Hamlet (1961 film)

Hamlet (German: Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark, lit. 'Hamlet, Prince of Denmark') is a 1961 German mystery drama film directed by Franz Peter Wirth. The screenplay by Wirth is adapted from the William Shakespeare tragedy of the same name.

Hamlet
Promotional poster
Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark
Based on	Hamlet 1599 play by William Shakespeare
Screenplay by	Franz Peter Wirth
Directed by	Franz Peter Wirth
Starring	Maximilian Schell
Music by	Rolf Unkel
Country of origin	West Germany
Original language	German
Production
Producer	Hans Gottschalk
Cinematography	Kurt Gewissen Boris Goriup Hermann Gruber Rudolf H. Jakob
Editor	Adolf Schlyssleder
Running time	152 minutes
Original release
Release	1 January 1961 (1961-01-01)

Release

The film was initially broadcast on television on 1 January 1961 in West Germany before being released theatrically in the United States in 1962. The MST3K version is widely available but the original, unriffed film is extremely difficult to find.

Plot

See also: Hamlet § Plot

Prince Hamlet of Denmark returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle.^[1]

Cast

• Maximilian Schell as Hamlet
• Hans Caninenberg as Claudius
• Wanda Rotha as Gertrude
• Dunja Movar [de] as Ophelia
• Franz Schafheitlin as Polonius
• Dieter Kirchlechner [de] as Laertes
• Karl Michael Vogler as Horatio
• Eckart Dux as Rosencrantz
• Herbert Bötticher [de] as Guildenstern
• Karl Lieffen as Osric
• Rolf Boysen [de] as Bernardo
• Michael Paryla [de] as Francisco
• Alexander Engel as Ghost
• Adolf Gerstung [de] as Actor
• Paul Verhoeven as First gravedigger
• Johannes Buzalski as Second gravedigger

Reception

Bill Gibron, writing for DVD Verdict, said that "In the literary life, you either love Shakespeare or you don't, and the Germans definitely do not. This 1960 television version of the Bard's brainchild is so cold and calculated it's like Berlin in February."^[2] FlickFilosopher wrote that "this is a take on Hamlet that could otherwise be construed as cruel and unusual punishment."^[3] Kevin Murphy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 wrote, "Leave it to Germany to turn a bleak brooding play into an even bleaker, broodinger movie-of-the-week for German television. This thing, made in the early '60s, has 'we're still really sorry for the war and feel terrible' all over it."^[4]

Dub

Hamlet was dubbed into English under the supervision of Edward Dmytryk. Schell provided his own voice: among the other actors used for the dub were Ricardo Montalbán (Claudius) and John Banner (Polonius). This dub was later featured in a season 10^[5] episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000,^[6] its length cut to fit the show's 92-minute runtime.^[4]