Before Citizen Kane, and before the Mercury Theater’s radio production of War Of The Worlds, Orson Welles was the wonderkid for his stage productions. He gained fame and notoriety for fresh and inventive productions of classic theater. Most notably among these was his production of Macbeth.
Using an all black cast he staged Macbeth on a Jamaican plantation with a cast that was inexperienced on the stage. The production was a smash hit, propelling the young Welles on his way to stardom.
After the trouble Welles found with the studio system and his bruising combat with William Randolph Hurst over Welles’ first film, Citizen Kane, perhaps it was natural that Welles returned to Shakespeare looking for his cinematic redemption. Welles convinces second tier studio Republic, best known for westerns, to support his Macbeth.
The version I watched last night is a version that Republic did not release. It was part of Welles’ that ‘the Scottish Play’ be done with Scott accents. The studio rebelled when it heard the final version and order all the dialog redubbed with the actors playing the parts in their native accents. This version is not currently available in the United States on DVD. The image above is from a Korean import which I purchased a few months ago.
