BEST PICTURE SHOWCASE: "Hamlet" (1948)

William Shakespeare is considered one of the great playwrights of all time, and rightfully so. Some may be intimidated by the language used in the plays, not because it's profane (it isn't) but because it's just performed in Olde English and can be hard to understand sometimes. Nonetheless, everyone knows MacBeth. Romeo and Juliet. Othello. Hamlet. King Lear. These are the names of plays, but also characters, and there are far more plays and characters than I could possibly list here. In the early days of cinema, many of Shakespeare's plays were adapted for the silver screen, so it should come as no surprise to see that at least one of them wound up crowned Best Picture by the Academy. It may come as a small surprise, though, to learn that the number of films based on Shakespeare plays that won Best Picture is just that number, one. This film was 1948's Hamlet, written, directed and produced by Sir Laurence Olivier, one of the greatest British thespians of all time. Olivier also tackled the title role himself and made Hollywood history in the process, even though some in Hollywood were a little concerned when he did. Let's check it out.

===

The film opens with Olivier, as Hamlet, providing narration as he does at times throughout the film. He quotes the lines seen up above, which are actually from Scene IV of Act I. That quote is followed by the only non-Shakespeare line of the film, where Olivier exclaims, "This is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind."

Our first actual scene takes place at Elsinore in Denmark where three sentries discuss how two of them have previously seen what they believe is the ghost of the elder Hamlet, former and recently-deceased king. Bernardo (Esmond Knight) and Marcellus (Anthony Quayle) are the two who have previously seen the ghots. Horatio (Norman Wooland), Prince Hamlet's closest friend, has joined them today as he is skeptical of this information. Sure enough, the ghost appears and all three see it. They attempt to speak to it, but the ghost simply vanishes. The sentries decide they shall tell young Hamlet (Olivier) of this.

Inside the castle's Great Hall, a celebration commences to celebrate the marriage of Gertrude (Eileen Herlie) and Claudius (Basil Sydney). Claudius, the late Hamlet's brother, has married the widowed Gertrude and become king as a result of Hamlet's demise, said to be of an accidental snake bite. Young Hamlet sits alone and refuses to take part in the celebration, as he is horrified that less than a month after his father's death, his mother has remarried, and to his uncle, no less.

Laertes (Terence Morgan) requests to travel to France, and is granted permission. Claudius then attempts unsuccessfully to have young Hamlet join the celebration, and eventually everyone departs except Hamlet. Soon, the sentries arrive and tell Hamlet of the ghost. He decides to see for himself if this is true. Meanwhile, before departing for France, Laertes bids farewell to his sister, Ophelia (Jean Simmons). Ophelia then speaks to her father, Polonius (Felix Aylmer), and says that she believes Hamlet fancies her.

Hamlet and the sentries return to the site of where the ghost has been seen previously. It doesn't take long for this ghost to appear yet again, and it seems to beckon for Hamlet to follow him up to the tower. Hamlet obliges. The ghost speaks, and says he is his father. He says his death was murder, and reveals it was through poison poured into his ear while he slept. The murderer was Claudius, who now sits as king. After the ghost leaves, Hamlet makes Horatio and the others swear to not reveal they have seen anything, including the events of today, to anyone else. They all agree.

Hamlet has a plan, and he starts it right away, pretending to have gone mad. Everyone is gradually becoming convinced he has gone mad indeed, and Polonius is the first to express his concerns of this to King Claudius, claiming that it is derived from Hamlet's love for Ophelia. Claudius, however, is not fully convinced, and has Polonius set up a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia. During this meeting, Claudius and Polonius hide behind a curtain in Ophelia's bedroom. Hamlet continues to act crazy, shunning Ophelia's concerns away and even shoving her down to the ground at one point. Hamlet leaves, but not before pointing at the curtain where the two men are hiding and remarking that "All but one shall live."

It is at this point where Hamlet stands atop a tower and delivers the "To be or not to be..." soliloquy, which seems to indicate he's deciding whether or not it's worth continuing in this life. Ultimately, he decides to continue forward with his plan so that his father can be avenged, and everyone can find out that Claudius is a murderer.

Hamlet then hires a group of wandering stage performers, requesting that they enact the play "The Murder of Gonzago" for the king. However, Hamlet makes a few alterations to the play, which we see take place. The murder within the play is changed to exactly re-enact the murder of King Hamlet by Claudius. Claudius demands for light, and Hamlet runs over with a torch. Claudius swats him away and runs off. Hamlet eventually catches up to Claudius, who is in his room praying. Hamlet has his chance to kill the king, but decides not to because since he is praying, he would wind up in heaven, and Hamlet does not feel that would fulfill justice for his father.

Hamlet visits Ophelia and tells her of Claudius's treachery. He continues to act mad as he does this, though, and eventually Ophelia screams which causes Polonius, who is once again hiding behind a curtain, to call for help as well. Hamlet goes to Polonius and stabs him, not realizing it's him. Polonius falls dead, and Hamlet doesn't seem too concerned about it. Ophelia is now convinced Hamlet has indeed gone mad, and this causes her to go mad as well. Hey, when in Rome...

Claudius orders Hamlet be deported to England, which he is. The directive is for Hamlet to be killed when he arrives there, but in actuality the ship is attacked by pirates and Hamlet is on his way back to Denmark. Laertes has also returned home upon learning of his father, Polonius's, death. Ophelia meanders around singing and talking gibberish, with her hair all messed up and her mind even more so. Eventually, she goes for a swim, which turns into a float, which turns into her drowning. Laertes blames Hamlet for this as well and now has double the revenge on his mind.

Hamlet and Horatio visit a cemetary and make conversation with a witty gravedigger (Stanley Holloway), who provides a skull he has unearthed to Hamlet. The skull is of Yorick, who Hamlet once knew. After several minutes, a group of people arrive to the newly-dug grave. Hamlet sees the king and is surprised. Eventually, he discovers this grave is for Ophelia, and Hamlet springs downhill and into a shoving match with Laertes.

Back at the castle, Claudius and Laertes devise a plan. Laertes will challenge Hamlet to a duel, and Laertes will have his sword tipped with poison. As a backup plan, they will have a poisoned drink ready for Hamlet as well. Meanwhile, Hamlet is informed of the duel and the evil plans by Osric (Peter Cushing). The duel takes place and Claudius proclaims that if Hamlet wins, he should join Claudius and drink in celebration. Hamlet wins the first two rounds, but Gertrude is eyeing the cup that holds the poisonous drink and suspects that it does indeed contain poison, so she grabs it and drinks to Claudius's horror. Laertes then slashes the arm of Hamlet between rounds, poisoning him as well. They battle some more, and Hamlet winds up relieving Laertes of his sword. Hamlet gives his own sword to Laertes, and they battle further with Laertes feverishly trying to avoid the poisonous tip, but he eventually is cut as well.

Dying, Laertes confesses the whole plot to Hamlet, and says Claudius was the one who ordered it done. Hamlet flies at Claudius in anger and kills him with the poisoned sword. After several minuets, Hamlet dies as well. Horatio orders that Hamlet be given an honorable funeral, and the cannons of Elsinore fire repeatedly as the body of Hamlet is carried to the tower.

===

At the time, this version of Hamlet was considered the absolutely definitive version of the play. There were a few criticisms, and as time has passed that few has increased to more than a few. Olivier took only one liberty with the actual story, in that instead of Gertrude accidentally drinking the poison, she suspected the cup was poisoned and therefore killed herself to try and save Hamlet. Olivier took other liberties with the play, though, cutting out a LOT of original dialogue and even omitting several characters, most notably the duo of Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern. Olivier, when asked about this, said that in the interest of keeping the movie a reasonable length (the final cut is 155 minutes), he had to make "one great cut", and that cut he chose to make was of those characters.

Nonetheless, knowing the story of Hamlet as I do, the important pieces of what needs to be told are still intact in this film, and they are presented beautifully. Olivier shows his mastery of theater, and specifically of Shakespeare, with this captivating work. The film scored seven Oscar nominations and won four of them: Best Lead Actor (Olivier), Best Black-and-White-Film Costume Design (Roger Furse), Best Black-and-White-Film Art/Set Direction (Furse and Carmen Dillon) and the big one, Best Picture. The other contenders for the top prize were Johnny Belinda, The Red Shoes, The Snake Pit and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Olivier's Hamlet made history, becoming the first non-American production to win Best Picture, which made some of the moguls a bit nervous in Hollywood. Olivier also became the first man to direct himself to a Best Lead Actor award. Shakespeare may bore some, but to those who admire and appreciate those classic plays, you will likely find very little to object to in Olivier's Hamlet.