Copyright 3 September 1936 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Corp. New York opening at the Astor 20 August 1936. U.S. release: 16 April 1937 (sic). U.K. release: March 1937. Australian release: 15 December 1936. 127 minutes. NOTES: Romeo and Juliet was nominated for the following prestigious Hollywood awards (actual winners in brackets): Best Picture (The Great Ziegfeld); Norma Shearer, Best Actress (Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld); Basil Rathbone, Best Supporting Actor (Walter Brennan in Come and Get It); Gibbons, Hope and Willis (only!), Best Art Direction (Richard Day for Dodsworth). Number 8 on the National Board of Review's list of the Best American Films of 1936. Number 6 in the Film Daily's annual survey of over 500 American film critics for the Best Films of 1937. COMMENT: It's very tempting simply to laud all aspects of this magnificent production, and let it go at that. But we must face the intrinsic problem of Romeo and Juliet. Are Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer - charismatic though their performances certainly are - miscast? The answer depends entirely on your point of view. From Shakespeare's own viewpoint, the answer is yes - but his reasons will surprise you. Shakespeare would have thought Howard was the right age for the part (even though Romeo is supposed to be a teenage youth) but found his impersonation too under-stated, lacking passion, fire and color. Shakespeare would have preferred John Barrymore in the role. As for Norma Shearer, full marks for her interpretation, but still totally wrong for the part as she is the wrong age and the wrong sex! (In Shakespeare's day, females were not allowed to act on the stage, although it could certainly be argued that the master would have heartily approved a change in the law). Looking at the problem from a modern viewpoint, I tend to agree with the director, George Cukor. Despite the youth of the two protagonists, their ideas, their speech, their imagery is extremely mature and sophisticated. Mind you, really talented young players could possibly bring this off- but I've yet to see them. So let's not argue whether Howard is too old, Shearer too mature. Brilliantly directed by George Cukor, this Romeo and Juliet is easily the finest Shakespeare on film. The master's dialogue has been superbly edited by Talbot Jennings to retain all the essentials. While the beauty of the poetry is preserved, the screen is rarely swamped with words. In fact, the action moves forward at such a rapid pace - and is presented with such pictorial flourishes - that we soon lose all realization (as we should) that the actors are speaking blank verse. It is a weakness of the play that First and Second Acts are livelier than the Third, though Juliet does have a hair-raising speech on the horrors of the charnel house. The sets, the decor, the costumes, the music score are all breathtakingly magnificent. Romeo and Juliet probably ranks as the finest example of M-G-M craftsmanship in that studio's golden thirties.

This movie is widely criticized for the actors being too old for their roles, and deservedly so. Norma Shearer as Juliet is more like the old maid daughter who can't find a husband so the father plans to marry her off to a rich nobleman. Leslie Howard mopes around but never really seems totally enamored with Juliet. That said, the costume design and sets and choreographed fight scenes are spectacular and the masked ball is incredible to watch. Also, the extrapolated scenes are fascinating, in particular how the messenger taking the news of Juliet's faked death to Romeo was waylaid and locked in a house condemned by the plague. What I don't understand about Shakespeare's plot is why Romeo had to kill Paris in the tomb before seeing Juliet's body and taking his poison. Didn't Paris suffer enough by having his betrothed found dead on their wedding day? The audience gets no satisfaction out of that killing.

It's always interesting to see familiar faces in unfamiliar roles. I saw just enough of this version of Romeo and Juliet to find it an enjoyable curiosity. Where else can you see Sherlock Holmes -- I mean Basil Rathbone -- playing Tybalt, and doing a damned good job of it. At least he sounds as if he'd read the play, and he gets to do the unidimensional mean shtick that was his forte before he became a detective.Other memorable performances are by C. Aubrey Smith, Reginald Denny, and Edna May Oliver, whose old-fashioned New England is easily transposed into Elizabethan English via fair Verona.The two leads -- Leslie Howard as Romeo and Norma Shearer as Juliet -- are problematic. For one thing they're too old for the parts. One of the reasons Romeo is not a particularly bright kid is that he's inexperienced. He's still mooning over Rosaline when -- one glance at Juliet and it's love at first sight, at second sight, at ever and ever sight. "He jests at scars, that never felt a wound," broods Romeo, but he hasn't the slightest idea of what wounds lay inevitably ahead for any human being. (Howard delivers the line as a kind of jokey wisecrack, though.) Norma Shearer ought to be a teeny bopper instead of the wife of somebody who's important at the studio. In her close ups, George Cukor seems to have wrapped the lens in silk stockings. And she's less convincing than Leslie Howard, but that may be only because British accents seem so much more fitting.John Barrymore as Mercutio is WAY too old for the part but is nevertheless in a class by himself. Whether it's a performance "by" John Barrymore or "of" John Barrymore, it seems to work, in its own quietly overwhelming way. The other players seem to stand back when Barrymore has any lines.The only embarrassment is Andy Devine, who belongs behind six horses.The set dressing by Cedric Gibbons and wardrobe by Adrian of the Big Shoulders is colorful and evocative. I'm not sure why anybody but Tchaikovsky got credit for the musical score.The plot of the play is pretty loopy but this presentation is nothing to be ashamed of. I can't comment on the last half, which I wasn't able to watch.

Despite the fact we have a 47 year old Romeo, a 36 year old Juliet, and a 54 year old Mercutio; George Cukor's production for MGM of Romeo and Juliet manages to entertain and well.Of course these protagonists are all teenagers, but these players have all played romantic parts in an age when romance was not something to be cynical about and they do fit their roles well. No Romeo was ever more dashing than Leslie Howard or a Juliet as passionate as Norma Shearer.John Barrymore as Mercutio is a bit of an exception. I look at him and I think of another Shakespearean character who simply doesn't want to grow up and spends his time with the young blades of his day at the tavern. That would be Falstaff in Henry IV in both parts and if you think of Barrymore's Mercutio in that way, his interpretation makes a lot of sense.My favorite in this film has always been Tybalt and Basil Rathbone plays him with fire and passion. Rathbone got an Academy Award nomination, the first of two, for Best Supporting Actor in the first year Supporting Actor Awards were given out. He lost however to Walter Brennan in Come and Get It. He's just spoiling for a fight with some Montagues and in the end he unfortunately gets one.Romeo and Juliet is insightful into the Italy of the times. Italy was a geographical expression not a nation. In fact it was ruled mostly by the German entity, the Holy Roman Empire. But inside the empire and out it was a succession of petty states, constantly at war with each other. Sometimes the causes of the wars were long forgotten, but the hostilities took on a life of their own.Right down to a couple of wealthy families in the small town of Verona where the prince there has his hands full trying to keep the Montague and Capulet feud from spilling over into violence every time some of them meet in his town. With this background a young prince of Montague just getting over another bad romance and a princess of Capulet whose father has her slated to marry another meet and fall in love. Even when they find out their respective pedigrees, it makes no difference.In fact the idea that love can bridge all barriers is what I believe makes Romeo and Juliet as popular as it is. It's a lesson people and nations could learn.Norma Shearer got an Oscar nomination for playing Juliet, but lost to Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld as Best Actress. George Cukor and the film itself also were up, but lost for best director and best picture.Andy Devine plays the small part of Peter, a Capulet servant and I'm sure you're wondering what Andy Devine was doing in Shakespeare. So did he when he was cast in the part. The story goes that he went to George Cukor and told him he hadn't foggiest idea what he was doing in a classic Shakespeare play, he'd never done anything like this. Cukor supposedly told him, that was to his credit and that he would be the only member of the cast who would not be telling him how to direct the film. Turned out Cukor was right, but the film got made.And that's definitely for the better.