Despite winning several Oscars, Olivier's (condensed) version of Shakespeare's masterpiece makes for frustrating viewing.
Hamlet
The motion picture of all time ... for all time!
1948 · 2h 33m · Approved
Drama
Directed by
Laurence Olivier
Overview
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.
Director and cast
- Laurence Olivier Director
- Laurence Olivier as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- Jean Simmons as Ophelia - His Daughter
- Basil Sydney as Claudius - The King
- Eileen Herlie as Gertrude - The Queen
- Norman Wooland as Horatio - His Friend
- Felix Aylmer as Polonius - Lord Chamberlain
- Terence Morgan as Laertes
- Peter Cushing as Osric
- Stanley Holloway Cast
- Russell Thorndike Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
This is picture-making at its best, and its showing must be done with the dignity it deserves.
The matter is settled; the filmed Hamlet of Laurence Olivier gives absolute proof that these classics are magnificiently suited to the screen.
Laurence Olivier's famous 1948 interpretation of Shakespeare's play suffers slightly from his pop-Freud approach to the character and from some excessively flashy, wrongheaded camera work.
Sir Laurence Olivier's masterful version of the classic.
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