Shakespeare in Performance: Film

Julius Caesar (1949, Garry Simpson)

Description

Documentation of a 1949 performance of Julius Caesar, the first play ever presented on the stage of the Folger theatre in Washington, D.C. Transmitted nationally on NBC television, the event was sponsored by Socony Vacuum Oil, whose winged horse logo appears prominently in the wraparounds. The Folger videocassette represents a copy of a blurry Kinescope, of such poor quality that often the picture more resembles a negative than a print. (A "Kinescope" was a recording device widely used before the invention of magnetic tape to record studio televison productions, apparently more for legal than archival purposes.) Fortunately, though, the sound track remains intact. The players are from the Amherst College drama department, under the direction of Prof. Curtis Canfield. A still in the The New York Times shows Arch Taylor as Brutus and George T. Bliss as Julius Caesar (both looking terribly youthful) costumed in Elizabethan dress

Description from Shakespeare on Screen : an International Filmography and Videography by Kenneth S. Rothwell and Annabelle Henkin Melzer. ©1990 Kenneth S. Rothwell. Cited by permission. — Added 2008-11-14

Cast Overview

Production Team and Crew Overview

Company Overview

Production information courtesy of: Kenneth Rothwell