A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935 film)

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A Midsummer Night's Dream

original film poster
Directed by Max Reinhardt
William Dieterle
Produced by Henry Blanke
Written by Charles Kenyon
Mary C. McCall Jr.
Starring James Cagney
Mickey Rooney
Olivia de Havilland
Joe E. Brown
Dick Powell
Victor Jory
Music by Felix Mendelssohn
Cinematography Hal Mohr
Editing by Ralph Dawson
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s) 30 October 1935
Running time 133 min.
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) is a film directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, produced by Henry Blanke and Hal Wallis, and adapted by Charles Kenyon and Mary C. McCall Jr from the play by William Shakespeare.

The cast includes James Cagney as Nick Bottom, a teenage Mickey Rooney as Puck, Olivia de Havilland as Hermia, Joe E. Brown as Francis Flute, Dick Powell as Lysander and Victor Jory as Oberon. Many of the actors in this version had never performed Shakespeare before, and never would do so again, notably Cagney and Brown, who were nevertheless highly acclaimed for their performances in the film. All critics agreed that Dick Powell, who played Lysander, was horribly miscast, and Powell himself concurred with the critics' verdict.

Felix Mendelssohn's music was used, but re-orchestrated by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Not all of it was from the Midsummer Night's Dream music that Mendelssohn had composed in 1843. Other pieces used were excerpts from the Symphony No. 3 in A minor, the Songs without Words, and the Italian Symphony, among others. The ballet sequences featuring the fairies were choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska.

The film won two Academy Awards:

  • Best Cinematography - Hal Mohr
  • Best Film Editing - Ralph Dawson

It was nominated for:

  • Best Picture - Henry Blanke, producer
  • Best Assistant Director - Sherry Shourds

Notably, Hal Mohr was not nominated for his work on the movie; he won the Oscar thanks to a grass-roots write-in campaign. The next year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences declared that it would not accept write-in votes for the awards.

The film was first released at 132 minutes, but was edited to 117 minutes for its general release run. The full 132 minute version was not seen again until it turned up on cable television in 1994. The film was then re-issued at its full length on VHS (its first video release was of the edited version). Later showings on Turner Classic Movies have restored the film's pre-credits Overture, and its Exit Music, neither of which had been heard since its 1935 road show presentations. In August, 2007, it was released on DVD for the first time as part of a box set known as "The Shakespeare Collection."

[edit] Trivia

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Director Max Reinhardt was unable to speak English at the time of this film. He gave orders to the actors and crew in German with William Dieterle acting as his interpreter.
  • The film's shooting schedule had to be rearranged after Mickey Rooney broke his leg while skiing. According to Rooney's memoirs, Jack Warner was furious and threatened to kill him and then break his other leg.
  • Olivia de Havilland had originally auditioned for the role of Puck in Reinhardt's legendary stage production of the play at the Hollywood Bowl.
  • Although the cast of the stage play was mostly replaced by Warner Brothers contract players, Olivia De Havilland and Mickey Rooney were chosen to reprise their original roles as Puck and Hermia.
  • This film was banned in Nazi Germany because of the Jewish backgrounds of director Max Reinhardt and composer Felix Mendelssohn.
  • Avant-garde director Kenneth Anger claims to have played the changeling prince in this film when he was a child.

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