The worst performance in this film is...
John Geilgud's terrible hairpiece. Not good.
shareHis hairpiece? LOL! No... It was Edmond O'Brien!
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MovieChat Forums > Julius Caesar (1953) Discussion > The worst performance in this film is...
As far as Shakespeare goeth, methinks that Edmund O'Brien couldn't deliver a pizza. Take note, though, of Brutus (James Mason, talking to Caius Ligarius (Ian Wolfe) after he finishes talking with Calpurnia (Deborah Kerr). Wolfe, more than a decade later, played Mr. Atoz in an episode of the original Star Trek entitled All Our Yesterdays, where Kirk and Spock wind up in the ice age of a planet that's sun is about to go nova, and Spock loses control of his emotions to Zarabeth, played by Mariette Hartley. Regardless, Mason's delivery of every line in this film was impeccable. And Brando's speech after Caesar was murdered, flawless.
shareI suppose if you've been conditioned to measure theatrical performances by the acting in the original Star Trek then your comments are understandable. But if you love your Shakespeare unhammy & his language muscularly alive in each word & phrase, then O'Brien is actually the best thing in it. No bored Brit posh accent ala Mason, no histrionic 19th century grandstanding ala Gielgud, no fidgety can't-wait-to-get-rid-of-these-words delivery like the rest of them. The worst thing about this pathetic Hollywood vanity production is that each actor seems to be performing in his or her own movie & none seem connected to any other.
Poor Will! ;)
I didn't find the posh accents bored, although I thought James Mason could have brought a little more dynamics to the role. (Best interpretation of Brutus I've heard was Anthony Quayle on an old vinyl LP.)
Edmond O'Brien does just fine with his working-class New York accent. Casca is not too dumb; just dumb enough.
Worst performance: Greer Garson, who should be off somewhere by herself, stirring a pot of pitchblende.
I have been imprssed by John Gielgud in other films, but here I found him to be distractingly overacting. And in the play itself Cassius is such an important character. Others have commented on Mason being a bit too phlegmatic, but it was not distracting.
shareNot having seen this film in a while, I was most impressed with Gielgud and Brando. James Mason was weak in the role and eaten up by his scene partners, I think. Mason complained to the director that Brando was stealing the show and he did. Mason complained that Peter Sellers was stealing the show in Lolita, and he was. Mason is competitive and not the equals of his rivals in those cases. Edmund O'Brien does a nice job and it's ok for that character to be not a Shakesperean type actor. Obviously, they wanted American actors under contract to be part of the production.
shareI'm educated enough to know how uneducated I am and I truly wished that my copy of this had subtitles in English to translate what was going on.
The guy who was easiest to understand was John Gielgud. Both his words and his meaning were clear. The hair was a fright but otherwise I liked his performance best.
Next time I'm getting Cliff Notes.