Romeo and Juliet

Ever since Sir Laurence Oliver delighted critics with Henry V in 1946, discussions of the best ways of adapting Shakespeare to the screen have filled the nation's reviewing columns. But no agreement has been forth-coming on what should be the proper compromise between the author's original intentions and the alternate treatment made possible, if not mandatory, by modern movie techniques. Those who advocate pure Shakesperean theatre will be able to find many flaws in Director Renato Castellani's new production of Romco and Juliet; those who are willing to accept the more or less necessary changes imposed by the movie from will consider it a generally good adaptation. There will be no quibble with the beauty of the film.

Purists will criticize the cutting of the play and the rewriting at the end--the latter with a good deal of justification. Since some shortening was obviously necessary, Castellani has reduced the part of Mercutio--usually a favorite with audiences--to a mere shadow of its former, lusty self. But it was probably the safest major slicing job he could do, especially since some critics consider the robust youth an overgrown character in the first place. At any rate, he appears only long enough to deliver a few speeches and be killed which is all the plot requires.

More serious damage results from some horse-opera touches near the end of the film. After Romeo's return to Verona, Castellani indulges in some Hitchcock camera work on the theme, "Will Romeo run into Friar Laurence, thus saving the day?" Laurence, of course, wanders out the back door of the cathedral just as Romeo arrives at the front. There is a good deal more puffing and groaning than necessary, too, while Romeo forces his way into the vault with a broken candlestick which he had to run all the way back to the church to get.

The cutting of speeches and shuffling of scenes in these last few minutes is more irritating because a good deal of time has just been wasted on a new version of why the crucial letter was not delivered, and dramatic shots of Romeo's wild ride from Mantua. It is too bad that the weakest aspects of the adaptation cluster at the end of the movie, since they tend to sour what is on the whole a perceptive and tasteful job.

But if the motion-picture format has detracted from certain aspects of the play, it has added to others. The backgrounds--particularly the cathedral and market-place of Siena and the Ca' D'Oro in Venico--are triumphantly beautiful, and the costuming is luxuriant. Although many of the interior tableaux are more reminiscent of the Flemish painters, the actors have been decked out after a rogue's gallery of Italian Renaissance portraits.

The quality of their performances is satisfactory throughout, with the exception of Romeo; even if one is ready to accept him as a shallow and generally weak-minded youth, Laurence Harvey does not do him justice. He breatlies heavily in the part, and is totally unsuccessful in indicating a change of character late in the play. Even considering the immaturity Shakespeare intended, his superficial attitude seems somewhat overdrawn, especially opposite Susan Slientall's sincere and charming performance of Juliet.

Miss Shentall, being only five years off the mark herself, has turned the actress' bugaboo of Juliet's age (not quite 14) splendidly to her advantage. With quiet restraint she portrays the childish but profound love of a young girl with a bridge of freckles across her nose, who has come to womanhood just a little sooner than she ought. Since this is her first major theatrical role, much credit is no doubt due Mr. Castellani's direction, for it is her part which holds the picture together.

With the exception of the mutilated ending, the picture is handled with adequate feeling, and its vividly exciting pictorial beauty, Miss Shentall's performance, and the competent if not outstanding handling of the secondary parts, do continuing justice to the play. Without claim to greatness, the picture should win a position among the outstanding Shakespearean film adaptations to date.