Directors Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle work overtime to infuse this screen version of Shakespeare's comedy with elements of magic and whimsy. This means decorating the sets with lights and tinsel and using all kinds of photographic effects to make things look misty and dreamy. But most often their efforts result in visual chaos, and especially during the long ballet scenes that find dancers not so much dancing in any kind of choreographic unison but rather jumping and leaping around randomly across the frame.
The performances are all over the place. Dick Powell delivers his lines like he's never come within 100 feet of anything Shakespeare related in his life. Anita Louise, as Titania, delivers all of her lines in a high-pitched sing song that made my ears bleed. Mickey Rooney is absolutely unwatchable as Puck. His overacting and grotesque mugging made me physically uncomfortable. Olivia de Havilland fairs well as Hermia, even if her role isn't much fun. Leave it to, of all people, James Cagney to deliver the film's best performance as Bottom. Who would have thought this fireplug of an actor most known (at the time anyway) for tough-guy gangster roles would have the surest grasp of Shakespearean language?
The film is diverting enough during all of the scenes set in the magical forest. But the play within the play that takes up the last 15 or so minutes of the movie goes on forever and is painfully unfunny. And weirdly, it feels like a good 3/4 of the movie comes after the intermission, which makes it feel even longer.
Hal Mohr carved a place for himself in Oscar trivia for becoming the only person ever to win an Oscar as a write-in candidate when he took home the award for his cinematography for this film. The Academy disbanded the practice of allowing write-in nominations the very next year. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" also brought Ralph Dawson an Oscar for Best Film Editing, the second year in a row he won that award. It received another write-in nomination in the strange and obsolete category of Best Assistant Director, and was one of the 12 films nominated in 1935 for Best Picture, the year that saw the big prize go to "Mutiny on the Bounty."
Grade: B-
The performances are all over the place. Dick Powell delivers his lines like he's never come within 100 feet of anything Shakespeare related in his life. Anita Louise, as Titania, delivers all of her lines in a high-pitched sing song that made my ears bleed. Mickey Rooney is absolutely unwatchable as Puck. His overacting and grotesque mugging made me physically uncomfortable. Olivia de Havilland fairs well as Hermia, even if her role isn't much fun. Leave it to, of all people, James Cagney to deliver the film's best performance as Bottom. Who would have thought this fireplug of an actor most known (at the time anyway) for tough-guy gangster roles would have the surest grasp of Shakespearean language?
The film is diverting enough during all of the scenes set in the magical forest. But the play within the play that takes up the last 15 or so minutes of the movie goes on forever and is painfully unfunny. And weirdly, it feels like a good 3/4 of the movie comes after the intermission, which makes it feel even longer.
Hal Mohr carved a place for himself in Oscar trivia for becoming the only person ever to win an Oscar as a write-in candidate when he took home the award for his cinematography for this film. The Academy disbanded the practice of allowing write-in nominations the very next year. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" also brought Ralph Dawson an Oscar for Best Film Editing, the second year in a row he won that award. It received another write-in nomination in the strange and obsolete category of Best Assistant Director, and was one of the 12 films nominated in 1935 for Best Picture, the year that saw the big prize go to "Mutiny on the Bounty."
Grade: B-