Hamlet

Synopsis: Television drama which is a recording of the Old Vic Company’s Hamlet introduced by Fredric March. John Neville is Hamlet.
Series: Dupont Show of the Month
Language: English
Country: Great Britain; United States
Medium: Television
Transmission details: 24 Feb 1959 at 21:30 (Channel: CBS)
Duration: 90 mins

Director

Ralph Nelson

Producer

Paul Orr; Ralph Nelson

Writer

William Shakespeare

Production Design

Ken Kransgill

Contributor

Frederic March; Michael Benthall

Cast

General: Before the transmission, CBS’s President, Louis G. Cowan ,spoke of the efforts being made by commercial television to transmit worthwhile drama.
Textual information: Rothwell & Melzer Shakespeare on Screen: an international Filmography and Videography (London: Mansell, 1990) note that the director used the 1601 Quarto. As part of the event CBS published the television script in a ‘handsomely bound volume on rag paper’. Hamlet: A Television Script, ed. Benthall and Nelson. (New York: CBS), 1959.
Reviews: Jack Gould, New York Times (25 February 1959). Rothwell & Melzer Shakespeare on Screen: an International Filmography and Videography (London: Mansell, 1990), pp 64-5.
John P. Stanley New York Times (22 February 1959) is an interview with the production’s editor, Ralph Nelson.

British Universities Film & Video Council