This absolutely hilarious 20 minute satire on Hollywood adapting Shakespeare to suit its own vaudeville sensibility comes in the form of a dream by a producer while he sleeps at his desk. The books representing complete works of Shakespeare soon see their characters step literally from the pages and argue, sing dance and interact (Henry 5th goes to Rome to see Julius Caesar etc) all to swing music and backstage antic characters overlaying The bard's thesps as written. This is the "SpringTime For Hitler" of 1936. Juliet does a torch song number plaintively bleating from her balcony about "Ro-me-o where's my Ro-me-o" in the Lullabye of Broadway style. As a satire on the illiterate corporate minds who mangle literature and feed it to the masses as showgirl or western or mawkish studio output, Shake Mr Shakespeare is a truly inspired in- house Warner Bros success. My favorite bit? the team of Tapdancing Hamlets, all in tune tapping and swingin away on the headstones in the graveyard. This short is one of the funniest 2 reelers I have ever seen. you can find it on the breathtaking new DVD release for A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.... equally satisfying it its Busby Berkeley meets The Bard depiction of Shakespeare in Hollywood. This DVD has a feast of 1935 WB archive material all produced around the release of their sublime tinsel forest version of MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM. What a great DVD! You can watch every bit of extra material and all of it is good...! And then there is the feature itself. Heaven!
