Customer Reviews

Twelfth Night (ATV British television production)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been waiting for years for a DVD release of this fine staging of Shakespeare's gender-bending comedy. I first saw this production on A&E cable in the 1980s and enjoyed it tremendously.

Joan Plowright is, by far, my favorite Viola/Cesario. She's convincing in both roles (and, compared to many other Violas, you can believe she might pass as a teenage boy). Plowright is equally impressive in the final act, which requires her to add still more subtleties to her performance.

In the broader comedy roles, it's hard to beat a production that includes Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson and Tommy Steele. (Steele's manic persona, which is not for all tastes, serves him very well here as Feste.)

The outstanding script adaptation abridges the play to about 100 minutes. The decision to reverse the order of scenes 1 and 2 was ingenious: it makes for a more dramatic opening and allows a type of exposition that television can do well but which could not have been done easily on Shakespeare's stage.

The video itself is slightly grainy (presumably a function of its age), and some minor glitches in the quad tape were not corrected. But these are trifles, and the DVD is very enjoyable.

Be aware that this is a stage-like television production: a play produced on videotape. If you want something more cinematic, Trevor Nunn's 1996 film version is very good.

With Alec Guinness at his finest; how can anything, he is in, fail?

The story of 12th Night is so well known, it requires some pretty convincing acting, I think, to carry it off successfully. This production has the fine and convincing - even superlative acting, to achieve this unequivocal success.

All the principal actors were magnificent in their roles and even Tommy Steele managed to overcome his well known name as a 'pop' singer - just about! The inclusion of Steele into the cast was inspired - or flawed - depending upon one's view of the man as a singer/performer. Sadly, his well known persona shone brightly through his performance - which would please or annoy, according to one's view of this competent singer.

Koch Vision and BBC presents "TWELFTH NIGHT" (6 January 1969) (103 mins/Color) (Dolby Digital) --- Splendidly acted -- Award winning performances --- In 1969 this version of William Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT reached U.K. television screens --- The production, which was directed by John Dexter and John Sichel, includes an all-star cast, with Alec Guinness in the role of Malvolio and Joan Plowright playing Viola plus Gary Raymond and John Moffat

The story line and plot, Separated in a storm at sea, twins Viola and Sebastian are washed ashore on different parts of the coast of Illyria, each believing the other to be drowned. To protect herself in this unknown land, Viola disguises herself as a young man, Cesario, and enters the service of Duke Orsino --- This1969 production features Joan Plowright played both Viola and Sebastian, with Stratford alumnus Alec Guinness as Malvolio, Ralph Richardson as Sir Toby Belch and, in a notorious example of "stunt" casting, the pop singer Tommy Steele as Feste --- How much better can it get.

Under the production staff of:
John Sichel - Director
William Shakespeare - Play
Cecil Clarke - Executive Producer
John Dexter - Producer
Peter Roden - Production Designer
Carl Toms - Production Designer

This is a good adaptation of the Shakespearean play --- the acting is superb with Alec Guinness and Tommy Steele giving brilliant performances as Malvolio and Feste the fool --- Joan Plowright also gave a strong performance in her two parts, Viola and Sebastian, the long-lost siblings --- It has comedy-you cannot help but laugh when Malvolio puts on yellow stockings and struts done the walkway-and love triangles that everyone should enjoy --- A wonderful version of the play, and Lady Joan Plowright is absolutely outstanding --- I love the beginning, when she is shipwrecked--she has this amazing feminine way of expressing both hope and fear--a utopian moment --- Gary Raymond as the handsome, somewhat loftily arrogant prince --- And Tommy Steele is great, singing, accompanying himself on the lute--how many pop stars from the 1960s could do that?

the cast includes:
Tommy Steele ... Feste
Ralph Richardson ... Sir Toby Belch
Alec Guinness ... Malvolio
Joan Plowright ... Viola
Gary Raymond ... Orsino
Adrienne Corri ... Countess Olivia
John Moffatt ... Sir Andrew Aguecheek
Sheila Reid ... Maria
Riggs O'Hara ... Fabian
Paul Curran ... Sea Captain
Richard Leech ... Antonio
John Byron ... Priest
Christopher Timothy ... Valentine
Kurt Christian ... Curio
Gerald Moon ... Gardener's boy
Laurie Goode ... Sebastian's Companion

Scene Index for Twelfth Night
DISC ONE (1)
1. Part One [29:11]
2. Part Two [26:37]
3. Part Three [22:07]
4. Part Four [21:19]
5. Credits [1:26]

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) --- Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, William Shakespeare was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a glover, and Mary Arden, the daughter of a wealthy farmer --- The exact date of his birth is unknown, but baptismal records point to it being the same as that of his death, April 23. --- He probably attended what is now the Edward VI Grammar School, where he would have studied Latin literature, and at 18, he married a farmer's daughter, Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, born in 1583, and, two years later, the twin --- Hamnet (who died in childhood) and Judith --- Nothing further is known of Shakespeare's life until 1592, when his earliest known play, the first part of Henry VI, became a hit in London, where he was now working as an
actor --- Soon afterwards, an outbreak of plague forced the temporary closure of the theatres, and he turned for a while to writing poetry --- By 1594, however, he was back in the theatre, acting with the Lord Chamberlain's Men --- He quickly established himself as one of London's most successful dramatists, with an income that enabled him, in 1597, to buy a mansion back in Stratford --- In 1599 he became a shareholder in London's newly built Globe Theatre.

Great job by Koch Vision --- looking forward to more high quality titles from the BBC Collection film market --- order your copy now from Amazon or Koch Vision where there are plenty of copies available on DVD, stay tuned once again for top notch releases --- where they are experts in releasing long forgotten films and treasures to the collector.

Total Time: 103 mins on DVD ~ Koch Vision KOCV-6487 ~ (3/04/2008)

Twelfth Night is Shakespeare's last comedy (as such), bridging directly into the tragedies -- most especially into King Lear, in which the Fool sings precisely the song Feste sings in Twelfth Night, but with such bottomless bleakness. This production of Twelfth Night is a joy for those who want to experience Shakespeare performed with the complexity and depth he wanted. First, Sir Alec Guiness, Sir Ralph Richardson, Dame Joan Plowright, and the leading musical theater performer, Tommy Steele. Casts do not get better than this, even if you quibble with interpretations, which I do. But without doubt this is the best Twelfth Night ever filmed, bar none. Second film allows Viola & Sebastian to be played by the same person, Joan Plowright, as both man and woman. Third, Alec Guinness' performance of Malvolio, like great wine, gets better and deeper each time you see it during the decades that have passed since the John Dexter production was made. Fourth, the music is melodic, albeit completely mismatched to the profound lyrics of the Fool's songs. Fifth, the pace is brisk, the script well edited (if editing Shakespeare is ever justified). The only major fault in the production, and it is a big one, is that the comic characters Sir Toby Belch, Andrew Aguecheek, Maria and Fabian are never, ever funny. They are especially out of step with Shakespeare's intentions which, for Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, require commedia dell'arte skills in pratfalls, drunken reeling, gastric distresses, and all manner of ancient classic comedy technique so perfected in our time by Keaton, Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Art Carney. This tradition dating to earliest Greek Comedy died when vaudeville veterans died. No one today can do it, or even tries to do it. The major disappointment is Ralph Richardson's Sir Toby Belch, who is supposed to be as fat and funny as Falstaff from moment to moment. Granted he is also a wicked conniver with deep Iago striations, but Richardson looks like a feeble skinny old turkey, his famous diction unintelligible, his physicality geriatric. Audiences are supposed to look forward eagerly to the clown scenes to alternate with the fulsome romantic wittiness of the Plautine plot. I am constantly downed in spirit and fun whenever Richardson is on screen:-- which is unforgivable, especially when it is needed to set up Guinness' absurd puritanism and self-love. The famous "Letter Scene" is performed magnificently by Guinness, with the clowns utterly ruining what should be side-splitting counterpoint. A pity, since Richardson was accounted a great Falstaff (I can't believe it on the basis of this performance).

But these are flaws, not fatalities of the sort that plague most new productions of Shakespeare. Buy this film, love it, watch it every 10 years, and notice how much you have grown.

I was not at all pleased with this version of Twelfth Night. Viola had almost no facial expressions, she just looked vaguely pleased for the entire play. Orsino had THE worst wig. Olivia didn't seem to mourn for her brother at all. The only two characters I cared for were Festes and Malvolio. I won't watch it again.

I saw this play on Masterpiece Theater, when I was younger. I always liked The Fool. I'm glad that I now have a physical copy of the play I remember enjoying so much as a teenager.