Othello (1965 film)

Othello is a 1965 film based on the National Theatre Companys staging of Shakespeares Othello 196466 staged by John Dexter. Directed by Stuart Burge, the film starred Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Joyce Redman, and Frank Finlay, who all received Academy Award nominations, and provided film debuts for both Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon.

The film of Othello used enlarged duplicates of the original stage settings, rather than having elaborate new sets built. Oliviers former backers for his Shakespeare films were all deceased by 1965, and he was unable to raise the money to do a film version on location or on elaborate sets. Nearly a decade earlier, Olivier had been attempting to find financial backing for his own film version of Macbeth after he performed the role in 1955 at Stratford, but ultimately without success. The National Theatre Company had already produced a staged film of Chekhovs Uncle Vanya 1963 and would later produce Strindbergs The Dance of Death 1969. The Olivier Othello is the first Englishlanguage filmed version of the play made in color there had been a Russian version in color in 1955 and widescreen. It was the second major film adaption of the work having been produced in 1952 by Orson Welles. In the U.S., it did not play the usual severalweek run given to most films instead, it played for only two days. The film was exhibited as a roadshow presentation.Of all Oliviers Shakespeare films, Othello is the one with the least music. Iago and the soldiers sing a drinking song in one scene, and in another, musicians are seen playing briefly on exotic instruments, but otherwise the film has no music. ........

Source: Wikipedia