Immortal Gentleman, The

Synopsis: Feature film. William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton meet in a tavern in Southwark. Shakespeare points out people who remind him of scenes from his plays. A wistful woman reminds him of Juliet, a melancholy old man reminds him of Hamlet. The soldier son of the landlord encourages Shakespeare to recite ‘The Seven Ages of Man’. Jonson then leads the company in singing ‘Sigh no more, ladies’. The company’s drunkenness leads Shakespeare to recall scenes from Twelfth Night. Jonson’s cousin Jane comes across the sleeping poet and tells him that she believed him dead; he assures her that he will live forever.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Film
Technical information: Black-and-white / Sound
Year of release: 1935
Duration: 61 mins; 5,457 feet

Director

Widgey R. Newman

Producer

Screenplay

Music

Art Direction

Contributor

Cast

Notes: Shakespearean adviser was Terence de Marney.
Reviews: "As dreadful a film as has ever been made, meanly produced, ill-lit, ill-staged, scarcely directed at all, with some howlingly bad excerpts from the plays...the nadir of filmed Shakespeare’ (McKernan & Terris, Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film and Television Archive’ (London: BFI, 1994), p. 190.

Kingsley-Smith, J.E. ‘Shakespearean Authorship in Popular British Cinema’ Literature/Film Quarterly 30 92002), pp158-65. Also discusses TIME FLIES (1944).

British Universities Film & Video Council