A filmed record of Laurence Olivier's farewell theatrical performance as the canny, psychotic captain of the August Strindberg play.
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Title: The Dance of Death (1969)
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Cast
| Cast overview: | |||
| Laurence Olivier | ... | Edgar | |
| Geraldine McEwan | ... | Alice | |
| Carolyn Jones | ... | Jenny | |
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Maggie Riley | ... | Karen |
| Robert Lang | ... | Kurt | |
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Jeanne Watts | ... | Old Woman |
| Janina Faye | ... | Judith | |
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Malcolm Reynolds | ... | Allan |
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Peter Penry-Jones | ... | Lieutenant |
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Frederick Pyne | ... | Sentry |
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Barry James | ... | Sentry |
| David Ryall | ... | Sentry | |
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Plot Summary
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Storyline
An egocentric artillery Captain and his venomous wife engage in savage unremitting battles in their isolated island fortress off the coast of Sweden at the turn of the century. Alice, a former actress who sacrificed her career for secluded military life with Edgar, reveals on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary, the veritable hell their marriage has been. Edgar, an aging schizophrenic who refuses to acknowledge his severe illness, struggles to sustain his ferocity and arrogance with an animal disregard for other people. Sensing that Alice, together with her cousin and would-be lover, Kurt, may ally against him, retaliates with vicious force. Alice lures Kurt into the illusion of sharing a passionate assignation and recruits him in a plot to destroy Edgar. Written by alfiehitchie
Plot Keywords:
marriage | island | foreign language adaptation | sea captain | husband wife relationship |Taglines:
Sir Laurence Olivier in his supreme achievementGenres:
DramaParents Guide:
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Alice: For not dying twenty-five years ago! For not dying before I was born!
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Trivia
While playing Edgar onstage in the National Theater, Olivier became ill and had to be replaced for a while. His replacement, who received high praise from critics and Olivier himself, was the young Anthony Hopkins. See more »Quotes
Edgar: She's mad at me for not dying yesterday.Alice: For not dying twenty-five years ago! For not dying before I was born!
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I have been searching everywhere I can think of to try to obtain this movie. Olivier thought his performance as Edgar in this Strindberg masterpiece might have been the best piece of work he ever did, and the combination of Olivier and Strindberg ought to be electrifying. So the movie ought to be readily available. I gather the distributors are Paramount, but can find no information on how to discover anything: availability, price, location of archive copies -- it all seems to be a mystery. Terry Coleman refers to the movie in his biography of Olivier, and it shows up on records of Olivier filmography as made in 1969, with a cast list. But the film itself seems to have disappeared. Can anyone tell me where to find it? I am a Strindberg scholar, and this is a valuable record. I don't really have more to add, and have rated the film as a 10 only because this combination of talent ought to result in a masterpiece.