Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark

Yay!... I think. It's hard to say. It's hard to have an emotion about a movie that has no emotion. This movie is as sterile as a surgeon's scalpel. For a setting, it has a few stone pillars, some stone seats, a couple stone crosses and some stone actors. They have no emotion! The only thing that saves this movie is the fact that it is Hamlet, and Hamlet is a terrificly written piece of literature. The dubbing really wasn't all that bad though. The voices stuck true to the dull, gloomy, dreary, life-sucking atmosphere the movie gave forth. I have seen this version of Hamlet on the fabulous Mystery Science Theater 3000 three times, and each of the three times, I was on the brink of turning off the TV, despite it being MST 3K.

Not an uplifting production of a drama that deserves so much better.

You'd think that the immortal words of William Shakespeaere would be able to rise above just about anything, but alas bad acting and really bad sets will drag down even the most wonderful playwright. As usual, Hamlet broods over the death of his father. In this version, Elsinore is nothing more than some pillars, stairs, and a lot of black backgrounds. The fact that it's dubbed into English from German doesn't help this production. The actors seem to be forcing the lines from their mouths, and climatic battle between Laertes and Hamlet doesn't have the punch or tension that it should have. It was great seeing this on MST, their satiric tounges ripping into the acting and sets but sparing the dialouge. By the way, we're out of ear poison.

Produced in German for German television, this production of Hamlet becomes distinctly eerie when dubbed back into English. The production design is also "German Minimalist", typical of that era, making the movie rather bleak, even for Hamlet.

Despite the virtually non-existent sets and English-German-English translation, Maximilian Schell turns in an admirable performance as Hamlet.

This film was screened on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Whether or not this movie was "bad" enough for such dissection is open to debate, but Mike and the Bots leveled some excellent quips ("Honey, what happened to all the ear poison?").

I'm a fan of both Shakespeare and MST3K, so I waited anxiously to see this episode. I'll comment on the movie first, then the MST3K episode. The recipe for this movie: take talented actors, rich and beautiful Shakespeare material, and a $1.25 budget. Mix well, then drain of all life and movement, until dull and lifeless. Serve cold in a big, plain stone cauldron. Movie, I give 3 out of 10, because the actors at least deserve a little bit of credit. Okay, now the MST3K episode. I'll admit it, the first time I saw it, I fell asleep halfway through. I understand that was the reaction of several other veiwers as well. However, when I watched it a second time, I realized that there was a whole host of intelligent references and good lines I missed the first time around. The trick with this episode is: listen carefully! It takes a couple of viewings to catch each line. Give it a second chance, and You'll see what I mean. MST3K Episode: 7 1/2 out of 10.

...this verson doesn't mangle the Bard that badly. It's still a horrible minimalist production, Hamlet's Dutch uncle is inexplicably dubbed by a Spaniard (whether it's Ricardo Montalban or not is subject to debate), and Maximilian Schell overacts like never before. Most of the dialogue makes it through unscathed, and the fact that the MST3K version feels obliged to point out repeatedly that the speeches are long *duh* doesn't strike me as incredibly humorous. Mostly it's just bad acting, though.