Hamlet 1948

The Film:
The "screenplay" to this one is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest things ever written in the English language. And I know it very well indeed. After studying it for A Level and seeing it live on several occasions I can literally recite great chunks of it.

I've seen Mark Rylance, Alan Rickman and David Tennant perform it live and in person. I've seen Rory Kinnear and Benedict Cumberbatch perform it live via satellite. I've seen it performed interactively in the grounds of Helsinor Castle (I was even Rosencrantz at one point) And I've seen both the Zeffirelli/Mel Gibson and Kenneth Branagh films of it more often and more recently than I've seen this classic version.

This was the second time in three years that Laurence Olivier was nominated for producing and starring in a Shakespeare film. Last time (for Henry V) he lost out on both to Best Years of Our Lives. This time he won both (and was also nominated for Best Director - although John Huston denied him the triple)

Alas poor Oscar....

I remember watching this a long time ago, before I became such a Hamlet expert / obsessive / bore (delete as appropriate) but I don't remember a great deal about it. It runs longer than the Zeffirelli mish-mash but a good hour and a half shorter than Branagh's overblown "complete" version. I'm intrigued to find out what has and hasn't been cut (other than the famously absent Rozencrantz and Guildenstern). I'm expecting it to be very hammy and of its time. I'm hoping to be impressed though. And I'm probably going to be unsufferable throughout......

The Ceremony:

The ceremony took place at The Academy Theater on March 29th 1949 and was hosted by Robert Montgomery. It was a smaller event than the previous few years, mainly because a lot of the major studios had withdrawn financial backing - due to rumours that this financial support was effectively buying votes!

Johnny Belinda was the big film talked about in the lead up to the ceremony - with twelve nominations (although it only won one).

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was the other big favourite - although Humphrey Bogart didn't get an Actor nomination for it, which is now considered to be one of the biggest snubs in the history of the awards.




Other Notable Winners That Night:

Keeping it in the family!

To a certain extent it was Larry's night - but the Huston family also did pretty well. John won Director and Screenplay, and his dad Walter won Best Supporting Actor. John also directed Clare Trevor to her Best Supporting Actress award, for Key Largo.

Jane Wyman won Best Actress - the only award that Johnny Belinda won. She is also only the second actress to win the award without speaking a word of dialogue (the first was Janet Gaynor - and she was only silent because the film was!)



Best Song:

"Buttons and Bows" from The Paleface - which was sung by Bob Hope who, unusually, wasn't hosting that night and didn't sing it live at the ceremony (his co-star Jane Russell sang it instead).

This is another thing (alongside a dissection of Casablanca) that pops up in Series 3 of Frasier. In fact, it's the main place that I know the song from. Frasier does a stunningly bad performance of it at a pledge drive.

(Oddly, a couple of episodes later, Frasier also goes on a fruitless quest to sit quietly and watch How Green Was My Valley. Quite an obsession going on with 40s Oscar winners that series....)

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

She should have bought some Skechers - I think
they do them in red....

It's a strong list this year. Which makes the dominance of a fairly low key bit of Shakespeare quite curious (was it a case of Americans loving jolly old England, or just the feeling that it was about time they gave Larry something?)

Apart from The Snake Pit (which sounds interesting, but it's not one that I've ever heard of) the other
nominees are classics that have stood the test of time. Johnny Belinda is a really good film on an important (particularly in light of current Hollywood issues!) and previously Hays Code banned theme. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a classic Hollywood epic. Both of these got some big awards elsewhere (where they most deserved them). However, I'm going to cast my vote for the other British film on the list - The Red Shoes. It won for Score and Art Direction (which makes sense). It should have won more. Michael Powell never won an Oscar (Pressburger got a writing one for 49th Parallel) - I'm happy to give him one of Larry's!

Our Verdict:

Well it didn't look like this when we were there this summer!

Polonius -  a brilliantly bumbling bore

I was worried. I was very worried. Partly because I know that I have high standards when it comes to Hamlet, and that even the late great Alan Rickman was only passable in a pretty awful production I spent a fortune on as a student. And partly because I was dreading the stilted luvvie-ness of the whole thing. Lots of people in inappropriate tights, freezing their codpieces off in the Scandinavian weather with incredibly RP over-the-top proclamations hither and thither.

There was plenty of all of that - but I needn't have worried. After the stagey strutting of the guards in the opening scene and the ridiculously louche way in which Larry was draped over his chair at dinner, everything started to get going and it was (for the most part) the Hamlet I know and love!

I learned to cope with the fact that Hamlet was nearly twice the age that he should have been (and clearly older than his mother!) and I got past the tights and strutting (and the anachronistic hair gel that both Horatio and Laertes seemed fond of.) And Larry's peroxide bowl-cut for that matter (they could have done with a better hair dresser!). Generally, the acting was very good, the staging was very good - and the pacing was very good.

Surprisingly, I didn't miss Rozencrantz and Guildenstern - but I did miss the "What a piece of work...." speech which was cut along with them. And I missed Fortinbras - he would have made for a better ending than just wet Horatio standing there with his hair gel!

Bona Shakespeare - here's Julian, looking for Sandy

It took a little while to get going - but from the point at which Hamlet sees his father (not just in his mind's eye) to brilliantly creepy effect, I got sucked in as usual to the whole thing. And it got better and better as it went on.

Ophelia was neither here nor there, and she did whine on a bit too much - but her father was rather splendid and delivered his bumbling waffle with a great mix of humour and pathos.

Gertrude and Claudius did the job well enough (although I would have liked more oomph from Claudius!) - but, apart from Larry itself, it's the smaller roles that made the difference.

Ey up Yorick, ows tha bin?

Stanley Holloway had a fab cameo as the Gravedigger and played the part well (basically, as Stanley Holloway!) - and the players were also great. (That whole scene worked really well).

Peter Cushing played the often-cut Osric - and put his heart and soul into a brilliantly comically camp performance. I thought he was going to irritate me, but he got away with it.

Larry showed why he was considered such a great actor by holding the whole thing together with such a great performance that the blonde-ness and the tights stopped distracting me after the first couple of scenes. I love Hamlet, and I love to pick it to pieces and be critical. Mark Rylance was my first, and he'll always be my favourite (closely followed by David Tennant) - but I really enjoyed this version, and I think I'd rather watch this one again over Gibson or Branagh. The play's the thing....and this thing is rather good!