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I just watched this last week, for the first time. It was actually quite good.

Always one of my favorite screen Shakespeares. They obviously had to get Gielgud to dub in the Soothsayer's hidden outcries of "Caesar!" and "Beware the Ides of March". The voice sounds like Gielgud's and doesn't match the Soothsayer's later repetition before Calhern. Brando did a surprisingly impressive job in delivering Antony's lines, even with his weird voice.

I saw that when I was a kid in London. Learning Shakespeare at school was a yawn, but this gave it life. First time I'd ever seen Brando. Didn't even realize then that he was American. Brilliant performance, stays with me until this day, eclipsed only by Olivier's Henry V.

hotspur wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 9:56 am I saw that when I was a kid in London. Learning Shakespeare at school was a yawn, but this gave it life. First time I'd ever seen Brando. Didn't even realize then that he was American. Brilliant performance, stays with me until this day, eclipsed only by Olivier's Henry V.

Yeah, but now we know Olivier was a Nazi klansman for his Othello--he's canceled.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/arts ... sheng.html

Sorry, can't read it. I only subscribe to the Times crossword, nothing else.

hotspur wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 1:34 pm Sorry, can't read it. I only subscribe to the Times crossword, nothing else.

It's not paywalled--I don't subscribe to the NYT at all.

But here's the archive version: https://archive.ph/GNjB7

Reminds me of a production of Tosca I saw at the Met back in the 1970s or early 80s where a wonderful black soprano -- it may have been Shirley Verett, I can't remember -- sang the title role with pale make-up. Yes, it was a bit strange, but I was really more taken with the voice than with wondering whether I should be offended that she was pretending to be white. Besides, I'm not sure Othello was actually black. He was a Moor, an Arab. Darker than you and me, yes, but not black. Anyway, I think Shakespeare should be commended for making the good guy dark and the villain, Iago, white.

PS: if you ever get the opportunity, check out Verdi's operatic version, Otello. The second-act duet, Si Pel Ciel, where Iago spills poison into Otello's ear, is a masterpiece. Listen to the version by Jussi Bjoerling and Robert Merrill, if you can. Just don't try and imagine Bjoerling wearing blackface.