No, no, no

How could you have seen all the live versions of the play.

Furthermore, if you're not just some "hack" and you are an English Teacher!! why aren't you using textual or film based evidence for your arguments?
Interesting.

Sigh... thanks for reminding me why I don't post on these boards more often. My post was specifically designed to deflect abuse, yet abuse is what I get.

I guess the conversation I'd hoped for about the filmmakers filtering the character of Oberon through their own fears about the rise of the Nazi party is not to be.

Midsummer shouldn't be about good versus evil, but that's how this film approaches it.

And no, I'm not listing concrete textual or film evidence at this time. Maybe later... if I even bother coming back here at all.

I completely agree with you on Rooney being annoying as Puck. That high pitched giggle that he did numerous times during the film is what really grated at my nerves. I personally think that he was just too young at the time to play the part.

I was privileged to interview several cast members of this film including Ms De Havilland, Victor Jory and Mickey Rooney and would just like to state that no cinematic paradigm for Hitler was ever intended.

Max Reinhardt's interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream was a heavily teutonic one and had not been created for this film. If you read reviews of his Bowl production and also earlier stagings in Europe, it can be seen that these "darker" elements were much in evidence there too and this is actually typical of him. Please remember that Jack Warner decided to make the film based on the Bowl production.

I do not wish to lecture the "experts" posting on this board, but I recommend that you investigate German and Austrian literature where the dark and fantastical elements are a very strong feature of fairy tale literature (E.T.A Hoffmann, Grimm etc). That is where Reinhardt's inspiration lies, not some catchpenny political knee-jerk response. When this film was being made, Hitler had barely started to have an inpact and in any case, Reinhardt was Austrian. Hitler did not annex Austria until March '38.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (who created the Mendelssohn fantasia for the music score to this film) said that he transposed the famous Notturno from Mendelssohn's incidental music to A MIDSUMMER NIGHT's DREAM from E major to Eb because " Reinhardt's concept was of darkest night, whereas Mendelssohn was in brilliant moonlight" (I am paraphrasing this in translation from the original German).

As for Mickey Rooney, I believe it was a tremendous innvovation to have a child - and an incredbly gifted one at that - playing this role for once, rather than a man in his 20s or older. Rooney was an amazing child-actor and his ability in reading and interpreting complex Shakespearean verse with such virtuosity (irritating giggle notwithstanding) should be applauded. He was clearly wasted by Hollywood therafter (Andy Hardy hardly stretched him) and I cannot think of any child actor today that could have broyght this off.

In conclusion, while this may not be everyone's idea of Shakespeare or even this play, it IS a remarkable achievement for 1935 and moreover, it preserves the unique approach and visual style of one of the greatest European theatre directors of the 20th century. As a film (and it should only be considered in cinematic terms), it is an outstanding and vivid creation and, through its pioeering use of music, paved the way for modern film scoring techniques that endure to the present day.

You are really way too close minded to be teaching...

Well, I'm an English major, and I know something about that time period, obviously I haven't done the amount of scholarly research you have, but try as I might I cannot see the "Nazi" subtext you're talking about. Or, for that matter, Titania as a victim and Oberon as a "bad guy". What I can see is that the people working on the film were from many nations, including Germany, and probably included their own traditions about what faeries were supposed to be like. There is a lot of Romantic Paganism in this film. Titania and Oberon seem to me more like the yin-yang forces of nature. (And yet they're an endearingly bickering couple.) The other films of Midsummer Night I have seen were good (especially the 1968 Royal Shakespeare Company version), but did not pick up on that.

This film is NOT a good interpretation of WS's play

Yes, films that are faithful to the play are bad interpretations.

The film depicts every Act and Scene in order and retains about 85% of the dialogue.

Rooney is annoying as Puck, and isn't nearly dark enough

He is supposed to be a bit annoying - he is known as a prankster and commits a few pranks in the play for his own benefit, and Puck is not dark at all, he brightens up tense situations with witty confusion.

Oberon, however, is far TOO dark.

As he should be - the man ravishes/rapes women, tyrannizes his Queen, and wants sole possession of a mortal child she is raising.

The very idea of playing Oberon as the "bad guy" and Titania as the "victim" is utterly ridiculous

Titania is a victim - her King tyrannizes her for his amusement, has sex with other women, and kidnaps a mortal child from her.

and reflects more about the paranoia of the time

Reflects the exact situation contained within Shakespeare's play...

What you saw on screen happens in the play.

And Cagney is just

Beyond excellent and under-appreciated.

I'm shocked that this film received 7 stars

Me too, it deserves a 10, which is why I rated it a 10

I'm a theatre director and British Literature teacher



Read the play then re-watch the film