Review – Julius Caesar (1953)

Et tu, Brando? Actually he plays Antony, but still … James Mason is fun as Brutus, and John Gielgud is disturbingly young as Cassius. Talent aside, however, this mostly seems like an attempt to ride the wave of critical success trailing in the wake of the Olivier Hamlet without spending much on the production. And though I’m not exactly a Shakespeare connoisseur, I can’t say that I think this one is one of his better offerings. It’s pretty good up through the assassination itself, and of course the speechifying that follows is a boon to every hysterical over-actor who ever had the guts to try Shakespeare. But from then on out it’s pretty dull going. Overall this is was entertaining enough but not exactly groundbreaking. Mildly amusing