HAMLET {RICHARD BURTON} {MOTION PICTURE}
Summary
A 1964 stage production of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” starring Richard Burton that was screened in movie theaters. Hamlet’s father, the King of Denmark, passed away suddenly less than two months ago. His brother, Claudius, is set to marry Gertrude, the king’s widow. On the battlements of Elsinore Castle, the ghost of the dead king appears to Hamlet’s friend Horatio, and he goes to inform him of his discovery. Meanwhile, Claudius celebrates his upcoming wedding. He announces a new peace with Norway and sends Laertes, son of the counselor Polonius, off to France. Hamlet appears, still grieving over the loss of his father. Claudius and Gertrude try to dissuade Hamlet from his grief, but he will not be moved. Alone, Hamlet reflects on his disgust that his mother could get over the death of his father so quickly. Horatio arrives and tells him of the ghost he encountered; Hamlet resolves to watch for its’ appearance. Polonius talks with his son and with his daughter Ophelia, who is in a relationship with Hamlet. Polonius warns her that Hamlet’s affections might not be totally sincere. Meanwhile, Hamlet and Horatio encounter the ghost and Hamlet goes to speak with him alone. The ghost informs him that he was murdered by Claudius while sleeping via poison delivered through the ear. Hamlet resolves to avenge his fathers’ death, but the ghost reminds him to leave his mother out of the scheme. When Horatio arrives, Hamlet swears him to secrecy and begins to enact his revenge. Later, Ophelia returns to her father and tells him that Hamlet came to visit her in a disheveled and unhinged state; Polonius believes that this display of madness reflects Hamlets’ true love for his daughter. Claudius calls upon his two servants, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to try and uncover the source of Hamlet’s newfound madness. Polonius arrives and offers the suggestion that Hamlet’s strange behavior is caused by his love for Ophelia. They arrange for Hamlet and Ophelia to meet so that they might observe their behavior in secret. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern talk to Hamlet and question him, but Hamlet quickly intuits the reason for their questions and does not answer. Players arrive and plan to put on a play the following day; Hamlet asks to be allowed to insert a few lines of his own into the script. Alone, Hamlet laments his inability to move others over the death of his father and plans to use his inserted lines to re-enact the scene of his father’s death in order to prompt a show of guilt from Claudius. Claudius and Polonius hide in order to observe Hamlet with Ophelia. Hamlet arrives and ponders his own mortality aloud. He and Ophelia speak and he makes it clear that though he loved her once, he no longer does. Despite her entreaties, he coldly rejects her. After they leave, Claudius emerges from hiding and plans to send Hamlet to England, using his “madness” as an excuse. Polonius offers to spy on Hamlet alone with Gertrude in order to uncover the cause of his behavior. Act one ends. Act two opens as the players prepare for their performance and Hamlet instructs them on their method. Hamlet speaks to Horatio in private and asks him to observe Claudius for signs of guilt. The performance begins; Claudius and Gertrude grow increasingly uncomfortable. The scene depicting the poisoning of the king visibly upsets Claudius, who leaves thereafter. Hamlet is now convinced of Claudius’s guilt. He goes to speak with Gertrude alone and Polonius hides himself behind a curtain to spy on them. Alone, Claudius tries to pray for forgiveness, but can only put up the pretense of prayer. Hamlet sneaks up on him and steals his sword. He tries to kill him but stops himself; he believes Claudius is praying and cannot kill him in this manner. Hamlet goes to speak with Gertrude. During the conversation, Hamlet stabs Polonius through the curtain, mistaking him for Claudius. The ghost of his father appears before him again, reminding him not to harm Gertrude but to kill Claudius. Gertrude cannot see or hear the ghost, reinforcing her belief that Hamlet is mad. Hamlet drags Polonius’s body away to hide it. Claudius enters and Gertrude tells him of what has transpired. Claudius, fearing for his life, resolves that Hamlet be captured and sent away to England, now having a seemingly legitimate excuse. Hamlet is captured and reveals the location of Polonius’s body. He agrees to leave for England. Hamlet leaves the castle to find that Norwegian forces are there to march against Poland. He bemoans the loss of so many good men. Meanwhile, Gertrude and Claudius are visited by Ophelia, driven insane by the loss of her father, wandering the castle halls and singing to herself. Laertes returns from France, outraged by the death of his father and demanding vengeance. He is shocked to see Ophelia’s insanity and calms somewhat. Claudius tells him that Hamlet slew his father but denies his own guilt in the matter. Claudius receives a letter from Hamlet announcing his return to Denmark. He and Laertes conspire to kill Hamlet in a fencing duel with a poisoned blade, making it appear to be an accident. Failing that, Claudius plans to dispose of Hamlet with poisoned wine. Gertrude arrives and announces that Ophelia has killed herself. Later, a pair of gravediggers are burying Ophelia’s body when Hamlet and Horatio arrive and talk with them. One of the gravediggers shows Hamlet the skull of Yorick, the king’s old jester and Hamlet’s caretaker as a child. Hamlet takes a moment to offer a lament to his old friend. Pallbearers bring Ophelia’s body to the gravesite as Hamlet and Horatio look on, unseen. In the middle of Laertes’s eulogy, Hamlet reveals himself and the two of them get in a scuffle and must be forcibly separated by the pallbearers. Hamlet, depressed, leaves. Hamlet reveals to Horatio that he escaped death by having Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sent to their deaths in his place. A messenger arrives and offers Laertes’ challenge to Hamlet, which he accepts. During their fight, Gertrude drinks from the poisoned wine meant for Hamlet. Hamlet has an early advantage against Laertes but Laertes cuts Hamlet’s arm with his poisoned blade during a break in the fighting. Hamlet switches swords with them and their fight grows increasingly violent; he stabs Laertes with the sword. Gertrude dies from the poisoned wine, and Laertes passes away just after revealing Claudius’s plot. Hamlet forces Claudius’s poisoned wine down his throat, killing him. Hamlet stops Horatio from killing himself, telling him with his last breath to tell his story to the survivors. Hamlet dies. Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, arrives to find the dead. The play ends as he asks that Hamlet’s body be carried away respectfully.
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: November 30, 1963
- RUNNING TIME: 3:10:52
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: B:92439
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Sally Burton … Executive Producer
- Alexander H. Cohen … Executive Producer
- William Sargent … Producer
- Alfred W. Crown … Producer
- Paul Brownstein … Restoration Producer
- John Gielgud … Director
- William Shakespeare … Writer
- Richard Burton … Cast, Hamlet
- Hume Cronyn … Cast, Polonius
- Alfred Drake … Cast, Claudius
- Eileen Herlie … Cast, Gertrude
- Linda Marsh … Cast, Ophelia
- William Redfield … Cast, Guildenstern
- Clement Fowler … Cast, Rosencrantz
- Robert Milli … Cast, Horatio
- George Rose … Cast, First Gravedigger
- George Voskovec … Cast, Player King
- Philip Coolidge … Cast, Voltimand
- John Cullum … Cast, Laertes
- Michael Ebert … Cast, Francisco, Fortinbras
- Dillon Evans … Cast, Reynaldo, Osric, Fortinbras's Captain
- Geoff Garland … Cast, Lucianus
- Barnard Hughes … Cast, Marcellus, Priest
- Frederick Young … Cast, Bernardo
- Hugh Alexander … Cast, Cornelius, Second Gravedigger, English Ambassador
- John Hetherington … Cast, Player Prologue
- Christopher Culkin … Cast, Player Queen
- Richard Sterne … Cast, A Gentleman
- Alex Gianni … Cast, A Messenger
- Claude Harz … Cast, Lord
- Jerome Ragni … Cast, Attendant
- Linda Seff … Cast, Lady
- Carol Teitel … Cast, Lady
- John Gielgud … Voice, The Ghost