Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . Jean Muir challenges the future "Melanie Wilkes" about 22:05 into the latter's Tinseltown Debutante Ball. Like most if not all Warner Bros. releases, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM is chock full of warnings meant for We Americans of (The Then) Far Future. Take the Opening Proclamation here, stating that cast members will be paid "six pence" (about 50 cents) for EACH DAY of their remaining lives AFTER this play's original Elizabethan release. For Olivia De Havilland alone, adjusting for inflation by doubling that small royalties Per Diem every decade since 1595, she (or her heirs) already are into Warner Bros. for around 90 Quadrillion Bucks (which would be inherited tax free, thanks to the Deplorable Repugs!). This unfunded liability is the main reason that the U.S. Justice Dept. is nixing the AT&T merger with Time Warner right now. Otherwise, DREAM features the black-garbed Victor Jory in the guise of "Oberon," or Oligarch Vlad Putin, current U.S. Strongman, and James Cagney as his lapdog Don Juan Rump, aka "Bottom" the Jackass, with Hugh Herbert playing Rump's Great Wall, Anita Louise portraying Putin's Inside Gal in the White House (Melancholia "Titania" Rump), and--of course--Mickey Rooney standing in as the insufferable Huck, or Rump's mouthpiece, Sally Huckleberry, Jr.

GManfred Had never seen a production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream" and so it's hard to judge if this Warner Bros. production is a good representation or not. I have to say I found it very enjoyable, and Hollywood certainly pulled out all the stops at their disposal. The actors all seemed competent, especially James Cagney and Olivia DeHavilland as Bottom and Hermia respectively. Less good were Dick Powell as Lysander and Hugh Herbert as Snout, particularly the latter. Herbert added nothing to the show except his patented giggle which became irritating after a while. A big surprise was Ross Alexander as Demetrius, who was very much at ease in the role. Too bad he didn't become a big star.Saving my best comments for last, as I enjoyed Mickey Rooney's portrayal of Puck immensely. I always consider him one of the most talented people Hollywood has ever produced; he could sing and dance as well as act. I felt he was the star of this film and was an arresting presence whenever he was on screen, confident of his ability and trying mightily to give his best. And he succeeded. Too bad this was produced before Technicolor came into being; it could have added so much more.

jakob13 A refurbished 'Midsummer Night's Dream' is now available. A 1935 rendering of Shakespeare's play with the 16 year old Mendelssohn's masterpiece as background music. Austrian born theater impresario Max Reinhardt co directed it with German-born William Dieterle a Hollywood filmmaker. The influence of German expression is noticeable, but it takes nothing away from the Bard's fairy tale. A parade of Hollywood stars and character actors parade across the screen with Shakespeare's meter and line as dialogue. Romantic leads, song and dance men, comedians and what ever you would find in a Studio's rooster of the Golden Age of Hollywood Studios. Victor Jory, Tina Louise, Ross Alexander, the young Olivia DeHavilland (still alive at 97), Dick Powell, Jane Muir. Then there the eternal laughter of Hugh Herbert as Snout, the plastic faced Joe E. Brown as Flute, the eternal harassed backstage guy in musicals Frank McHugh as Quince and a trim Arthur Treacher without much to say. The ensemble turns in a stellar performance. But it's the 13 year old Mickey Rooney as Puck that is a wondrous delight as his name implies. His performance is almost matched by Jimmy Cagney as Bottom the weaver who is transformed in an ass. And then there is the eternal play of night and day, the aerie lightness of the fairies and the dark brooding of the Teutonic nights of Oberon. This is a film that 80 years on doesn't creak, but is a surprise to the unsuspecting eye that comes up this version of 'Midsummer Night's Dream'. The play has been brought to the screen many times over, but no version has and can match the Reinhardt production, a savvy fixture of theater and cinema. It should and deserves to be seen!

audiemurph Don't get me wrong: this is a fine movie, and often a dreamy and captivating one at that; but, if you are expecting to see an interpretation of a Shakespeare play, you will be disappointed. What I mean is, Warner Brothers decided that the movie should focus primarily on what movies do best, which is to create a magical experience for the viewer; hence, the overwhelming majority of the movie is spent on phantasmic and mystical sets, wondrous special effects, and outrageous costumes and dance numbers, all for the goal of transporting you into a dream-world of fairies and gnomes and star-crossed lovers.For a secondary goal, the producers wanted to show off their two major stars, James Cagney and Mickey Rooney. Rooney, only 14 or so, was a young man of incredible talent, possessing perhaps the finest natural gift for entertainment in all of American cinematography. Does he over-act here, as many have complained? I don't think so; he is appropriately exuberant, and, well, Puckish. A worse problem is that his voice was just changing, and is awfully harsh and grating at times, caught as it is is between childhood and adulthood.Mendelssohn's music is featured heavily also throughout, being used to enhance the spectral quality of our film.But what about Shakespeare? The play itself is one of the Master's shorter plays, and can be read through out loud in about 2 hours. A Shakespeare play is primarily about the words, and the poetry. Unfortunately, the producers of this movie version easily cut out over 80% - I am not exaggerating - of the lines of the 4 lovers and Theseus and Hippolyta. Almost no speech of more than 4 or 5 lines remained unmassacred. As a result, the script is choppy and unpoetic, dreadful really. A lot of the logic of the speeches and the story are completely lost, due to the devastating excising of the script; just one example: Theseus overrides Egeus' wish to have Demetrius marry Hermia, without him ever actually being told that Demetrius no longer loves her, and has fallen for Helena instead.If you are a hard-core Shakespeare reader, you will also note, frustratingly, how just about all the "thees" and "thous" have been changed to "you-s". One of the great pleasures of reading Elizabethan drama is to follow how playwrights' characters switch back and forth between thee-ing and you-ing, depending on the relationships between the speakers; "Thee" is used either to express closeness, or deliberate informal insult and contempt; "You" is subtle, defining a respectful relationship, or helping to preserve distance between speakers. All of this is lost in the movie.And why do so many of the characters have to laugh uncontrollably while they are speaking? Just another minor irritation, I guess.So, while this version of MND is great fun as a movie, don't expect to get to hear a lot of the poetry of the Bard.