In 1948, famed director/actor Orson Wells, released his film
version of Macbeth. It was the fourth
time that a post-silent era Hollywood studio produced a film based on a
Shakespeare play. As the clip below shows, Wells combined a number of film
techniques that gave the production the feel of a Hollywood horror film. The film
opens on fog shrouded, craggy landscape with the three witches surrounding a
boiling cauldron, silhouetted against a stormy sky. They proceed through their well-known
chant while fashioning a crude fetish doll from the cauldron’s slimy contents and
name it “Macbeth.” The credits roll, backed by a purposely spooky theme, then
two riders enter the scene. Thunder sounds and lightning flashes and the rider’s
progress is interrupted by the witches’ injunction, “Hail Macbeth.”
Influenced by film noir and German expressionism, Macbeth
creates a brooding mood of dread and despair appropriate to the tragic fall of
a once great man. Wells is quite good in delivering Shakespeare’s lines, but he
and the rest of the cast complicate negotiating the language by their
insistence upon layering each speech with a distracting Scottish burr.
Realistic perhaps, but this may make it difficult for viewers unaccustomed to
Shakespeare’s English to understand what is being said. Viewers may also be
distracted by the choice of costumes. Macbeth and his compatriots often look
like refuges from a Mongol horde rather than a Scottish clan and Macbeth’s
regal crown looks like it was stolen from the Statue of Liberty.
A definite must for film historians, Macbeth
is a worthy of a viewing and I would place it in the top five film adaptations
of the play. However, for viewers new to Shakespeare in performance, I would
recommend starting with a rendition that is more user friendly, perhaps Roman
Polanski’s 1971 version.
Available on YouTube and Amazon
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