VividSimon Simply Perfect

Lawbolisted Powerful

Executscan Expected more

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

bkoganbing This version of Romeo&Juliet might have worked better had Marlon Brando and Pier Angeli done the leads as originally intended. Brando had certainly proved himself able to deal with the Bard in Julius Caesar. Laurence Harvey and the unknown Susan Shentall who stayed unknown after playing Juliet were adequate and nothing more.Possibly the mix of Italian and English players might have had something to do with it. Such key roles as Mercutio and Tybalt were given short shrift here and they are integral to the story. Especially Tybalt. One thing I absolutely did not like was the dueling scenes between first Tybalt and Mercutio and then Romeo and Tybalt. This is always to me the high point of Romeo and Juliet where matters come to a head between the two feuding families, Montagues and Capulets. Here it's almost tossed off matter of factly. Really ruins the story. A pair of secondary characters in the play are who you notice. Flora Robson as the nurse and confidante of Juliet and Lord Capulet played with passion by Sebastian Cabot stand out. Especially Cabot. In this version he tells his daughter off in no uncertain terms he's picked out a nice husband for her with this Paris kid and she's marrying him or else. I never saw any other actor get so much out of that scene as Cabot did.The film is shot in Italy for authenticity and the cinematography is nice, as nice as Franco Zeffirelli's version. The acting for the most part is not as good as that over the hill gang version that MGM did with Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer.

moviesaregreat The only thing remotely interesting is the landscape. The lighting is appalling, the play is shredded up with important and beautiful lines being cut and useless lines kept while other lines were just changed outright to have more obvious meanings. The language is spoken tediously and full of pauses and lacks almost any sound of poetry at all which drags and drags. It seems the focus was so much on the religion of the play it lacked any passion whatsoever.Utterly unwatchable.There was a superior version filmed in 1936 and 1996 looks glowing by comparison.

adamshl Renato Castellani's rendering of this tragedy is my all-time favorite version. Using on-location settings and magnificent costumes and art direction, this presentation is without peer.Laurence Harvey is perfect as the young Romeo. He brings genuine love and pathos to his character that is heart-rending.Susan Shentall's gives the most intelligent and moving execution of this challenging role I've ever witnessed. She, like Harvey, overcome minor matters of age to make these characters their own.Who could be a better nurse than the great Flora Robson, or Norman Wooland a finer Paris? Roman Vlad's original score is wonderful, and he's composed a Gallilard that becomes a haunting motif as it's reprised throughout in different variations.If only a digitalized restoration could be done on this great work, that would make everything complete.

mglory67 Admittedly, the performances are not perfect, but I actually like Susan Shentall in the role of Juliet. Her acting is subtle and refined, which is more than I can say for many other actresses who have taken on the role. Why is it that so many actresses playing Juliet feel the necessity to shout their lines? Olivia Hussey does this. So does Megan Follows.I will agree that Laurence Harvey is awful as Romeo. I find his delivery a bit too mannered for my taste even if his true age is more appropriate than Leslie Howard's. (Although, truth be told, Howard's Romeo seems ageless to me.) His costumes aren't much better than his acting. In the scene where he marries Juliet and the subsequent duel, he is wearing a blue and yellow ensemble that makes him look like a demented superhero.I'm still waiting for a film version of Shakespeare's wonderful play with an actor who truly seems to understand the character of Romeo. Sumptuous, sumptuous cinematography and music though, and well worth a look if only for that.