As You Like It
1936: Paul Czinner
This is the first of Laurence Olivier’s six film productions of Shakespeare. Not all of them are, unfortunately, of equal quality, and this is somewhat uneven. Aside from Olivier himself, perhaps the greatest talent in the project was off the screen — the score is by Olivier’s frequent collaborator, William Walton, who also wrote the scores for Olivier’s Hamlet, Henry V, and Richard III, and the editing was done by David Lean, who went on to become one of the foremost directors of his or any age, scrupulously crafting such works as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago.
The most peculiar and perhaps initially disturbing thing about the film is Elizabether Berger (Rosalind) herself. She came from Austria shortly before the film was made, and she plays the whole with a slight but unmistakable Austrian/German accent. If you can believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger is a middle-American native son named Jack Slater or Harry Tasker, you can probably swallow this too.
The play has the exuberance of a first effort, and it manages to remain relatively engaging throughout. It is rather severely cut (as is most cinematic Shakespeare), so many of its nuances are simply missing. It’s an interesting period piece, perhaps saying more about British-American esthetics in the mid-1930s than about Shakespeare, but it’s worth watching.
Adam: J. Fisher White
Amiens: Stuart Robertson
Audrey: Dorice Fordred
Celia: Sophie Stewart
Charles: Lionel Braham
Corin: Aubrey Mather
Duke Frederick: Felix Aylmer
Exiled Duke: Henry Ainley
Jacques: Leon Quartermaine
Le Beau: Austin Trevor
Oliver: John Laurie
Orlando: Laurence Olivier
Phoebe: Joan White
Rosalind: Elisabeth Bergner
Sylvius: Richard Ainley
Touchstone: Mackenzie Ward
William: Peter Bull
Watch As You Like It on streaming video from Amazon