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Romeo and Juliet |  | Director: George Cukor
Actors: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, John Barrymore, Edna May Oliver, Basil Rathbone
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $2.60
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Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 40467
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 125 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 79527
UPC: 012569795273
EAN: 0012569795273
ASIN: B000QGE8J2
Theatrical Release Date: September 3, 1936
Release Date: August 14, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Shakespeare'sic tale of love and youth ruined by a family feud. The Montagues and the Capulets, two powerful families of Verona, hate each other. Romeo, a Montague, crashes a Capulet party, and there meets Juliet. They fall in love and secretly marry. After killing a nephew of Lady Capulet in a fight, Romeo is banished from Verona. Capulet tries to marry Juliet to Paris, a prince. Juliet seeks the |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The lovers of Shakespeare's tragi-romance are brought to suitably quivering life by Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard in this glossy 1936 MGM take on the play. And yes, they're a tad older than the headstrong youths of Shakespeare's story (Howard was 43!), but they make up for that with sheer fervor. Shearer's performance looks like Great Lady acting at times, but she commits completely to Juliet's passion, and Howard is a delight. Basil Rathbone and Edna May Oliver are slam-dunk casting as Tybalt and the Nurse, respectively, and if John Barrymore is too weathered for Mercutio, he nevertheless works up an antic, sarcastic energy in the role. The production was supervised by MGM boy wonder Irving Thalberg (Shearer's husband), and it's an utterly lavish affair; the courtyard for the balcony scene looks exactly as expansive and studio-moon-drenched as your romantic imagination tells you it should. The film went the way of many such prestige productions: director George Cukor later said it lost a million dollars. (This was the same year he made Sylvia Scarlett, another box-office flop that has aged well.) It may be Shakespeare Lite, but the film zips along on the back of a love story that has been, to say the least, quite durable over the years. --Robert Horton
Product Description
Shakespeare's classic tale of love and youth ruined by a family feud. The Montagues and the Capulets two powerful families of Verona hate each other. Romeo a Montague crashes a Capulet party and there meets Juliet. They fall in love and secretly marry. After killing a nephew of Lady Capulet in a fight Romeo is banished from Verona. Capulet tries to marry Juliet to Paris a prince. Juliet seeks the counsel of Friar Laurence who married her and Romeo. He suggests a daring plan that ends tragically.Running Time: 119 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569795273 Manufacturer No: 79527
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
 Great Movie With Lots Of Drama, Action, Romance, And Excitement! June 2, 2009
R. Davis (God Bless Texas, USA)
This movie was a truely touching movie, I like the way it was set up. the actos/ actresses, and the screen play were great!
Beautiful Movie March 25, 2009
Karen R. Haynes (Norfolk, VA)
This is a top product from MGM in the 1930's. It is beautifully filmed with top production values. Virtually everyone in the cast is too old for the part they play, but it is acted so well that you can forgive that. The best performances are probably given by Basil Rathbone (as Tybalt) & John Barrymore (as Mercutio). I highly recommend it.
A Jewelry Box Treasure of The Bard's Classic Romance August 29, 2008
Grant Alexander
Very few people are familiar with this lavish, Old Hollywood production of Shakespeare's ROMEO & JULIET, but it is a gem of a movie. It has, in my opinion, the finest cast ever assembled in the history of Shakespeare on film. Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard are both far over the usual age limit for Romeo and Juliet respectively, but they give such beautiful performances that one doesn't notice. In fact, if I hadn't known the ages of the stars (Howard was in his early 40s and Shearer in her mid 30s) I wouldn't have thought either of them to be out of their 20s, so young do their faces look and how vivacious and youthful their performances are. Norma Shearer is my favorite Juliet on film because her tears over Romeo are so genuine and so moving and she perfectly portrays youthful vigor and womanly grace. Leslie Howard, likewise, is probably my favorite Romeo - no other Romeo is so sure of his words or as much of a true gentleman as Howard's Romeo. Edna May Oliver as the Nurse is simply a delight through and through and is easily the best actress on film to play the role, and Basil Rathbone is a wonderful Tybalt in that he portrays him as a bold nobleman with a fierce devotion to family and its honor rather than a hot-headed conventional jerk as the character tends to be portrayed. John Barrymore as Mercutio is also smashing, lending the character a sarcastic, joking energy that I had never seen before. Barrymore also plays Mercutio as a womanizing flirt, which I found refreshing because so many directors lend an unnecessary homosexual undercurrent to Romeo and Mercutio's friendship.
Probably the greatest asset of this production, however, is that director George Cukor and his cast all rely on Shakespeare's language to tell the story, whereas other adaptations, namely Baz Luhrmann's version of the tale, don't, and overcompensate for their butchering of the text with post-modern agendas that do not fit Shakespeare well at all. This version contains more of the original text than both the 1968 version (which is good but falters slightly given that the two lovers, although young, don't always understand what they are saying) and the Baz Luhrmann version (MTV's Diet Shakespeare). Also, the film is lavish without being gaudy or garrish, the costumes, although not exactly historically accurate all the time, are still beautiful to behold, Norma Shearer's Juliet gowns moving gracefully about her as she frolicks in her garden. The meeting of Romeo and Juliet is also the most beautiful on film, complete with an Elizabethan dance to highlight the arrival of Juliet to what is essentially her introduction to Verona society.
All in all, my FAVORITE film version of ROMEO & JULIET, but if you tend to dislike the films of the 1930s, I would still watch this version but remember what age and studio system it is a product of. Enjoy!
 Hooray For Norma October 30, 2007
gail powers (Homewood, IL United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
While this movie does require a certain suspension of belief (Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard cast as teenagers?), the general glossiness of the end-product compensates for the slight tweaking regarding casting. This film reflects MGM at its best doing what the studio was noted for: mounting a production with the grandeur expected for a writer no-less than the great Shakespeare.
Actually, Norma Shearer was effective playing the giddy and girlish Juliet and conveyed an incandescent loveliness. Howard's Romeo was seemingly a much harder sell as no amount of tricky make-up could make him appear adequately youthful, yet he managed to do a credible job. The rest of the cast was perfection......esp. Edna Mae Oliver as Juliet's nurse. The sets were lush and realistic looking.
Exquisite Despite the Flaws September 25, 2007
Music Man (Boston MA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This 1936 production of "Romeo and Juliet" was the last that Irving Thalberg saw to completion. It is certainly replete with what has become known as the "prestige" details MGM was bent on in the 30s and 40s. However, there is much more here than may meet the initial eye. Yes, John Barrymore is too old (visually) and so over-the-top that he seems to be performing in a another film (or universe). It's hedgehog acting with no subtleties whatsoever. And the production values, while grandly luxurious, represent the generic and implausible MGM splendor in all its redolence.
Still, there is much to recommend this film. Rare in early Shakespeare films the dialogue, while truncated, is exacting and emotively driven. And director George Cukor makes this potentially sloggish material move quickly and energetically. Most of all, there are the major performances. Edna May Oliver may be doing her quintessential EMO shtick for all time, and Andy Devine is anything but. Still, the intensely menacing Basil Rathbone deserved his Oscar nomination for his predatorily mercurial performance. Much has been made of the age of the two lead actors but, as they say, to play these roles convincingly an actor has to be too old for the part. After disbending disbelief, Leslie Howard becomes the quintessential Romeo, all temperate romanticism and emphatic longing...his slim waist belies his age and lends to the acceptance of him in the role. And finally, the glorious Norma Shearer. As in many of her performances, she vacillates between mannered presentation and emotional resonance. Here, her weakest scenes are as the youngish Juliet (too coquettish and coy) but all of her Shakesperian speeches are delivered resolutely and convincingly. In particular, her discovery of Romeo's violence and the potion speech are perfection itself. It's so unfortunate that this incomparably gifted actress never had the unencumbered opportunities beyond MGM to expand and express her artistry (though this and "Marie Antoinette" are the very testaments to that artistry). Shearer, a talented and versatile actress, deserves to be remembered for many multi-layered performances, and her Juliet is one of the jewels in her well deserved crown - Joan Crawford be damned!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
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