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Hamlet Overview:

Hamlet (1948) was a Drama - Film Adaptation Film directed by Laurence Olivier and produced by Anthony Bushell, Herbert Smith and Reginald Beck.

Academy Awards 1948 --- Ceremony Number 21 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorLaurence OlivierWon
Best Supporting ActressJean SimmonsNominated
Best Art DirectionArt Direction: Roger K. Furse; Set Decoration: Carmen DillonWon
Best Costume DesignRoger K. FurseWon
Best DirectorLaurence OlivierNominated
Best Music - ScoringWilliam WaltonNominated
Best PictureJ. Arthur Rank-Two Cities FilmsWon
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Hamlet BlogHub Articles:

Hamlet (1948)

By Beatrice on Apr 10, 2015 From Flickers in Time

Hamlet Directed by Laurence Olivier Written by William Shakespeare 1948/UK Two Cities Films Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant You couldn’t ask for a better traditional version of Hamlet than this one.  The acting is very big and stagey but I think that’s the point. Hamlet Prince of Den... Read full article

Hamlet Isn’t Dead: The Taming Of The Shrew – A Personal Kickstarter Appeal

By Michael on Nov 14, 2013 From Durnmoose Movie Musings

Ok, you guys know that I usually try to keep the personal side of my life out of the blogging side, except for where it relates to movies and TV shows, but I hope you’ll forgive me taking just a moment here to promote something near and dear to my heart. Earlier this year, my son David and som... Read full article

Hamlet (1)

By RBuccicone on Oct 15, 2010 From MacGuffin Movies

Hamlet (1948)      In making Hamlet, Laurence Olivier was credited with, more than anyone else, introducing Shakespeare to the mass public at the time, and rightfully so. Not only does Olivier star in this film adaptation of a brooding young man attempting to prove his uncle murdered his father... Read full article

Hamlet (1948)

By Judy on Jul 10, 2010 From Movie Classics

Laurence Olivier as Hamlet I’m not going to say a lot about this film, but, as part of my mini-Shakespeare season, just wanted briefly to record that I’ve re-watched the Olivier Hamlet and enjoyed it very much – it is much better than his first Shakespearean film role in As Y... Read full article

Hamlet (2)

By Alyson on May 13, 2010 From The Best Picture Project

Today, most kids have some resentment and anger against divorced or lost parents and they just slam a few doors, blast their music or get something pierced.  Hamlet is the story of a son filled anger and resentment against his mother and uncle after they kill his father, the King of Denmark.  ... Read full article

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Hamlet Quotes:

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt!
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: Do you see yonder cloud that looks like a camel?
Polonius, Lord Chamberlain: By the mass, 'tis like a camel indeed.
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: Methinks it looks like a weasel.
Polonius, Lord Chamberlain: My lord, put your discourse into some frame and start not so wildly from my affair.
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: I am tame sir; pronounce.
Marcellus: [referring to the Ghost] Peace, break thee off. Look where it comes again!
Bernardo: In the same figure, like the dead King Hamlet.
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Hamlet Facts
Because they wanted to aim at a wider public in Hamlet than they had in The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France, Sir Laurence Olivier and text adaptor Alan Dent modernized and/or clarified several obscure phrases in the play: "The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn" became "The cock, that is the herald to the morn", "recks not his own rede" became "minds not his own creed", "In the same figure, like the King that's dead" became "in the same figure, like the dead King Hamlet", and "It may be, very like" became "It may be, very likely", among others.
This is the only major film version of "Hamlet" that entirely omits the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Laurence Olivier was severely criticized for leaving them out of the film, as they provide many opportunities for Hamlet to behave in a sarcastically humorous way toward them, and many felt that Olivier probably would have played these moments brilliantly. However, Olivier did retain a few of Guildenstern's lines ("put your discourse into some frame", etc.) and gave them to Polonius.
Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, a minor character in the play, does not appear in the film. Some of his lines are given to Horatio.
Stanley Holloway was an 11th-hour choice; the actor who was supposed to play the grave digger, F.J. McCormick, died shortly before filming.
Sir Laurence Olivier didn't attend the Academy Awards ceremony in which he won two Oscars as he was performing in a play in London at the time with his wife, Vivien Leigh.
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