A new Macbeth DVD?

[SFT]

Hi all,

A first post from a Welles fan from Denmark.

Doing a search for Macbeth on amazon.co.uk brought up what appears to be a new DVD of the film being released 25 August. From what I can see, the cover is similar to the design of the coming Othello release, so I am asuming that it is the same company. However, when clicking the cover, you are shown the old UK release of Macbeth, which I already have. Does anyone have any information on this new release? Are we talking restored edition, new special features? Or should I stick to the one I already have?

Thanks,
SFT

[ChristopherBanks]

Hi SFT,

I haven't heard about the new Macbeth release, but I do have the existing UK DVD and to be honest, I find parts of it almost unwatchable because of the shitty transfer. What did you think of it?

Any scenes containing a lot of black seem to be littered with nasty artifacts.

[SFT]

Well, since I've never seen another transfer of it, I guess I don't know what I am missing - so I'm pretty happy with just being able to watch it, actually, regardless of the quality. Both sound and picture could be better, of course, but that probably isn't going to happen before someone actually restores the print and the soundtrack. If the current DVD release is a restored version - as indeed the cover claims - then I'd hate to imagine what it must have looked like before!

SFT

[Jeff Wilson]

When they say "restored," I'm pretty sure they mean it as in the original version instead of the dub and cut job that got released. Given Republic's lack of interest in releasing films like this in the US on DVD, we may not see a better edition here. Plus, their lackluster work on The Quiet Man DVD doesn't raise hopes for anything special.

[Le Chiffre]

I'm not familiar with any of the DVD editions of MACBETH, but I bought both of the American LD versions when they came out. The Image Co.'s 1989 LD release had dull packaging, but excellent visual quality for the disc itself, and occasionally rough but good digital sound. This edition was far superior to Republic's 1993 "45th Anniversary Edition", which had beautiful packaging, but mediocre picture quality and sound. The Republic did also have an audio essay, but that was pretty mediocre too.

If they do release MACBETH on DVD in the U.S., they would do well to release the short 89-minute version as well. This "dub-and-cut release version" that Jeff referred to is clearly inferior to the 1980 UCLA restoration, but I'd like to see it released on video anyway, since Welles himself is the one that did the cutting and dubbing. What are the chances of seeing a double-disc DVD set with both versions of the film? Slim and none, but of course, that's where DVD recorders and the grey market come into play. I have a rather poor recording of the short version that I got off late-night TV long ago. I'd like to find a better copy of it if anybody out there has one.

[SFT]

A restored version of both the re-edit and original would be great. If enough attention is payed - and enough money is spent - on such a project, the results could be phenomenal. Look at what was recently done with Lang's "Metropolis"! But as you said the chances are slim.

On a related note, Welles' radio adaptation of the play is also terrific. No scottish accents, but Bernard Herrmann's music is vastly superior to Ibert's for the film. Too bad Welles' and Herrmann's professional relationship didn't survive "The Magnificent Ambersons".

SFT

[Le Chiffre]

The "radio" Macbeth you mention was actually one of four Shakespeare adaptations the Mercury did for LP; the others being Merchant of Venice, Julius Ceasar, and Twelfth Night. Of the four, Macbeth is probably the most similar in style to the radio programs, but I don't believe it was ever broadcast on the air. Jeff did a nice little writeup on them at Wellesnet's resource section http://www.wellesnet.com/audio.htm

I disagree that Hermann's Macbeth music is superior to Ibert's for the film. I think Ibert's score is wonderful and holds it's own against any of the great Welles scores by Hermann, Lavanigno, etc. I do agree with you however, that the METROPOLIS restoration was superbly done. That DVD was put out - in America anyway - by Kino Video, one of the finest DVD outfits working today. If Kino could get the DVD rights to ANYTHING by Welles, we'd be in good shape.

[Lance Morrison]

wow, i didnt know there was a radio macbeth.....

kino, yes they are one great, look how wonderful a job they did on Nosferatu, in my opinion far superior to the other commercially available DVD of that film...while I dont know about the colour tinting, it has more scenes and in my opinion better film quality than any other version.... However, I am upset that they havnt put Renoir's The Bitch and A Day In The Country on DVD, since they have it available on tape, those are a couple of my favourites.

Kino, do some Welles! Actually it would be nice if the the F.W. Murnau institute in Germany that is involved with Kino and in fact did the Metropolis resoration would get together with the Munich archives and get us some rare Orson availible

[Noel Shane]

Welles starred in Macbeth for the Columbia Workshop radio show February 28th, 1937. I'm not sure a recording of this exists, however.

[Le Chiffre]

It would be a shame if no recording of it still existed. I've heard the radio HAMLET that Welles did for the Columbia Workshop, and it's quite good. Welles synopsizes parts of the play in order to capture the essence of the story and fit it into a 1-hour time frame, a technique he would later use for CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (with Ralph Richardson reading parts of Holinshed's Chronicles).

Talk about "The Seven Arkadins", how about "The Six Macbeths"! Here they are:

1. The 1936 Voodoo Macbeth (On stage)
2. The 1937 Columbia Workshop Macbeth (for radio)
3. The 1940 Mercury Macbeth LP
4. The 1946 Salt Lake City Stage production
5. The 1948 Film (89-minute theatrical release)
6. The 1980 UCLA restoration of the film's 108-minute original version.

If anybody knows of any more, feel free to make it seven.

[allegra]

A recording of the Mercury Macbeth does exist! It was put out on CD-ROM by Pavilion Records Ltd., Sparrows Green, Wadhurst, E. Sussex, England, on the Pearl Plays & Poets label. Comes with a nicely done booklet that hits many of the high points of Welles’ stage and radio career with illustrative theatrical and biographical details, including a brief history of his Shakespeare productions on stage, radio and LP.

There are several paragraphs on the recording of Macbeth, along with production notes and critiques. Interestingly, the essay observes: “The suspicion that Macbeth was recorded on film on an RKO soundstage and not at the Columbia Records studio is entirely plausible... Lending further credibility to the theory that they [the masters] originated on optical film is the occasional wow in Bernard Hermann’s music, as well as the somewhat heavy-handed manipulation of the volume controls.”

For all the caveats, the disc is–which I'm sure I don’t need to say!–well worth having. I got it a couple of years ago, but I see no reason why it shouldn’t still be available...

[Noel Shane]

I've heard the radio HAMLET that Welles did for the Columbia Workshop, and it's quite good.

I've yet to hear this. But as OW told it, Herrman stormed out just before airtime and had to be fetched back into the studio. As there was no time to gather his notes together, which had been upset in the tantrum, he ended up being one cue off for the entire the show. "So we had fanfares when it was supposed to be quiet, approaching menace when it was supposed to be a gay party... it was riotous." Was Welles romanticizing the confusion a bit, or was it really so bad?

(Re: "the six Macbeths"; as an addendum to your list, there was also an educational short about the play that Welles narrated/hosted, called Power and Corruption, in 1973.)

Mercury Macbeth

That, happily, does exist. Yes. The Columbia Workshop production, I'm not so sure.

[allegra]

The Pavilion Records CD is not the 1937 production, unfortunately, having been recorded for Columbia Records in 1940. But it may have the same, or nearly the same, cast, which is vintage Mercury: Welles, Alland, Sanford, Coulouris, Barrier, Bainter...

[Glenn Anders]

Yes, the Bernard Herrmann incident, which Welles related, refers to his Radio production of Hamlet. And you will hear some rather bizarre music cues.

I find no record of a February 28, 1937 Columbia Workshop production of Macbeth. It is one of the very few gaps in the old Radio Yesteryear logs that I have. These were half hour shows, and so the production, like the Hamlet, would either have been a special or spread over two or three weeks. That is not to say it does not exist somewhere.

If it is germane to Welles' in Shakespeare on Radio, you might note Welles' appearance, with Tallulah Bankhead and Cedrick Hardwicke, in the August 27, 1937, Columbia Summer Shakespeare Festival production of Twelfth Night. Not directed by Welles, however. That was an hour production, and it exists.

[That series also has a rare appearance by Humphrey Bogart in Shakespeare!]

Hope this was Helpful.

Glenn

[allegra]

There may not be a record of a Feb. 28, 1937 Columbia Workshop production of Macbeth, but there's one of a May 2, 1937 production. It's cited in Jonathan Rosenbaum's Welles career chronology, in Bogdanovich's "This Is Orson Welles" as follows:

"May 2. Columbia Workshop: Macbeth (CBS), adapted by OW from the WS play. D: Irving Reis. Music: BH. Cast: OW (Macbeth), others. Shown in two parts on successive Sundays."

The only other Shakespeare Bogdanovich (Rosenbaum) mentions for 1937 is something called "Streamlined Shakespeare"...