Page 115 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

104 / Shakespeare in the Movies

M-G-M, ever status conscious, proved susceptible to Houseman's
dogged determination. An all-star cast might attract the public, par-
ticularly if the era's most exciting young actor, clamoring for roles
that would expand his range, was top-billed. Marlon Brando (then a
veteran of only three films) would play Antony, firmly distancing
himself from Stanley Kowalski, the unpleasant, modern brute he
had portrayed in A Streetcar Named Desire. Though intrigued by
characters from the ancient world, Brando had refused to perform in
The Egyptian and upcoming The Prodigal, which were mindless
cardboard spectacles in color and wide screen. The Bard was another
matter; Julius Caesar would allow Brando to work not only in a clas-
sical setting but with a great script. Brando was heartened to learn
that Joseph L. Mankiewicz, recently associated with the multi-
Oscar-winning All About Eve, would direct. Mankiewicz and House-
man would garb their characters in togas to satisfy the M-G-M brass.
However, they would avoid allowing their film to degenerate into
superficial spectacle, instead emphasizing universal human and
political drama. Mankiewicz said, "It's a good, rip-snorting piece of
blood and thunder, coupled with eternally new and true-for-today
characters."
That was enough for Brando, who was delighted to also learn that
the film would be shot in black and white. At this time, "big" pic-
tures, particularly historical epics, were invariably in color; black
and white was reserved for ultramodern "little" films like Marty.
Houseman insisted, "We kept it in black and white because there are
certain parallels between this play and modern times. People asso-
ciate dictators with newsreel shots of them haranguing the crowds.
Mussolini on the balcony, that sort of thing. With color, you lose
that reality; the show becomes a mere spectacle." The level of spec-
tacle was indeed reduced, if with ironic results. "They have suc-
ceeded, perhaps beyond their hopes," Parker Tyler noted in Theater
Arts, but "the result is a film without heroic proportions." House-
man and Mankiewicz had accentuated the Bard's artistry while play-
ing down the cinema's rich potential for expanding Shakespeare's
showmanship.
Their production emerged as respectable, polite, and noncontro-
versial, resembling upper-middle-brow Hallmark Hall of Fame TV
presentations. "The picture is more a competent Shakespearean pro-
duction which happens to be on the screen than it is a creative piece
of filmmaking," Moira Walsh noted in America. Indeed, Mankiewicz
strictly avoided reaction shots, instead keeping his camera tight on