Romeo and Juliet (1936 film)
| Romeo and Juliet | |
|---|---|
1936 US Theatrical Poster
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| Directed by | George Cukor |
| Produced by | Irving Thalberg |
| Written by | |
| Based on |
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Herbert Stothart |
| Cinematography | William H. Daniels |
| Edited by | Margaret Booth |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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125 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2 million |
| Box office |
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Romeo and Juliet is a 1936 American film adapted from the play by Shakespeare, directed by George Cukor from a screenplay by Talbot Jennings. The film stars Leslie Howard as Romeo and Norma Shearer as Juliet, and the supporting cast features John Barrymore, Basil Rathbone and Andy Devine.
The New York Times selected the film as one of the "Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made", calling it "a lavish production" which "is extremely well-produced and acted."
Uncredited cast includes Wallis Clark, Katherine DeMille, Fred Graham, Dorothy Granger, Ronald Howard, Lon McCallister and Ian Wolfe.
Producer Irving Thalberg pushed MGM for five years to make a film of Romeo and Juliet, in spite of studio head Louis B. Mayer's resistance. Mayer believed that the mass audience considered the Bard over their heads, and also he was concerned with the studio's budget constraints during the early years of the Great Depression. It was only when Jack L. Warner announced his intention to film Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Warner Bros. that Mayer, not to be outdone, gave Thalberg the go-ahead. The success of a 1934 Broadway revival also encouraged the idea of a film version. It starred Katharine Cornell as Juliet, Basil Rathbone as Romeo, Brian Aherne as Mercutio and Edith Evans as The Nurse. Rathbone is the only actor from the 1934 revival to appear in the film, albeit in the role of Tybalt rather than Romeo. On the stage Tybalt was played by nineteen year old Orson Welles.
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