A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935 film)

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	Ian Hunter 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)	October 30, 1935 (1935-10-30)
Running time	133 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$981,000
Box office	$1.229 million

Victor Jory as Oberon in an outtake

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) is an American film of Shakespeare's play, directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, produced by Henry Blanke and Hal Wallis for Warner Brothers, and adapted by Charles Kenyon and Mary C. McCall Jr. from Reinhardt's Hollywood Bowl production of the previous year. Felix Mendelssohn's music was extensively used, as re-orchestrated by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The ballet sequences featuring the fairies were choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska.

Cast

The Athenian Court:

• Ian Hunter as Theseus, Duke of Athens
• Verree Teasdale as Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus
• Hobart Cavanaugh as Philostrate, Master of Revels to Theseus
• Dick Powell as Lysander, In love with Hermia
• Ross Alexander as Demetrius, In love with Hermia
• Olivia de Havilland as Hermia, In love with Lysander (as Olivia de Haviland)
• Jean Muir as Helena, In love with Demetrius
• Grant Mitchell as Egeus, Father to Hermia

The Workers:

• Frank McHugh as Quince, the Carpenter
• Dewey Robinson as Snug, the Joiner
• James Cagney as Bottom, the Weaver
• Joe E. Brown as Flute, the Bellows-mender
• Hugh Herbert as Snout, the Tinker
• Otis Harlan as Starveling, the Tailor
• Arthur Treacher as Epilogue

The Fairies:

• Victor Jory as Oberon, King of the Fairies
• Anita Louise as Titania, Queen of the Fairies
• Nini Theilade as Fairie, Attending Titania (as Nina Theilade)
• Mickey Rooney as Puck or Robin Goodfellow, a Fairy
• Katherine Frey as Pease-Blossom
• Helen Westcott as Cobweb
• Fred Sale as Moth
• Billy Barty as Mustard-Seed

Casting notes:
Many of the actors in this version had never previously performed Shakespeare and would not do so again, especially Cagney and Brown, who were nevertheless highly acclaimed for their performances. All critics agreed that Dick Powell was miscast as Lysander,^{[citation needed]} and Powell himself concurred with the critics' verdict.^{[citation needed]}

Olivia de Havilland originally auditioned for the role of Puck in Reinhardt's stage production of the play at the Hollywood Bowl.^{[citation needed]} Although the cast of the stage play was mostly replaced by Warner Brothers contract players, de Havilland and Mickey Rooney were chosen to reprise their original roles.

Avant-garde director Kenneth Anger claimed in his book Hollywood Babylon II to have played the changeling prince in this film when he was a child, but in fact the role was played by child star Sheila Brown.^{[citation needed]}

Production

Austrian-born director Max Reinhardt did not speak English at the time of the film's production. He gave orders to the actors and crew in German with William Dieterle acting as his interpreter. The film was banned in Nazi Germany because of the Jewish backgrounds of Reinhardt and composer Felix Mendelssohn.

The 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.

This was the film debut of Olivia de Havilland.

Music

Felix Mendelssohn's music was used, but re-orchestrated by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Not all of it was from the incidental music that Mendelssohn had composed for A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1843. Other pieces used were excerpts from the Symphony No. 3 Scottish, the Symphony No. 4 Italian, and the Songs without Words, among others.

Distribution

Cancellations

At the time, cinemas entered into a contract to show the film, but had the right to pull out within a specified period of time. Cancellations usually ran between 20 and 50. The film established a new record with 2,971 cancellations. Booking agents had failed to correctly identify the film.

Run times

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, both individually and as part of a box set known as The Shakespeare Collection.

Reception

As of May 7, 2012, Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream holds an 88% rating on the film-critics aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 8 reviews.

Awards and nominations

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

Hal Mohr was not nominated for his work on the movie; he won the Oscar thanks to a grass-roots write-in campaign. It was Mohr who decided that the trees should be sprayed with orange paint, giving them the eerie glow which added to the "fairyland" effect in the film. The next year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences declared that it would no longer accept write-in votes for the awards.^{[citation needed]}

External links

• A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Internet Movie Database
• A Midsummer Night's Dream at the TCM Movie Database
• A Midsummer Night's Dream at AllRovi