# Spins on Shakespeare? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 31, 2001, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518 "2001-01-31T05:13:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/21 "2001-02-01T02:09:22Z")
What about the two "To Be or Not To Be"s. First with Jack Benny and the second with Mel Brooks? ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/22 "2001-02-01T02:12:02Z")
And what about the “Gillian’s Island” musical version of “Hamlet?” I’m getting carried away, aren’t I? I’ll quit now. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/23 "2001-02-01T02:46:51Z")
_The Magic Christian_ contains a scene of Laurence Harvey doing the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy while stripping. IIRC, one of the St. Trinians movies also has a quick clip of one of the schoolgirls doing the same thing! But she only gets as far as her gloves. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/24 "2001-02-01T21:16:28Z")
If bits will do, find the STNG where Picard goes into a Shakespearian rant to get Dianna’s mother back from the Firengi (sp?). Thanks, St. Attila, for that thread link. That was really funny. TV time says “Shelley Long also does a strange Hamlet at the very end of that film she did with Bette Midler.” That was aptly titled, Outrageous Fortune. Has funny bits, worth renting. ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@Me\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Joe)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/25 "2001-02-01T21:39:43Z")
You might have to search to find it, but there was a 60s era “horror” movie called “Theater of Blood” starring the inimitable Vincent Price. In it, Price is an insane actor who blames a clique of theatre critics for ruining his career. He takes revenge on them, one by one, by tricking them into re-enacting, for real, various gruesome murder/death scenes from Shakespearean plays. The movie is on par with “Plan 9 From Outer Space” in terms of quality: it is so badly made it is hysterically funny. This is the all-time lowpoint of Shakespearean scenes (if not whole plays) on celluloid. ---
**Author:** ![St.Attila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@St.Attila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Attila)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/26 "2001-02-01T22:19:11Z")
\*Originally posted by **zgystardst** \* > [@](#): > > **_The Magic Christian_ contains a scene of Laurence Harvey doing the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy while stripping.** “When he himself might his quietus make with a… bare… bodkin?” Hee, hee. I loved that. ---
**Author:** ![Marvel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marvel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvel)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/27 "2001-02-02T02:55:40Z")
I started this thread just two days ago and look at all of the great ideas that everyone has posted! I KNEW coming here with my question was a good idea!! Reality Chuck - Yes, “Forbidden Planet” is indeed based on “The Tempest.” In fact, I did show it last year but for got to include it on my list of example. My bad. CalMeacham - Bitching sig, Man! TV times - Thanks for the list of movies and TV shows including Shakespeare bits, but I’d like to focus on those that are mostly (if not wholly) Shakespeare based. Xtal - I need to get my hands on the classic Star Trek episode, “The Conscious of the King.” Did I mention that most of the people who come to this are sci-fi junkies? Keep the ideas flowing! The Play’s the Thing…, Patty ---
**Author:** ![Marvel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marvel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvel)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/28 "2001-02-02T03:12:56Z")
You know, my husband has been taking improv classes for almost a year…and we’ve some rather theatrical freidns…I bet we can do something with your suggestions!!! Titus as a cooking show…WONDERFULLY perverse!! Licking My Chops, Patty ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/29 "2001-02-02T08:31:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TV time \* > \*\* > …the 1930s “Romeo and Juliet”… credits carried the memorable line “By William Shakespeare with additional dialogue by Ben Hecht.” \*\* Tv time: Actually, it doesn’t. There is a credit which says something like “Arrangement by Talbot Jennings,” but I believe you may be thinking of the 1929 version of “The Taming of The Shrew,” which, legend had it, carried the credit “By William Shakespeare, Addiional Dialogue by Sam Taylor.” Thing is, it’s hard to prove this case. I have a copy of this Fairbanks/Pickford snoozer, and the credit is not there. Sorta. The actual credit reads “Adaptation and Direction by Sam Taylor.” However, the copy I have is a 1966 re-release, and the offending credit (if it ever existed) could have been replaced because of the scorn heaped on it upon its original release. As to the OP, perhaps other posters can help with my vague memory. I recall seeing a short documentary-type piece (20 or so years ago) wherein a group of Shakespearan scholars/ enthusiasts went into a small southern farming community and randomly picked people to perform in a production of Shakespeare. The guy who got the lead (can’t remember the play) was a raw-boned good ol’ boy, who, it seemed, would never get the cadences down, but damn, a few weeks later, this group actually put on a passable play. That piece might be fun to watch, if only to see this guy struggle with the words and concepts, and to see the dawning awareness within this simple hard-working man that Shakespeare can speak to all of us, no matter our station. Sir ---
**Author:** ![BobSchroeck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@BobSchroeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobSchroeck)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/30 "2001-02-02T13:42:28Z")
…No one has mentioned the film “Tempest” from the early 1980s, a strange and wonderful contemporary retelling of “The Tempest” by Phil Mazursky. John Cassavetes as the Prospero character, Molly Ringwald (age 13 or so) as Miranda, Susan Sarandon as Aretha (Ariel), Raoul Julia as Calibanos (Caliban), Gena Rowlands and about half a dozen other outstanding talents. Without the Prospero character actually being a wizard, it is full of magical moments: Cassavetes standing on the clifftop, gesturing with his glasses and saying “Show me the magic”; Sarandon and Ringwald singing Motown while knee-deep in the blue waters of the Aegean; a bunch of others… It is a little slow at startup, but it’s a beautiful and magical movie. It’s also very long; it’s one of the few films that I’ve ever seen HBO air with an intermission in the middle. – Bob ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/31 "2001-02-02T17:06:24Z")
I don’t know its pedigree but I once got stuck watching a HORRIBLE version of ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ from the 30’s I think. God help me it had Mickey Rooney at about age 7 in a diaper playing the part of Puck. And they kept stopping for these looooooong ballet numbers. From The Sandman: “I am that merry wanderer of the night” “Merry Wanderer of the night?!?!?! More like ‘I am that totally psychotic menace to life and limb’!” “SHH!!! He’ll hear you!” ---
**Author:** ![BobSchroeck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@BobSchroeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobSchroeck)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/32 "2001-02-02T17:39:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BobSchroeck \* > **"Tempest" … by Phil Mazursky.** Paul Mazursky. _Paul_. Dunno where the hell “Phil” came from. – Bob ---
**Author:** ![Marvel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marvel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvel)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/33 "2001-02-06T03:12:56Z")
Just posting to bump this thread title up the list! Patty ---
**Author:** ![Marvel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marvel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvel)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2001, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/34 "2001-02-24T02:49:33Z")
Bump! [unless you have something to add to a thread, do _not_ “bump” it. Thank you. -Czarcasm] [Edited by Czarcasm on 02-23-2001 at 11:25 PM] ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2001, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/35 "2001-02-24T06:18:42Z")
I can’t believe nobody has yet mentioned _ **West Side Story** _. (Plot adapted from _Romeo and Juliet_\* with all new dialogue and songs). Orson Welles did a lot of Shakespeare in his day. There was an OW film of _Macbeth_. There was a cheezy porno version of _Twelfth Night_ made circa 1969. It came on around two in the morning and I didn’t stay up to watch it. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2001, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518/36 "2001-02-24T06:21:57Z")
_Highlander Part II: The Quickening_ had Rowan Atkinson doing _Hamlet_ when Sean Connery suddenly materializes onstage. In 15th century garb. “I am the oldest gentleman in Scotland.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spins-on-shakespeare/52518.md?page=1)