Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark (1961) (TV)

Director:

Franz Peter Wirth

Writers:

William Shakespeare (play)
A.W. von Schlegel (translation)

Release Date:

1 January 1961 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle.

Plot Keywords:

Clown | Cross | Fencing | Hamlet | Dancing

Cast

Maximilian Schell	...	Hamlet
Hans Caninenberg	...	Claudius
Wanda Rotha	...	Gertrude
Dunja Movar	...	Ophelia
Franz Schafheitlin	...	Polonius
Dieter Kirchlechner	...	Laertes
Karl Michael Vogler	...	Horatio
Eckart Dux	...	Rosencrantz (as Eckard Dux)
Herbert Bötticher	...	Guildenstern
Karl Lieffen	...	Osric
Rolf Boysen	...	Bernardo
Michael Paryla	...	Francisco
Alexander Engel	...	The Ghost
Adolf Gerstung	...	1st Player
Paul Verhoeven	...	Gravedigger

Also Known As:

Hamlet (USA)

Runtime:

152 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-12

Company:

Bavaria Atelier

Trivia:

Riffed in Mystery Science Theater 3000, season 10, episode 9.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Hamlet (#11.9)" (1999)

No new ideas, no acting, no nothing

Take:

1. a famous play

2. a director with now ideas of his own who is using

3. a copy of the stage design of a popular theatre production of the play mentioned in 1.

4. an actor for the lead - who has no feeling for the part he's playing And you'll get: "Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark"

I listened to the radio play of "Hamlet" with Maximilian Schell as Hamlet and I was so disappointed. I hoped that the filmed version would be better, that Schell would at least have a body language to underline what he's saying - nothing. Then the set... the minimalistic design is not everyone's taste, but usually I like it when there's just enough on the stage to make clear what's the setting and nothing more. Alas, that's on a stage, in a theatre. It won't work in a film based on a play that actually has believable settings. That the idea for the set was copied from the theatre production in which Schell played the Hamlet already... let's say if that was the only thing to complain about... I ask myself how Schell could get the part of Hamlet anywhere in first place and how anybody could allow him to play Hamlet a second time. If you've got the choice to view any of the about sixty films based on "Hamlet", don't watch this one, unless you're a masochist, or really hardcore, or like to poke fun on untalented actors.