Macbeth (1948)

Director:

Orson Welles

Writer:

William Shakespeare (play)
(more)

Release Date:

23 June 1950 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Entertainment Greatness . . . That Only Motion Picture Magic Can Bring !

Plot:

In fog-dripping, barren and sometimes macabre settings, 11th-century Scottish nobleman Macbeth is led...

Plot Keywords:

Able To See The Dead | Directed By Star | William Shakespeare | Shakespeare's Macbeth | Scotland

Cast

Orson Welles	...	Macbeth
Jeanette Nolan	...	Lady Macbeth
Dan O'Herlihy	...	Macduff
Roddy McDowall	...	Malcolm
Edgar Barrier	...	Banquo
Alan Napier	...	A Holy Father
Erskine Sanford	...	Duncan
John Dierkes	...	Ross
Keene Curtis	...	Lennox
Peggy Webber	...	Lady Macduff / The Three
Lionel Braham	...	Siward
Archie Heugly	...	Young Siward
Jerry Farber	...	Fleance
Christopher Welles	...	Macduff Child
Morgan Farley	...	Doctor
Lurene Tuttle	...	Gentlewoman / The Three
Brainerd Duffield	...	First Murderer / The Three
William Alland	...	Second Murderer
George Chirello	...	Seyton
Gus Schilling	...	A Porter

Directed by
Orson Welles

Writing credits
William Shakespeare		(play)
Orson Welles		(adaptation) uncredited

Produced by
Orson Welles	....	producer
Richard Wilson	....	associate producer
Charles K. Feldman	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Jacques Ibert

Cinematography by
John L. Russell		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Louis Lindsay

Art Direction by
Fred A. Ritter		(as Fred Ritter)

Set Decoration by
John McCarthy Jr.
James Redd

Costume Design by
Adele Palmer		(costumes: women)
Fred Ritter		(costumes: men) (uncredited)
Orson Welles		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Peggy Gray	....	hair stylist
Bob Mark	....	makeup supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jack Lacey	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Dan O'Herlihy	....	set designer (uncredited)
Orson Welles	....	set designer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Garry A. Harris	....	sound (as Garry Harris)
John Stransky Jr.	....	sound

Special Effects by
Howard Lydecker	....	special effects
Theodore Lydecker	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
William Bradford	....	director of photography: second unit
Nels Mathias	....	grip (uncredited)

Music Department
Efrem Kurtz	....	conductor

Other crew
William Alland	....	dialogue director
Charles K. Feldman	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Mercury Productions

Distributors

• Republic Pictures (I) (1948) (USA) (theatrical)
• Image Entertainment (1993) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1993) (USA) (VHS)
• Republic Pictures Home Video (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Art Haus (????) (Germany) (VHS)
• Continental Home Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Ermitage Cinema (2003) (Italy) (DVD) (cut) (dubbed)
• Filmes Castello Lopes (????) (Portugal) (theatrical)
• Flashstar Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Les Films Fernand Rivers (1950) (France) (theatrical)
• Les Éditions du 7ème Art (1997) (France) (VHS)
• Monopolfilm (????) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Pantmedia (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• Republic Pictures (????) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Republic Pictures (????) (Italy) (theatrical)
• World Wide Pictures Home Video (2006) (France) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Consolidated Film Industries (CFI)

Runtime:

89 min (cut version) | Germany:92 min | USA:107 min (premiere version) | USA:107 min (restored video version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Brazil:14 | Belgium:16 (Enfants Non Admis) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Republic Studios/CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Mercury Productions

Trivia:

Shot in 21 days on a budget of $700,000.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Duncan and his men renew their baptismal vows with a prayer composed by Pope Leo XIII in 1884.

Quotes:

[first lines]
The Three Witches: Double,double,toil and trouble; fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Neues aus der Anstalt: Mental-Training vor der Fußball-EM (#2.5)" (2008)

Shakespeare On A Dime

I'm still trying to figure out why what Laurence Olivier did with Hamlet that same year was worthy of an Oscar if what Orson Welles did with MacBeth was so bad.

Both operated under tremendous budget restrictions, Olivier from J. Arthur Rank and Welles from Herbert J. Yates. At the time Hamlet was out Olivier explained that his decision to use black and white was for the special shadows and darkness in Hamlet's soul, or something like that. Years later Olivier said that he was just spouting off so much artistic propaganda, he didn't use color like he did Henry V because J. Arthur Rank was too cheap to go for it.

Remember that Welles was doing this at Republic Pictures and their bread and butter were westerns with Roy Rogers with an occasional A feature with their number one star John Wayne. Welles, who was always criticized for extravagance, brought the film in with three weeks shooting and on budget. Pesonally I think he deserves a round of applause for that. Knowing Herbert J. Yates's foibles, Welles was lucky he wasn't asked to use Vera Hruba Ralston as Lady MacBeth.

Like Olivier with Hamlet, Welles to disguise the cheapness of the sets filmed in darkness with a lot of mist to typify the Scottish moors and created a kind of Shakespeare noir. He couldn't get Agnes Moorehead for Lady MacBeth, but did get a perfectly acceptable Jeanette Nolan for the role.

As for himself Welles was a perfect picture of ravenous ambition as MacBeth. Do one murder to advance yourself and the rest become easier as time goes on. Still they drag on his soul, more than even the evil end those three witches foresee for him.

He's aided and abetted in his foul deeds by his wife. Partners can have a leavening or a sharpening affect on their mates. I've often used the different examples of the two wives of Woodrow Wilson to illustrate the point. Wilson's first wife was a gentle southern belle who was able to curb some of his tendencies to self righteousness. When she died Wilson married his second wife who exacerbated those tendencies, as Lady MacBeth does with her husband.

Among the supporting cast look for good performances from Edgar Barrier as Banquo, Roddy MacDowell as Malcolm, and Dan O'Herlihy as MacDuff. One of Shakespeare's best lines in my humble opinion is that tease he has the witches say to MacBeth about no man of woman born being able to harm him. And then later in the climax when MacDuff reveals he was the product of a Caesarean, in Shakespeare's phrase 'untimely ripped.' The image of that is so vivid in my mind as MacDuff the untimely ripped is about to do some untimely ripping of his own.

Given the restrictions Welles was operating under, this is not a bad production of MacBeth at all. Just keep thinking of Vera Hruba as Lady MacBeth and you'll find virtues you never knew existed.