HAMLET

 There are people who think this Russian version of "Hamlet" is the best of all screen Shakespeare's and it is certainly up with the best. The problem I found is, being spoken in Russian, we have to rely on the subtitles which sometimes disappear before we can read them. That said, the text has been preserved yet beautifully abridged by Boris Pasternak and superbly rendered by the cast.

Director Grigori Kozintsev has opened out the play to make this possibly the most visual of all "Hamlet's", superbly shot in black and white Cinemascope by Jonas Gricius and cut to 140 minutes it fairly races along. Innokenti Smoktunovski makes for an energetic Hamlet, looking, at times, like a young Richard Burton while both Elza Radzina as Gertrude and Yuri Tolubeev as Polonius are outstanding and the whole piece is handled like a medieval thriller. This one is far from gloomy.