Romeo and Juliet
1936: George Cukor

The most immediately striking fact about the 1936 George Cukor version is that Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer are both considerably too old for their parts. Leslie Howard was 43 in 1936, and Norma Shearer was 34: while this might have played convincingly on stage, the camera is too exacting to allow this kind of age-shifting. A middle-aged pair of teen lovers doesn’t quite work, and rather misses the point of the play. The formidable John Barrymore (age 54) plays Mercutio, and Basil Rathbone (age 44) plays Tybalt: they are also too old for their roles. While hardly a geriatric production of the play, part of its youthful zest is lost.

That (considerable) point aside, however, the performances are still remarkably good, and very subtly nuanced. The direction is clean; the plot outline never becomes murky. Leslie Howard’s diction is clear and his emotional tone never descends into the sniveling angst one so often sees in Romeos of later ages; Shearer delivers a lot of emotional punch without descending into the howling maudlin that sometimes affects productions of this play. There’s a seriousness about the delivery that seems neither as affected as the Zeffirelli nor as ironic and self-aware as the Campbell production. There are moments of humor, though they are not emphasized greatly.

The art direction is lavish, and occasionally reminiscent of the cinematic musical theater of the 1930s, complete with Busby Berkeley numbers for its dances (though with more decorous music), but never really excessive. The score is a patchwork of Italian Renaissance tunes (transformed much as in Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances”) and Tschaikovsky’s venerable Romeo and Juliet ballet score. The fusion is a little difficult if you are used to these pieces on their own terms, but the synthesis is not bad overall. All in all, a worthwhile and watchable treatment of the play, but constantly overlaid with the mannered delivery of the 1930s.

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