As You Like It

AS YOU LIKE IT is an odd duck among the major plays of Shakespeare that have been filmed. It is one of the three top romantic comedies (with MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING and TWELFTH NIGHT) that Shakespeare wrote, but none of them have been favorites for film (not like A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM). MUCH ADO recently was redone by Kenneth Branagh, but not as well received as his HAMLET and HENRY V. AS YOU LIKE IT was done a few times on television, but not as a film - except for this 1936 version.

AS YOU LIKE IT is set in the forest of Arden. Most of the characters are in hiding there or have been exiled there. The local Duke has been overthrown by his brother (Duke Frederick / Felix Aylmer) and exiled there. His courtiers followed. Lawrence Olivier is the son of a favorite of the old Duke, so he is not in favor with Aylmer. He is also finding life difficult with his older brother Oliver (John Laurie), who is consumed with jealousy. So Orlando (Olivier)flees to save his own life, and is soon at the court in the forest of Arden. The true Duke's daughter, Rosalind (Elisabeth Bergner), has also fled with her cousin Celia (Sophia Stewart), because Aylmer is unhappy at his niece's continuous appearance at the regular court.

Rosalind (in the plot) pretends to be a young boy, who tries to teach Orlando what real love is. He is full of the courtly love that percolated in European intellectual circles at the time, and Rosalind slowly makes Orlando realize how it is artificial (listen to her dismiss the idea of dying over a broken heart). Slowly she makes Orlando a fit lover - a real lover - for herself in her genuine person.

The forest becomes a place where truth keeps emerging out of the trees and bushes. One of the old Duke's closest friends, Jacques, gives the most famous speech of the play, "the seven ages of man". In it he describes the seven different roles played by men in life, from infancy to old age. Jacques is a melancholic figure, and he is balanced in the plot by Rosalind and Celia's servant, the fool Touchstone, who also demonstrates what makes a real lover in his easy dismissal of his rival William (Peter Bull, as a rather dumb rustic) over a shepherdess. Eventually even Oliver / Laurie ends up in the forest (Laurie is sent there because he is blamed for Duke Frederick's daughter's fleeing with Rosalind).

A bare recital of the play's plot is not as good as watching it. In truth, even with Bergner's accent, she gives one of the most charming performances in Shakespearean film. The personality that made her the leading actress in Austria and Germany carries well in her English films. Olivier, for an early film, does a good job - his youth aiding the character's education in the plot, and his good looks being shown to advantage. Aylmer, Laurie, Bull, Mackenzie Ward (Touchstone), and Leon Quartermain (Jacques) do the most with their parts. One wishes more of the play had been included, but the reduced size is not a big problem for the viewer. As an introduction to reading the play, and seeing a complete production, the 1936 film is pretty good.

Unfortunately, Shakespeare's comedy 'As You Like It' has much of its comic aspects drained in this particular film version of the play, because of the sodden performances of a couple of players, Mackenzie Ward as Touchstone and Elizabeth Bergner as Rosalind.

The part of the Fool was an important part of Shakespearean plays, delivering pointed messages in the guise of witty remarks and jests. In this film, Touchstone's lines are breezed through so quickly and leadenly that the messages are lost. Bergner's Rosalind, was far worse. Rosalind was supposed to be disguised as a youthful man delivering acquired wisdom to men. I would have expected mainly a mock-serious performance, at most. Instead, Bergner performs Rosalind in a kind of giddy glee throughout, which must have marred her delivery of lines through that toothy grin combined with her Austrian accent.

Laurence Olivier, while performing in the more naturalistic way we would expect of a modern film actor, seems at times as if he's trying to get over with the whole thing, as might be expected if the rumors of artistic conflicts are true.

Sophie Stewart as Celia delivers probably the truest performance. Henry Ainley, Felix Aylmer, Leon Quartermain, and Dorice Fordred give nice performances as the two dukes, Jacques, and Audrey in minor parts. Peter Bull (the Russian ambassador from 'Dr. Strangelove') makes a very recognizable appearance in the second half.

I feel I ought to comment on the many complaints about the 'staginess' of the diction. My opinion is that these complaints have mainly to do with a couple of minor characters (e.g., Charles the Wrestler). Keep in mind that this is 1936, when many stage and silent actors were still adapting to the motion picture. Many films based on stage plays at that time appeared stagy, and many did even later (consider 'A Long Day's Journey Into Night' or 'A Streetcar Named Desire'). Few of Shakespeare's plays had been adapted to the sound motion picture by 1936. Cut them a little slack!

The main role, Rosalind, is well-played by the cute, vivacious Bergner. Olivier is good with the physical stuff (very graceful) and the repartee. He tends to fall flat on the soliloquies and extended reveries, though. (And he's wearing way too much makeup, including at times some very crooked lipstick.) The costumes and sets are vivid, probably meant to suggest a fairy-tale, and thus account for the ridiculous plot devices.

And despite the comments of another reviewer, the camera-work is not all "point-and-shoot." It is a bit static by today's standards, but not by those of 1936.

The biggest liability is the muddy, distant sound.

All in all, I liked it more than the average filmed Shakespeare, though it's not great by any means.

Honestly really, really wanted to like it. Shakespeare is one of the all-time great and most important playwrights and even in his lesser plays (such as 'As You Like It') his mastery of language and emotions and complex characterisations shone. Am a big admirer of Laurence Olivier, 'Rebecca', 'Brideshead Revisited' and all his succeeding Shakespeare roles. Am not the biggest of fans of this particular play, love the characters and text but the story is far from great.

Which is accentuated in this early film adaptation. It is primarily to be seen for seeing an early Shakespeare film and to see early career Olivier in his first Shakespeare role, also to be seen if you want to see every Shakespeare film posible and all available versions of 'As You Like It'. Sadly, beyond being a curio this is to me and quite a number of others seemingly is not a good film and another adaptation to show that 'As You Like It' is very hard to do well. Have yet to see a great version, the best available to me is the 1978 BBC Television Shakespeare adaptation and that had major shortcomings as well.

This adaptation of 'As You Like It' does have good things. There are a few good performances, Sophie Stewart is very endearing and sincere and Leon Quartermaine is suitably pompous as Jacques, his speech is one of 'As You Like It's' best moments which Quartermaine delivers more than believably (lives it actually). Felix Aylmer was always reliable and gives another strong performance. Olivier definitely went on to much better things and was more comfortable in his other Shakespearean roles, but already he showed a lot of understanding of Shakespeare's language, is in command of it and delivers his lines beautifully, didn't detect any awkwardness here.

A couple of other good things as well. The sets are both rustic and lavish enough and there is some nice whimsy here and there.

On the other hand, there are a lot of drawbacks. Starting with the near-universally, and unsurprisingly so in my view, panned performance of Elisabeth Bergner, Rosalind is a taxing and complex role and Bergner was clearly taxed. She doesn't look comfortable and a lot of her line delivery is unintentionally hilarious and not always comprehensible. Mackenzie Ward for my tastes was also very bland as Touchstone. Shakespeare's text itself is wonderful, but the delivery here varies. Great with Stewart, Olivier and Quartermaine but disastrous with Bergner. While there is some nice whimsy, 'As You Like It' is very comedic, here there actually is not enough emphasis on it and it's downplayed.

Direction tends to be too stagy, even for the time, and lacks distinction, the action also feels static. The storytelling is poorly done, the thinness of the play's story itself is very obvious through the pedestrian at best and often creaky pacing and the film does nothing to improve upon the problems of the play's ending, it's still incredibly absurd and comes out of nowhere. Other than the sets, 'As You Like It' doesn't look particularly good, the photography is too static and over simple and the costumes are as unflattering and unintentionally bizarre as they come.

Concluding, didn't like this very much sad to say. 4/10

Poor Elizabeth Bergner, she's the daughter of a deposed Duke who's now living in the Ardennes forest. She's living in the palace where her father's brother, the new Duke has kept her on as a companion for his daughter.

But one fine day she catches sight of young Laurence Olivier and when he wins a wrestling match with an airplane spin the folks in the WWE would envy, her eyes are for him only. Trouble is, he's the son of a knight the current Duke also didn't like. And Olivier has had a spat with his older brother. Off he goes to the woods. And Bergner follows him.

Pretty soon everybody's hanging out in the Ardennes and it's kind of like Shakespeare's other forest story, A Midsummer Night's Dream with people darting hither, thither and yon, the pursued becoming the pursuers and vice versa.

Elizabeth Bergner who plays Rosalind charmingly albeit her Teutonic accent, requested Olivier to be opposite her as Orlando. What Bergner wanted, Bergner got as her husband Paul Czinner produced the film. According to the book The Films of Laurence Olivier, Bergner and Olivier had some creative differences and relations were a bit chilly on the set.

This was the first time Olivier did Shakespeare for the screen or television and the only time he did not have creative control over what went out. He thought that the part of Orlando was as a dull romantic horse's patoot and not much could be done with it. When it came time to do Shakespeare again for the screen, Olivier would see it done right.

Still and all As You Like It is a charming antique and any time you can see Olivier do Shakespeare is time well spent.