Troy is deleted, as is all of The Murder of Gonzago except the dumb show, that is to say, the hackneyed theatrical tradition denigrated by Hamlet himself but which the Players perform anyway.

Scenes are switched about, major speeches replaced by single lines, other speeches reconstructed as a collage put together from different parts of the play. The result is a sterling masterpiece, a beautifully functioning art , all of whose components, acting, words, blocking, camerawork, scenery and music are brilliantly combined. I for one am convinced that Shakespeare would have approved.

Make no mistake about it, this is Sir Laurence's film all the way. He brings an amazing breadth to character who disintegrates from a happy and sensitive man into a tormented and lost soul. There are some other great performances including Eileen Herlie who plays the Queen and is Sir Laurence's mother in the film despite being thirteen years his junior, a young Jean Simmons is luminous as Ophelia and Basil Sydney is effective as the villainous Claudius. Horror film notables Peter Cushing and the now Christopher Lee also appear as does Stanley Holloway. The film was a major success and it helped earn Sir Laurence his only competitive Oscars in 1948 as Best Actor and as producer on the Best Picture award in addition to two others for Best Art Direction (B&W) and Best Costume Design (B&W). He is also the only Best Actor Oscar winner to direct himself to the award.

Hamlet