HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE

Evening Star, Issue 22447, 18 September 1936, Page 5

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE

Only by collecting a cast of more than die average ability has Professor Max Reinhardt made a, success of ‘ A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ which is showing at His Majesty’s Theatre. This statement is not made with the idea of deprecating the undoubted genius of Shakespeare, but to illustrate the intricacies with which such a production is fraught. Fvery scone combines one hundred and one details, and each one had to be investigated. Technological genius played as big a part in the picture as the versatility of those in the leading roles. And the result? The screen hit of the year. All conjecture as to the outcome of bringing Shakespeare into the movies has been swept away with the triumph which James Cagney, Joe E. Brown, Dick Powell, Anita Louise, Jean Muir, Olivia de Havilland, and Frank M'Hugh score at each appearance. The musical score is something to marvel at, while the tenderness and faith with which the love scenes have been treated lend a worthy note to the film. To define the features of the film separately would require a whole newspaper, but the more notable are the spirited scenes in which the mischievous intentions of Puck, played by Mickey Rooney, are centred. With a piquancy that almost takes the breath of the audience away, the scenes change from the woodland where Bottom. a role in which James Cagney excels himself, is love-making with Titania to the song of welcome to Theseus. A true conception of the ideal fairy woodland has heen woven into the picture, and no flaw or defect in any technical detail is to he detected.