You can tell immediately the US is in on this... the tasteless music! Dorothy McGuire?! Thank God for the sublime Gielgud & Pamela Brown. The Intro sounds so provincial.
Hamlet is actually Shakespeare's longest play, about 3 1/2 hours without breaks. The Olivier film cuts it to a little over two, but Gielgud was a little embarrassed by this broadcast's 80 minute length. Dorothy McGuire was necessary for commercial appeal.
Marvelous! This was my first introduction to John Gielgud and to Hamlet...and I must say, I found it almost too intense. Nevertheless, I finished the whole, was impressed, and am now an ardent fan of Gielgud. Hamlet is a difficultly emotional character to play, but he did it with unsurpassed forceful brilliance. How I wish I could've seen him play the part on stage! (and I used to dislike Shakespeare!)
You MUST listen to the 1948 3 hour unabridged recording with gielgud. It is 10 times better and every actor does his part PERFECTLY on the right emotional level. Less intense also lol i def see what you mean
Centre Court you are an actor yourself ! so you know how to act it ! all the world is a stage ! and you are presenting yourself for the clown that you are !
Thomas, being as you are clearly not a devotee yourself, you are not the position to judge their comprehension of Hamlet. If you dislike Shakespeare or Hamlet, I respect you. I was once in your shoes. But don't mock at those who do enjoy Shakespeare. It's impolite and disrespectful.
I suppose one gets used to seeing idiotic comments under recordings like this; at least in this case most of them come from only a single person, who seems so proud of his fatuousness that he comes back to regale us with it on repeated occasions.
@@johnmulligan455 The best way to appreciate Hamlet is to go on YT and listen to different actors do a single speech. One of the best passages is in the soliloquy where he says the plays the the thing thinking how to trap his uncle with the Murder of Gonzaga. JG is supreme, but John Barrymore is very good too.
I couldn't agree more. That Hamlet guy really annoys me. A public school aristocrat always giving out with the snide quips and "soliloquies"- whatever that means. If I want to be told what to think I'll buy a newspaper.
Gielgud was perfect for Hamlet. Ambivalent, indecisive, beautiful, tragic looking & nobly voiced. Wow!
Oh, to have seen him in his heyday in the full stage production!
Bravo. The entire enterprise is magnificent.
You can tell immediately the US is in on this... the tasteless music! Dorothy McGuire?! Thank God for the sublime Gielgud & Pamela Brown. The Intro sounds so provincial.
Hamlet is actually Shakespeare's longest play, about 3 1/2 hours without breaks. The Olivier film cuts it to a little over two, but Gielgud was a little embarrassed by this broadcast's 80 minute length. Dorothy McGuire was necessary for commercial appeal.
Glad you pointed this out. Was a great overview and Gielgud's talent is obvious, but it does feel very rushed and the talent is still being honed.
Marvelous! This was my first introduction to John Gielgud and to Hamlet...and I must say, I found it almost too intense. Nevertheless, I finished the whole, was impressed, and am now an ardent fan of Gielgud. Hamlet is a difficultly emotional character to play, but he did it with unsurpassed forceful brilliance. How I wish I could've seen him play the part on stage! (and I used to dislike Shakespeare!)
You MUST listen to the 1948 3 hour unabridged recording with gielgud. It is 10 times better and every actor does his part PERFECTLY on the right emotional level. Less intense also lol i def see what you mean
41:21 “to be or not to be ...”
The great and peerless Johnny G. . restoring Shakespeare's poetry to these familiar words. The sound and the soul.
Shakespeare sometimes, by his own admission, wrote absolute trash . This is virtually impossible for his devotees to comprehend .
Is there an actor alive capable of speaking these lines like this even if a director permitted him to do so...?
Centre Court you are an actor yourself !
so you know how to act it !
all the world is a stage ! and you are presenting yourself for the clown that you are !
Thomas Allan Perhaps, but not this!
Thomas, being as you are clearly not a devotee yourself, you are not the position to judge their comprehension of Hamlet. If you dislike Shakespeare or Hamlet, I respect you. I was once in your shoes. But don't mock at those who do enjoy Shakespeare. It's impolite and disrespectful.
Je connais John Gielgud qui jouait un film avec Dirk Bogarde et le fantôme des Canterville.C'était un grand bonhomme.
Superb.
Man, Gielgud was a sharp-looking young man!
I suppose one gets used to seeing idiotic comments under recordings like this; at least in this case most of them come from only a single person, who seems so proud of his fatuousness that he comes back to regale us with it on repeated occasions.
Right on spot!
@@johnmulligan455 The best way to appreciate Hamlet is to go on YT and listen to different actors do a single speech. One of the best passages is in the soliloquy where he says the plays the the thing thinking how to trap his uncle with the Murder of Gonzaga. JG is supreme, but John Barrymore is very good too.
Bad day?
👏🏼👏🏼❤️☺️
He is so handsome and he looks a little bit picky
Well, he wasn’t that picky. As a youngish actor, he was arrested for inopportuning young men in London.
41:25 to be
Love John Gielgud - but not his tremolo reading of Hamlet.
Unusual for me to dedicate something to pride month but here it is.
Thou shalt be alive and tenable. You and your eyes shall not Covet. Brian Koller a Christ Chapel Believer.
oh no ! another self appointed teacher to tell us all how to think ; just because he has got a posh after dinner voice .
I couldn't agree more. That Hamlet guy really annoys me. A public school aristocrat always giving out with the snide quips and "soliloquies"- whatever that means. If I want to be told what to think I'll buy a newspaper.
There is no need to defend Gielgud's faultless vocal acting; those who appreciate it know the reasons, and those who mock at it have no reasons.
Once again the failed playwright regales us with his jealous diatribes.
What is Dorothy McGuire doing in this? Oh, it's in NYC, so the quota American MUST be in it. Goodness gracious!
I see nothing wrong it that. She does a good job of her part, too. For heaven's sake, cool off!