The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1952)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Orson Welles

Writer:

William Shakespeare (play)
(more)

Release Date:

June 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Powerful drama of uncontrolled human emotion!

Plot:

Durante il periodo delle Repubbliche Marinare, in Italia, Otello, detto "il moro di Venezia", viene...

Plot Keywords:

Stylized | Poignant | Victim | Racism | Jealous Rage

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Orson Welles	...	Othello
Micheál MacLiammóir	...	Iago
Robert Coote	...	Roderigo
Suzanne Cloutier	...	Desdemona
Hilton Edwards	...	Brabantio
Nicholas Bruce	...	Lodovico
Michael Laurence	...	Michael Cassio
Fay Compton	...	Emilia
Doris Dowling	...	Bianca
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Abdullah Ben Mohamet	...	Page-boy (uncredited)
Joseph Cotten	...	Senator (uncredited)
Jean Davis	...	Montano (uncredited)
Joan Fontaine	...	Page (uncredited)

Directed by
Orson Welles

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean Sacha		uncredited
William Shakespeare		play
Orson Welles		uncredited

Produced by
Julien Derode	....	associate producer
Walter Bedone	....	producer (uncredited)
Patrice Dali	....	producer (uncredited)
Rocco Facchini	....	producer (uncredited)
Giorgio Papi	....	producer (uncredited)
Orson Welles	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Alberto Barberis
Angelo Francesco Lavagnino

Cinematography by
Anchise Brizzi
George Fanto
Alberto Fusi		(as R. Fusi)
Aldo Graziati		(as G.R. Aldo)
Oberdan Troiani		(as O. Troiani)

Film Editing by
Jenö Csepreghy		(as John Shepridge)
Renzo Lucidi
William Morton
Jean Sacha

Production Design by
Luigi Scaccianoce
Alexandre Trauner

Costume Design by
Maria De Matteis

Art Department
Clément Hurel	....	poster artist (uncredited)

Music Department
Willy Ferrero	....	conductor

Other crew
Joe Cauvin	....	location manager (uncredited)
Harriet Medin	....	dialogue coach (uncredited)
Gudrun Ure	....	voice dubbing: Suzanne Cloutier (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Mercury Productions
• Les Films Marceau

Distributors

• United Artists (1955) (USA) (theatrical)
• Continental Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)
• Continental Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (laserdisc)
• Mondo Home Entertainment (2005) (Italy) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Screen Time Images  film restoration
• Screen Time Images  sound remixing

Also Known As:

Othello (Australia) (France) (USA)
Otello (Italy)

Runtime:

90 min | USA:93 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA | Italy | France | Morocco

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby (re-release) | Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Italy:T | Australia:G | Finland:K-12 (1967) | Finland:S (1967) | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Castle, El Jadida, Morocco

Company:

Mercury Productions

Trivia:

Orson Welles provides the voice for much of Roderigo's dialogue.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: There was once in Venice a moor, Othello, who for his merits is the affairs of war was held in great esteem. It happened that he fell in love with a young and noble lady called Desdemona, who drawn by his virtue became equally enamoured of Othello...

Movie Connections:

Featured in Edge of Outside (2006)

Great film, but not "lost"

I will not go into the film as many already have said how it is a great work of art despite its "troubled" filming history.

This film is now advertised and available as a "restored" dvd of a "lost" Welles film. But DO NOT be deceived. Whereas the 1998 cut of Touch of Evil was "restored" using a Welles memo as guidelines, Othello was restored by presuming many things. First, dialogue was put in sync and unintelligible diaglogue was "voiced over." And second, the original score was redone, but not exactly as the original. You could almost say a new score was used in the "restored" film. The original cut was Welles' 1952 European version which has only ever been availible as a (OOP) 1995 Criterion LaserDisc. As Welles' daughter owns the rights to Othello, that's the 1992 "restored" version which she also helped on, it is the only one currently availible for purchase in the US (as she receives no money for the 1995 CR laserdisc, she forced Criterion to stop making it.)

While many casual fans will not notice or care about the little changes, don't be deceived into thinking this is "Orson's intended version." Also DO NOT be deceived into thinking this is a lost film. It was only lost in the sense that it had no distribution until the early 90's.