Product Details

• Actors: Orson Welles, Alan Badel, Beatrice Straight, Bramwell Fletcher, Scott Forbes
• Directors: Peter Brook, Andrew McCullough
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: E1 Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: February 9, 2010
• Run Time: 73 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002SF9YUC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,373 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "King Lear: Omnibus - The Historic TV Broadcast" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

KING LEAR - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Landmark Production with fabulous bonus features - A must for Shakespeare lovers, January 31, 2010

By 

Steven I. Ramm "Steve Ramm "Anything Phon... (Phila, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: King Lear: Omnibus - The Historic TV Broadcast (DVD)

E1 Entertainment (formerly Koch Home Video) partnered last year with the Archive of American Television to release some extremely rare television shows from their archives on home video. Nearly all of these shows have not been seen by the public since they were broadcast over 50 years ago! Thanks to both early videotape and Kinescopes (live TV broadcasts preserved on film) we are able to re-live what were originally one-time performances. This DVD is one such event.

Actor/Write/Director (and more!) Orson Welles love Shakespeare and mounted many of Shakespeare's classics. In the early days of TV, in the 1950s, Shakespeare was not something the average viewer was expecting to see. And certainly not with the great Welles, who was living in England at that time.

TV was still in its infancy then and experimenting with its programming. This was a time when there were fewer distractions and other entertainment options for the American public. So CBS (under William Paley) created a 90-minute "arts magazine" to be broadcast on Sunday afternoons - remember there were no regular sports broadcasts then - hosted by Britisher Alistair Cooke. It was called "Omnibus". For its third season they came up with a real gem. Welles would make his American TV debut in a 90-minute production of "King Lear", directed by the then 29 year old British Director Peter Brook. Brook's wife, Natasha Parry, would play Cordelia. The sponsors would become "subscribers" so there would be no commercial breaks. And, the script would be revised - leaving out all the subplots - so the actual production ran only 78 minutes! On October 11, 1953 the show aired. And it has not been since - until this release.

E1 has gone the extra step in putting together this package. Preceding the October 11th show we are giving the "preview" which aired the week before. To add to the understanding of Shakespeare we are presented with a 10-minute portion of a later Omnibus show where Dr. Frank Baxter (who helped Walt Disney explain science to kids, like me, in the 1950s in "Our Friend the Atom") gives the history of the Globe Theater. Another 42-minute bonus is a live remote from 1954 at the Yale Shakespeare Festival and a 43-minute episode from 1955 with drama critic Walter Kerr discussing the staging of Shakespeare's plays.

All the prints are in more than acceptable viewing condition and the sound is very good. And all were captured "live".

This is a must for any Shakespeare fan and should be in every school library's DVD collection. There are more "Omnibus" shows coming from the AAT and E1. I can hardly wait for the next one!

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful broadcast, so-so video transfer, August 16, 2010

By 

Steven Capsuto (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: King Lear: Omnibus - The Historic TV Broadcast (DVD)

This is an effective, minimalist, abridged staging of Shakespeare's tragedy, with a thirty-something Orson Welles in the lead. Peter Brook's direction is fine and the cast is solid. Unlike the old VHS release, this DVD contains the entire broadcast, including Alistair Cooke's introductory remarks (but minus the commercials). The extras were a pleasant surprise.

The quality of the video transfer is slightly disappointing. I suspect this is an old transfer, perhaps even the one used twenty years ago in the VHS release.

The image is soft and flickery, and the movement of the characters on screen is more juddery and riddled with momentary double-exposures than you usually see in modern transfers from 1950s kinescopes. Compare the main feature on this disc against the much cleaner and more watchable images in the extras (also taken from "Omnibus" kinescopes) and you'll see what I mean. And I can't believe they didn't touch out those great big cue spots at the end of the reel. That would have been so easy to fix!

Despite this, I enjoy the program. I just wish a more watchable print were available on disc.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dramatic ,but omits important subplot of Edmund and Gloucest, April 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: King Lear [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Very dramatic King.Daughters hard to distinguish.Omits subplot of Edmund.Fool very effective.See madness of a king losing his power, but not the sadness of a father losing his daughters.