Midsummer Night's Dream, A (1935)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), directed by William Dieterle.
My feelings for this extravaganza are more generous now than previously. Then it seemed like a awkward attempt by non-Shakespearean Hollywood actors, dressed up with glitter and cobwebs as much as they might, to perform material well beyond their range.
Now: it's fun to watch and I appreciate their efforts more. Productions of MSND must balance the fantasy and romantic comedy dimensions. If they chose to over-weight the former with ballet and opera staging in this case, the actors just had to cope.
It's true that Americans are not natural Shakespeareans, but he belongs to the world now and anyone can take a whack at his plays. You never know what's going to work. For example: young lively James Cagney seemed terribly miscast as Bottom the Weaver, traditionally portrayed as middle-aged, over-weight and balding. But Cagney gives a delightful interpretation, one of the best things about the film. When such experiments fail they are called "miscasting", when they work they are celebrated as "reinvention".
The story of the production deserves its own film treatment. Consider:
Warner Brothers, known for blue-collar entertainment, wanted to add a touch of class to their titles.
They imported the famous theater impresario Max Reinhardt, who staged the play many times, including a well-received version at the Hollywood Bowl in 1934.
He brought a retinue of other Germans who shouted at each other in that language, costumed in the expected jodhpurs and riding crops.
He knew very little about filmmaking and the early rushes were much too dark and the dialogue incomprehensible, causing vast unhappiness in the studio offices.
The original cinematographer was quickly fired (someone had to take the blame!) and Hal Mohr was brought in to wrestle in brighter lights and trim the foliage.
Caught between his mentor Reinhardt and the studio bosses, diplomatic William Dieterle did the actual directing.
Most of the music is by Felix Mendelssohn, written for this play starting when he was 17. Another child prodigy, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, did the orchestration, his first Hollywood project. He sat in the bushes and directed the cast's line readings so their cadence would match his music.
Olivia de Havilland had her film debut at age 19. She had played Puck in a college production and became second understudy to Hermia in the Hollywood Bowl production, advancing to the role itself one week before opening night. Of all the young lovers, Hermia has some of the best lines: "You juggler! you canker-blossom! You thief of love! [...] And are you grown so high in his esteem because I am so dwarfish and so low? How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak! How low am I? I am not yet so low but that my nails can reach unto thine eyes".
Dick Powell was looking to get out of boy tenor roles and passed through here on his way to noir and directing. He gets grief for being miscast (and he agreed) but I don't see the problem. He knows he's in a comedy.
Mickey Rooney, age 14, had also been in the Hollywood Bowl version. Reinhardt was sold by this weird shrieking laugh he developed for Puck. Critics loved it but it is hard to take today. His mocking bits as the young lovers go to sleep are hilarious. Famously, after being warned not to take risks he broke a leg on a toboggan. Jack Warner: "I'll kill him and then break the other leg".
Again, James Cagney impresses as Bottom. His full ass-head is a little scary.
When the "rude mechanicals" put on a bad play for the nobles, there is always the risk of self-lampooning the whole production. They skate close to the edge here.
Available on DVD. A humorous commentary by Scott MacQueen gives a vast amount of production detail. He says that the British theater, natural guardians of Shakespeare, never forgave the film for Cagney's Puck. Michael Powell A Matter of Life and Death (1946) lampoons Americans trying to put on the play, a jab at this film.
