1/1/2023 0 Comments Macbeth 1948![]() ![]() Nolan and Welles are well matched in their scenes together, both artistically and physically Welles’ imposing figure towering over Nolan’s sharpens Lady Macbeth’s edges and highlights the false king’s insecurities.Īmongst the fine performances are strange ones, like Roddy McDowall, who even by 1948 should have been campy perfection - completely unrelated, but if you haven’t seen his “Columbo” episodes then you need to stop what you’re doing right now and go to Netflix - turns Malcolm from honorable man seeking vengeance to a mildly confused teenybopper. Critics now and then dismiss her performance, though much of her restraint surely comes from the censors’ requirements, and many of the reviews are of the truncated 1950 version of the film, which edits her performance in two key scenes, and not for the better. Welles is a fine if workmanlike Macbeth, while Jeanette Nolan is revelatory as the over-heated Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is an uneven film, surely intentionally, but its schizophrenic nature doesn’t always work. ![]() Once the deeds are done, more killings are required, the paranoia, guilt, madness and death are the result. Though Macbeth is unsure of his destiny, Lady Macbeth (Jeanette Nolan) is not, and urges her husband to kill King Duncan (Erskine Sanford) and essentially chase off his son Malcolm (Roddy McDowell) so he can claim the throne for himself. It’s a more or less straightforward adaptation as far as plot and character motivation goes, but visually and conceptually, Welles’ Macbeth was probably one of the oddest films anyone of the time had ever seen.Īs Macbeth (Welles), a celebrated Scottish soldier in the 11th century, and his general Banquo (Edgar Barrier) are riding home, they stumble across three gruesome witches, all praising a clay effigy of Macbeth and promising he is to become King of Scotland. Audiences, critics and studios alike found his work confusing, indulgent and wildly out of sync with the times. Macbeth (1948), Welles’ adaptation of the Scottish play, was not the first film of his finished by someone else, but it would be the first of many of his films to be released in multiple versions. It’s difficult, even for a very forgiving fan like me, to not wonder if much of the now-celebrated innovations of Orson Welles’ later-career output weren’t just the manifestation of restlessness and hostility. ![]()
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