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NOT being a film critic, but merely a confirmed film-goer, I hesitate to cross verbal rapiers with such an authority as Mrs, M. M. Dunningham, who in 4YA's Footnotes to Films, spoke about "Shakespeare on the Screen." To my amazement, after the announcement of her broad title, Mrs, Dunningham glibly swept away all previous efforts to film Shakespeare, and narrowed her talk to include only «Henry. V. and Hamlet. Obviously, her talk should have been entitled "Olivier and Shakespeare on the Screen" or else she should have discussed such previous Shakespeare films as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet. She declared that she couldn’t even recall what these
films (or some of them) were like, which, while being a compliment to Olivier, is rather an insult to Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, John Barrymore, and Elizabeth Bergner. Even if such performances pale nowadays beside the present splendours of Olivier’s efforts, a comparison of the earlier films with the later would have been of great
interest to those who remember seeing both old and new. I do not cavil at Mrs. Dunningham’s analysis of the two films she did deal with, but in future I hope her listeners will not be misled by too-sweeping titles into expecting more than she is prepared to give them.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19481224.2.16.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 496, 24 December 1948, Page 9
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226Restricted View New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 496, 24 December 1948, Page 9
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