Evening star., 1935-10-10
SHAKESPEARE MAKES FILM HISTORY
midsummer Nights
Dream" Opening
Is Gala Event.
BY ROBERT b. PHILLIPS, JR.

most talked-of film in cinema
VI history made its debut here
4 last night at the Hollywood
Theater before an ermine-swathed
and top hated audience which, some
what like a majority of the perform
ers connected with it, seemed slightly
awed and self conscious in the pres
ence of an epochal event.
Perhaps no picture in the annals of
Hollywood has evoked so much COM
ment before its premier, stirred so
much controversy and won such an
ticipatory praise as Max Reinhardt's
production of Midsummer Nights
Dream" Last night the eager hun
dreds who braved an S1l top tariff
found what they had hoped for-an
unforgettable spectacle, Shake
spearean production that could be
discussed for hours without exhaust
ing its conversational possibilities, and
a fanciful, fantastic reel of celluloid
which unquestionably will pave the
way for new and important cycle in
the cinema.
Whatever may be said of Warner
Bros Midsummer Nights Dream"
we doubt that any critic will be more
perceptive or conclusive than the re-
mark made by Dr. A. S. w. Rosen-
bach, the famed bibliophile and presi-
dent of the Shakespeare Society of
America. Said he: ITO me it is the
Midsummer Nights Dream of Shake
spears imagination" And that it is,
Lot LOTT Of
the text to the screen, not a Holly
wood adaptation" vaguely related to
the plot structure of Shakespeare's
play, but visionary, capricious in
depreciation of the bards work in
terms of the camera.
Shakespeare tossed off Midsummer
Night" in six days. It was intended
as a sort of maSque for a wedding
fete, and the characters in masques
are notoriously typed" Intended to
be symbolic, they seldom possess in
dividuality. Yet the English master,
who could not write about monu-
ment without bringing it to life, i'm
parted a semblance of character to
every figure in his story.
Nevertheless, like most Shake
spearean dramas, it boasts nothing
exceptional in plots. The really sig
nificant element is the chimerical
whimsy, the dream of elfin sprites
who people the woods, dance by the
light of the moon and for amusement
meddle in the affairs of foolish NOR
tails. Shakespeare embodied his vision
of that mythical world in passages
of sublime poetry. Reinhardt, in turn,
has sought to give living form to the
creatures and scenes the bard sug-
geSted in words. He has used sight
and sound, light and shadow, the
limitless facility of the camera. to
attune Shakespeare to modern masses,
who accustomed to different pace
in dialogue and different taste in
spectacle, might easily have lost in
terest in the elaborate language of
the original.
To the votaries of Shakespeare, who
worship him more as a peerless poet,
a master of warm, living language
than as story teller, any conversions
and deletions may seem brutal or
senseless. They may not be content
to feed their appetites for poesy on
the few brief passages magniflcently
spoken by Victor Jory as King Oberon,
to snatch an occasional portion of
Puck's many songs or bit Of Lysan-
der's sweet, romantic fol de rol
In the interests of dramatic effec-
tiveness, these practices seem to us
entirely defensible. Equipped with
a medium that could render fantasy
alluring and comprehensive to pres
ent-day fllmgoers, Reinhardt had
no choice but to compromise with
an original which probably would have
bored them. His method may be aca-
demieally heretical, but it was and
is good theater.
Three major sectors constitute
midsummer Night" They are the
romantic interlude. peopled with
Theseus and Hippolyta, the amorous
swains Lysander and Demetrius and
their lady-loves, Hernia and Helena;
the imaginative extravaganza, in
which Titania and Oberon, Queen and
King of the Fairies, and Puck, the
spirit of mischief, are the moving
spirits. and that Incompatible, low
comedy play-within-a-play offered by
Bottom, Ounce, Snug and their pals.
The skein of these three dramatic
threads is neatly drawn and interlaced,
but they are essentially antipathetic.
Therefore their histrionic merits
may properly be considered separately.
Beginning with the famous very
tragical mirth" of Pyramus and Thisbe,
we find Frank McHugh cast as Ounce,
Dewey Robinson as Snug, James Gag
neys as Bottom, Joe E. Brown as Flute
and Hugh Herbert as Snout. With
the exception of Mr.. Brown. all of
these skilled and seasoned performers
are stilted in their first appearances,
obviously subdued by the knowledge
that they are playing Shakespeare and
that they are supposed to drop their
habitual screen mannerisms and
create fresh, ptrue characterizations.
MIR. Brown escapes that awkwardness
because his initial moments are chiefly
pantomime. Consequently he is not
bothered by Tightening of the larnyx
or the other symptoms which assail
his fellows very much as If they were
appearing in grade school recital.
By the time they reach the rehearsal
scene in the woods, al lthese gentle
men have warmed to the work. They
Wn .,h -