Synopsis
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.
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Cast
- Laurence OlivierHamlet - Prince of Denmark / Voice of Ghost
- Jean SimmonsOphelia - His Daughter
- John LaurieFrancisco
- Esmond KnightBernardo
- Anthony QuayleMarcellus
- Niall MacGinnisSea Captain
- Harcourt WilliamsFirst Player
- Patrick TroughtonPlayer King
- Tony TarverPlayer Queen
- Peter CushingOsric
Recommendations
- 100
Variety
This is picture-making at its best. - 100
ReelViews
Considering that 90% of those seeing any production of Hamlet will know the story at the outset, the key to an adaptation's success is what the director does beyond the dialogue. That's one area in which Olivier's 1948 version excels. - 100
Chicago Tribune
It's as impressive for the near-flawless performances of its deep cast of British film and theatrical stars (including Jean Simmons as Ophelia, Eileen Herlie as Gertrude and John Gielgud as the voice of Hamlet's father's ghost) as it is for its director's surprisingly rich and baroque visual style. [04 Aug 2006, p.C8] - 90
New York Daily News
A brilliant, thrilling, vital transference of the play to the screen. - 90
The New York Times
The filmed Hamlet of Laurence Olivier gives absolute proof that these classics are magnificently suited to the screen. - 80
Empire
Olivier's classic and personalised version of the troubled Prince of Denmark is still highly atmospheric and intriguing. - 80
The New Yorker
Whatever the omissions, the mutilations, the mistakes, this is very likely the most exciting and most alive production of Hamlet you will ever see on the screen. - 60
Chicago Reader
Laurence Olivier's famous 1948 interpretation of Shakespeare's play suffers slightly from his pop-Freud approach to the character and from some excessively flashy, wrongheaded camera work—including the notorious moment when Hamlet begins the soliloquy and the camera begins to track back.
