FILM OF “HAMLET”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26638, 8 December 1947, Page 2

FILM OF “HAMLET”

GREAT SUCCESS ANTICIPATED LAURENCE OLIVIER’S LATEST WORK For the Daily Times By Harvey Blanks LONDON, Nov. 23. air Laurence Olivier’s new Shakespearean film, .“Hamlet.” is all but complete, and critics who have seen some of the finished scenes are prophesying that this will prove the greatest film yet made in Britain. It is rated in the “prestige” class—that is, made to increase the reputation of the British cinema abroad, without thought of financial profit. But Olivier’s chief, Mr J. Arthur Rank, believes that it will prove as big a money-maker as “ Henry

All camera work is finished, and it now remains to edit i-he stock and add the magnificent music of William Walton, who also wrote the score for Olivier’s previous Shakespearean production. Walton, incidentally, has received this week the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society for his great services to British music.

“ Hamlet ” will be ready for screening by next March. But Olivier will be in New Zealand at that time with the Old Vic Company, so its screening may be delayed until his return in August. “ Hamlet ” has taken 28 weeks to film and cost just under £500,000. Jean Simmons, who plays Ophelia, is about to leave for Fiji to make a technicolor version of H. de Vere Stacpoole’s novel “The Blue Lagoon.”