I can hardly believe that Laurence was able to get so many of his dreadfully boring productions brought to film but he couldn't manage it with Macbeth. Film producers thought 40 year old Hamlet, Blackface Othello in the 1960s, and bowl cut flaming Henry V were excellent ideas but MACBETH?! Lady Macbeth is basically Scarlett and Blanche combined into one woman. It would have given Leigh her third Oscar. Olivier just couldn't stand the idea of being upstaged by her in his area of expertise.
Vivien Leigh was probably a triumph as Lady Macbeth
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| by Anonymous | reply 5 | May 16, 2021 9:12 PM |
Is it just me or is there some strong similarity between Vivian Leigh and Hedy Lamarr?
Not just looks but also in the kind of je ne sais quoi they possessed.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 16, 2021 8:45 PM |
The financing fell through. Olivier was bitterly disappointed about it. Also he considered Vivien the best Lady Macbeth he'd ever seen and says so in his memoirs.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 16, 2021 8:47 PM |
Wasn't Vivien's voice considered poor when she performed on stage?
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | May 16, 2021 8:53 PM |
Not poor, R3, but not first class either. But the critics of the day were very snobbish about primarily film actors going onstage, especially in Shakespeare. I suspect her Lady Macbeth would have been more effective onscreen.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | May 16, 2021 9:10 PM |
R1 That's Hedley.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | May 16, 2021 9:12 PM |