Hamlet (1948)

	Directed by: Laurence Olivier	COUNTRY UK GENRE Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Hamlet RUNNING TIME 149 minutes
	Produced by: Laurence Olivier
	Written by (based on the play by William Shakespeare): Alan Dent

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Hamlet	Laurence Olivier	½
Queen Gertrude	Eileen Herlie	½
King Claudius	Basil Sydney	½
Ophelia	Jean Simmons
Horatio	Norman Wooland	½
Polonius	Felix Aylmer	½
Laertes	Terence Morgan	½
Osric	Peter Cushing
Gravedigger	Stanley Holloway
Marcellus	Anthony Quayle
Spear carrier (uncredited)	Christopher Lee

Review

A technically dazzling adaptation of Shakespeare’s famed play, with an aptly overwhelming spatiality and a bewilderingly devoted Laurence Olivier in the lead. The film captures the depth of the drama and the wit between the tragic lines, yet still remains a tad offish in certain segments. The exclusion of the popular bit characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern might give the film a more ceremonious feel, but the performers are up to the task, with Olivier and Felix Aylmer (as Polonius) particularly brilliant. There is understated eroticism between Olivier and Jean Simmons, and the former portrays Hamlet's balance between sanity and madness enticingly. The film is at its best in the middle part, in which there is palpable suspense. Note the humour in the fact that the 28-year-old Eileen Herlie plays the 41-year-old Olivier's mother.