Page 114 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

A Tide in Men's Lives I 103

person.) Heston did, shortly revealing the combination of charisma
and talent that would soon vault him to the top echelon of movie
stars. Guernsey observed that "Antony's funeral oration, delivered to
an angry crowd portrayed by students, is the best-staged scene in
the film, with the changing temper of the mob clearly represented
and with Heston photographed mostly from below and looking like
an idealization of revenge."
Harold Tasker played Caesar, Grosvenor Glenn was Cassius, with
Bradley himself assuming the role of Brutus. The movie was shot so
as to take advantage of the city's Roman architecture; an abandoned
football stadium made do for the Colosseum, Caesar was murdered
in the Mason Temple (which, conveniently enough, had been mod-
eled on the actual Roman Senate), while Antony delivered his
funeral oration on the steps of the Field Museum. Too often, though,
the nearly nonexistent budget called attention to itself: A single tent
stood in for an army encampment, two shields were supposed to
imply a Roman battle line, and a close-up of a fire was all Bradley
had to convey the violent revolution that swept Rome after Caesar's
assassination.
However much one wants to support the fine intentions of high-
minded local filmmaking, the film's considerable defects outweigh its
noble ambitions. Like Heston, Bradley was afterward offered a Holly-
wood contract; the director's later work proved surprisingly unexcep-
tional considering such exciting alternative-cinema origins. (For more
on David Bradley's career, see also the chapter on Macbeth.)

More Stars Than in the Heavens
Julius Caesar

M-G-M, 1953; Joseph Mankiewicz
Modern dress had been basic to Orson Welles's approach when the
enfant terrible mounted a Mercury Theatre interpretation in 1937,
emphasizing parallels between Caesar's overwhelming ambition and
the contemporary rise of fascism. Tagged the Black Shirt version,
this staging was produced by Welles's longtime collaborator John
Houseman, who devoted his life to Shakespeare's work. Fifteen years
later, Houseman convinced Hollywood to bring the Bard back to the
screen.