A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) film adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Kaitlyn Culliton (Trinity College Dublin)

Ed. by Ema Vyroubalova, Trinity College Dublin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1595

Places

England (Location)

Genres and Modes

Comedy

Adapted from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Staring Olivia de Havilland, Mickey Rooney, Dick Powell, James Cagney, and Joe E. Brown. English with English, French, and Portuguese subtitles. Black and White. 143 minutes.

Based on Max Reinhardt’s 1934 Hollywood Bowl production, the film premiered in 1935. It was nominated for four academy awards, winning two: Best Cinematography (by Hal Mohr) and Best Film Editing (by Ralph Dawson).

The Shakespearean text is reduced by almost half, but the film maintains the original plotline without significant departure. As well, the extensive use of couplets is largely p…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1065 words

Citation: Culliton, Kaitlyn. "A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) film adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 November 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19443, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) film adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Save this article

Leave Feedback