Julius Caesar | |
---|---|
Directed by | David Bradley |
Written by | David Bradley (script) |
Based on | Julius Caesar 1599 play by William Shakespeare |
Produced by | David Bradley |
Starring |
|
Cinematography | Louis McMahon |
Music by | Chuck Zornig |
Distributed by | Brandon Films Inc. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Julius Caesar is a 1950 film adaptation of the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston. The first film version of the play with sound, it was produced and directed by David Bradley using actors from the Chicago area. [1] Heston, who had known Bradley since his youth, and who was establishing himself in television and theater in New York City, portrayed Mark Antony. [2] He was the only paid cast member. Bradley himself played Brutus, and Harold Tasker had the title role. Bradley recruited drama students from his alma mater Northwestern University for bit parts and extras, one of whom was future star Jeffrey Hunter, who studied alongside Heston at Northwestern.
The 16 mm film was shot in 1949 on several locations around the Chicago area, including Soldier Field, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum, the downtown post office, and the Elks National Veterans Memorial. [3] The Indiana sand dunes on Lake Michigan were used for the Battle of Philippi. [4] One indoor set was built in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. To save money, around 80% of the film was shot silently, with the dialogue dubbed in later by the actors.
After its premiere in Evanston in 1950, the film had only a limited distribution in the United States, where it was mainly shown in schools and colleges. In 1951, it played at the Edinburgh Film Festival, [5] then opened in New York City in late 1952. The film was shown at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1953 where it tied for first place for the first prize. [6] On the basis of a private screening in Hollywood, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hired Bradley as a directing intern in 1950.
Two decades later, Heston reprised his role as Mark Antony in both Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra .
Upon the film's opening in New York City, The New York Times credited its "company of earnest collegians" with giving "firm pictorial character" to classic drama. [7]
Marcus Antonius, commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the autocratic Roman Empire.
Charlton Heston was an American actor and political activist. He gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous Hollywood films including biblical epics, science-fiction films and action films. He won the Academy Award as well as nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, and three Primetime Emmy Awards. He won numerous honorary accolades including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1978, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1967, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1971, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003.
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (First Folio title: The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar), often abbreviated as Julius Caesar, is a history play and tragedy by William Shakespeare first performed in 1599.
Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus was a Roman general and politician of the late republican period and one of the leading instigators of Julius Caesar's assassination. He had previously been an important supporter of Caesar in the Gallic Wars and in the civil war against Pompey. Decimus Brutus is often confused with his distant cousin and fellow conspirator, Marcus Junius Brutus.
Publius Servilius Casca Longus was one of the assassins of Julius Caesar and plebeian tribune in 43 BC. He and several other senators conspired to kill him, a plan which they carried out on 15 March 44 BC. Afterward, Casca fought with the liberators during the Liberators' civil war. He is believed to have died at the Battle of Phillipi either by suicide or by Octavian's forces.
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men of classical antiquity.
Dark City is a 1950 American film noir crime film starring Charlton Heston in his Hollywood debut, and featuring Lizabeth Scott, Viveca Lindfors, Dean Jagger, Don DeFore, Ed Begley, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and directed by William Dieterle.
Julius Caesar is a 1953 American film adaptation of the Shakespearean play, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by John Houseman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It stars Marlon Brando as Mark Antony, James Mason as Brutus, Louis Calhern as Caesar, John Gielgud as Cassius, Edmond O'Brien as Casca, Greer Garson as Calpurnia, and Deborah Kerr as Portia.
David Shedd Bradley was an American motion picture director, actor, film collector, and university instructor. He is known for the films 12 to the Moon and They Saved Hitler's Brain.
Dame Harriet Mary Walter is a British actress. She has performed on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and received an Olivier Award, and nominations for a Tony Award, five Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, Walter was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama.
Jeffery Kissoon is an actor with credits in British theatre, television, film and radio. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company at venues such as the Royal National Theatre, under directors including Peter Brook, Peter Hall, Robert Lepage, Janet Suzman, Calixto Bieito and Nicholas Hytner. He has acted in genres from Shakespeare and modern theatre to television drama and science fiction, playing a range of both leading and supporting roles, from Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra and Prospero and Caliban in The Tempest, to Malcolm X in The Meeting and Mr Kennedy in the children's TV series Grange Hill.
Julius Caesar is a 1970 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, directed by Stuart Burge. It stars Charlton Heston as Mark Antony, Jason Robards as Brutus, Richard Johnson as Cassius, John Gielgud as Caesar, Robert Vaughn as Casca, Richard Chamberlain as Octavius, and Diana Rigg as Portia. It was an independent production of Commonwealth United Entertainment, filmed in England and Spain. It is the first film version of the play made in colour.
Antony and Cleopatra is a 1972 film adaptation of the play of the same name by William Shakespeare, directed by and starring Charlton Heston, and made by the Rank Organisation. Heston and Hildegarde Neil portray the titular roles of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, with a supporting cast featuring Eric Porter, John Castle, Fernando Rey, Carmen Sevilla, Freddie Jones, Peter Arne, Douglas Wilmer, Julian Glover and Roger Delgado. The picture was produced by Peter Snell from a screenplay by Federico De Urrutia and the director.
Kenneth William Michael Haigh was an English actor. He first came to public recognition for playing the role of Jimmy Porter in the play Look Back in Anger in 1956 opposite Mary Ure in London's West End theatre. Haigh's performance in the role on stage was critically acclaimed as a prototype dramatic working-class anti-hero in post-Second World War English drama.
"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" is the first line of a speech by Mark Antony in the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. Occurring in Act III, scene II, it is one of the most famous lines in all of Shakespeare's works.
Gaius Julius Caesar, one of the most influential men in world history, has frequently appeared in literary and artistic works since ancient times.
David Neal was a British television actor, active from the 1960s into the 1990s. He is chiefly remembered for a range of supporting roles in major productions.
Caesar is the title of Orson Welles's innovative 1937 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a modern-dress bare-stage production that evoked comparison to contemporary Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Considered Welles's highest achievement in the theatre, it premiered November 11, 1937, as the first production of the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented an acclaimed series of productions on Broadway through 1941.
The Spread of the Eagle is a nine-part serial adaptation of three sequential history plays of William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra, produced by the BBC in 1963. It was inspired by the success of An Age of Kings (1960), which it was unable to rival. The episodes also aired in West Germany in 1968-69 and in 1972.
Joseph Holland was an American actor of stage and screen who was principally known for his work in the theatre. Active on Broadway from 1935 through 1957, he was particularly admired for his performances in the plays of William Shakespeare. He was notably a founding member of John Houseman and Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre in 1937; performing the title role in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar for the first play mounted by that company. During that production he was seriously wounded by Welles, in the role of Brutus, who stabbed him in the chest and arm with a steel knife in the famous Act 3 Scene 1 betrayal. After a month of recovery, he returned to the production. Holland went on to create roles in original works by playwrights Maxwell Anderson, Lindsay and Crouse, Elsie Schauffler, and Robert E. Sherwood. He worked periodically on television as a guest actor from 1949 through 1961 on a variety of programs, and appeared in a minor supporting role in the 1958 film Rally Round the Flag, Boys!.