A Duke usurps his brother's land and power, banishing him and his entourage into the forest of Arden. The banished Duke's daughter, Rosalind, remains with her cousin Celia. She has fallen in... Read allA Duke usurps his brother's land and power, banishing him and his entourage into the forest of Arden. The banished Duke's daughter, Rosalind, remains with her cousin Celia. She has fallen in love with Orlando, but he has his own tyrannical brother with whom to contend, so he join... Read allA Duke usurps his brother's land and power, banishing him and his entourage into the forest of Arden. The banished Duke's daughter, Rosalind, remains with her cousin Celia. She has fallen in love with Orlando, but he has his own tyrannical brother with whom to contend, so he joins those in the forest.
- Adam
- (as Fisher White)
- Guard
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis was the first on-screen appearance of Laurence Olivier in a Shakespearean work.
- Quotes
Exiled Duke: Sweet are the uses of adversity.
- Alternate versionsDifferent prints have conflicting credits. For the 1936 U.S. version, Robert Cullen is credited (as R.J. Cullen) for production manager and scenario, but for the 1949 re-release, he is credited only as production manager, and 'Carl Mayer' is credited with adaptation. Similarly, for the 1936 version, Elisabeth Bergner's name is above the title for the opening credits, but in the 1949 re-release Laurence Olivier's name is above the title (as can be seen from the IMDb poster).
- ConnectionsFeatured in Great Performances: Laurence Olivier: A Life (1983)
Which is accentuated in this early film adaptation. It is primarily to be seen for seeing an early Shakespeare film and to see early career Olivier in his first Shakespeare role, also to be seen if you want to see every Shakespeare film posible and all available versions of 'As You Like It'. Sadly, beyond being a curio this is to me and quite a number of others seemingly is not a good film and another adaptation to show that 'As You Like It' is very hard to do well. Have yet to see a great version, the best available to me is the 1978 BBC Television Shakespeare adaptation and that had major shortcomings as well.
This adaptation of 'As You Like It' does have good things. There are a few good performances, Sophie Stewart is very endearing and sincere and Leon Quartermaine is suitably pompous as Jacques, his speech is one of 'As You Like It's' best moments which Quartermaine delivers more than believably (lives it actually). Felix Aylmer was always reliable and gives another strong performance. Olivier definitely went on to much better things and was more comfortable in his other Shakespearean roles, but already he showed a lot of understanding of Shakespeare's language, is in command of it and delivers his lines beautifully, didn't detect any awkwardness here.
A couple of other good things as well. The sets are both rustic and lavish enough and there is some nice whimsy here and there.
On the other hand, there are a lot of drawbacks. Starting with the near-universally, and unsurprisingly so in my view, panned performance of Elisabeth Bergner, Rosalind is a taxing and complex role and Bergner was clearly taxed. She doesn't look comfortable and a lot of her line delivery is unintentionally hilarious and not always comprehensible. Mackenzie Ward for my tastes was also very bland as Touchstone. Shakespeare's text itself is wonderful, but the delivery here varies. Great with Stewart, Olivier and Quartermaine but disastrous with Bergner. While there is some nice whimsy, 'As You Like It' is very comedic, here there actually is not enough emphasis on it and it's downplayed.
Direction tends to be too stagy, even for the time, and lacks distinction, the action also feels static. The storytelling is poorly done, the thinness of the play's story itself is very obvious through the pedestrian at best and often creaky pacing and the film does nothing to improve upon the problems of the play's ending, it's still incredibly absurd and comes out of nowhere. Other than the sets, 'As You Like It' doesn't look particularly good, the photography is too static and over simple and the costumes are as unflattering and unintentionally bizarre as they come.
Concluding, didn't like this very much sad to say. 4/10
- TheLittleSongbird
- Mar 11, 2021
- How long is As You Like It?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 36 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1