As You Like It (1936)

Director:

Paul Czinner

Writers:

J.M. Barrie (treatment)
Robert Cullen (scenario)

Release Date:

8 January 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Today's most lauded and applauded star... (1949 re-release)

Plot:

A duke usurps his brother's land and power, banishing him and his retinue into the forest of Arden. The banished duke's daughter...

Plot Keywords:

Brother | Forest | Love | Servant | Cousin

Cast

Henry Ainley	...	Exiled Duke
Elisabeth Bergner	...	Rosalind
Felix Aylmer	...	Duke Frederick
Laurence Olivier	...	Orlando, Son of Roland de Boys
Stuart Robertson	...	Amiens, Lord Attending Exiled Duke
Leon Quartermaine	...	Jacques, Lord Attending Exiled Duke
Austin Trevor	...	Le Beau, Courtier Attending Duke Frederick
Lionel Braham	...	Charles, the Wrestler
John Laurie	...	Oliver, Son of Roland de Boys
J. Fisher White	...	Adam, Oliver's Servant (as Fisher White)
Mackenzie Ward	...	Touchstone, a Clown
Aubrey Mather	...	Corin, a Shepherd
Richard Ainley	...	Sylvius, a Shepherd
Peter Bull	...	William, a Country Fellow
Sophie Stewart	...	Celia

Runtime:

96 min | West Germany:65 min (TV)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Inter-Allied

Trivia:

Elisabeth Bergner played "Rosalind" in Germany but left in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power. She said she would not play the role in English until she perfected her English accent. However, many reviewers complained that her German accent was still very prominent.

Quotes:

Jacques: All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Apple (1978)

As They Used to Like It

There used to be a thing called the classical method of delivering Shakespearean dialogue. And while this method may help an actor or actress be heard and understood from the back of a theatre when on stage, it is not necessary in a film where artificial amplification is available. Olivier was one of the first to realize this as his gentle, natural, and easily understood delivery of the lines here shows. Leon Quartermaine, as Jaques, is similarly easy to follow, and his rendition of the most famous speech from this play is thoughtful and easy to get along with.

You also get a fair bit of the more pompous formal style. In reviews of other films you may read that modern actors mumble their lines, don't know how to speak Shakespeare and so on. Watch this movie and find out what they wish everyone sounded like.

The costumes, which have a fourteenth century feel to them, are highly unflattering. One feels that the costumes and settings were devised to match people's expectations of what Shakespeare ought to look like. A little imagination would have paid big dividends.

What makes this film really difficult to watch, however, is the most important person in the whole play. As You Like It centres on Rosalind. What possessed the producers to cast for this part a woman who couldn't act, spoke English with an accent so thick you could spread it on toast, has no feel for Shakespeare and doesn't even look good is beyond the comprehension of this mere mortal. Trying to comprehend Elisabeth Bergner is practically impossible. The old-fashioned and unimaginitive approach to the play might be tolerable, but not without a Rosalind.

A new treatment of this play is long overdue.