Highly praised by critic Pauline Kael, and absurdly over-rated by most other critics, this is undoubtedly one of the worst English-language, talking film versions of Shakespeare ever made. It makes the ridiculous casting of Dick Powell in the 1935 "Midsummer Night's Dream" seem absolutely inspired.
It isn't that the actual casting is bad, just that a lot of the acting is.With all due respect to gay people everywhere, I can safely say that Laurence Harvey, normally an excellent actor who can make even badly written roles seem memorable (such as his Col.Travis in John Wayne's "The Alamo"), is by far the swishiest Romeo imaginable, making you wonder what Juliet sees in him. He makes Leslie Howard in the 1936 "Romeo" look like Clark Gable as Rhett Butler carrying Scarlett up that staircase. He has a moony-eyed smile on his face during the balcony scene which makes you want to say,"Snap out of it!"
Susan Shentall is a beautiful but bland Juliet, Flora Robson is just OK as the nurse, especially in comparison with Pat Heywood in Zeffirelli's 1968 version. Worst of all, director Renato Castellani has made an awesomely stupid decision in cutting the roles of Mercutio and Tybalt to shreds and casting two unknown, barely competent Italian actors with dubbed English-speaking voices as these colorful characters.
The very minor role of Benvolio is beefed up for Bill Travers. The brawls and duels are miserably done (there is actually no duel in this version between Romeo and Tybalt; Romeo simply rushes up to him and stabs him!), especially in comparison to both the MGM 1936 version and the Franco Zeffirelli 1968 film. Only Sebastian Cabot (better known as Mr. French in TV's "Family Affair") comes out unscathed---he is a brilliant Lord Capulet. The movie is the first "Romeo" in color, and filmed in Italy, but no match for Zeffirelli's version.
It isn't that the actual casting is bad, just that a lot of the acting is.With all due respect to gay people everywhere, I can safely say that Laurence Harvey, normally an excellent actor who can make even badly written roles seem memorable (such as his Col.Travis in John Wayne's "The Alamo"), is by far the swishiest Romeo imaginable, making you wonder what Juliet sees in him. He makes Leslie Howard in the 1936 "Romeo" look like Clark Gable as Rhett Butler carrying Scarlett up that staircase. He has a moony-eyed smile on his face during the balcony scene which makes you want to say,"Snap out of it!"
Susan Shentall is a beautiful but bland Juliet, Flora Robson is just OK as the nurse, especially in comparison with Pat Heywood in Zeffirelli's 1968 version. Worst of all, director Renato Castellani has made an awesomely stupid decision in cutting the roles of Mercutio and Tybalt to shreds and casting two unknown, barely competent Italian actors with dubbed English-speaking voices as these colorful characters.
The very minor role of Benvolio is beefed up for Bill Travers. The brawls and duels are miserably done (there is actually no duel in this version between Romeo and Tybalt; Romeo simply rushes up to him and stabs him!), especially in comparison to both the MGM 1936 version and the Franco Zeffirelli 1968 film. Only Sebastian Cabot (better known as Mr. French in TV's "Family Affair") comes out unscathed---he is a brilliant Lord Capulet. The movie is the first "Romeo" in color, and filmed in Italy, but no match for Zeffirelli's version.