Anyone else catch the 1935 version of Midsummer Night's Dream on TCM today

[tuvor]

Haven't seen it in 20 years, but as luck would have it, I happened to channel surf into it just before it started today.

It won an Oscar for cinematography--the only write-in winner in Oscar history. Still not available on DVD, though.

[CBHagman]

1. Still not on DVD?

You're kidding me.

Actually, the first version of A Midsummer Night's Dream I ever saw was the '60s version starring Ian Holm, Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren, Ian Richardson, and a young Judi Dench, who, playing Titania, wore body paint and not much else. :blush:







On edit: The pictures I've tried to post here (only one appears) make it look a rather messy production, though it has nothing on the full-scale brawl in the mud depicted in the most recent screen adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

[mitchum]

2. Kenneth Anger played the Changeling Prince

[lumpy]

3. The 1935 edition is a classic.

My mom wouldn't let me see it when I was a kid for some reason or other. Saw it when I was about 60 on TV to my delight. I recorded it via tape. Mickey Rooney was a great Puck and the whole production had that dreamy feeling about it. Mendellsohn's Midsummer's dream music was perfect. I've seem the later productions but they don't come close to coveying the dreamy fantasy. Love it.

[Orsino]

4. It's a gorgeous production, all right...

...with a great performance by little Mickey Rooney. Oberon, however, is so lackluster as to be sadly funny--if you can stay awake while he's on screen.