Title: Sir Laurence Olivier's first film
Product review: Elisabeth Bergner as Rosalind gets top billing in this 1936 B&W film. I love William Shakespeare. His mastery of language and plot is always (so far) a joy. When I bought this, I had just seen my son as Amiens, Lord Attending Exiled Duke, and the character of Rosalind played by a very pretty, perky and sassy young actress. After that performance, this DVD version was painful to watch and I never got through it. Sir Laurence is good, if not entirely believable as Orlando, but the film appears to be cast as a vehicle for Elisabeth Bergner though for the life of me I can't imagine why. Born in the Ukraine, and having first appeared in the Berlin silent film "Der Evangelimann" in 1923, Elisabeth Bergner acts like a silent actress, and "As You Like It" appears to be her first English-speaking role. Still, as Shakespeare goes, this is a funny and thoroughly enjoyable story with several clever twists. It's a Shakespeare play that cries out for Kenneth Branagh.
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