Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1961)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Although I prefer the darker tale of Macbeth, this is a decent production of Shakespeare's classic. Having seen the English dubbed version, I would have preferred seeing the original in German with subs; dubbing tends to affect the emotional performance(s). This results in actors saying lines which at times come off as mismatched and leaving the viewer scratching their noggin in befuddlement. Having Hamlet being shot in black in white gives the production a bleak, surreal sort of mood. For a second, I had thought that Rod Serling would come out with cigarette in hand saying:'These guard sentries do not realize it yet, but that shadowy spectre looming off in the darkness..will set off a series of events..all beginning with one Danish prince.'Kudos to Maximilian for his portrayal of Hamlet. I also strangely enjoyed the leery presence of Hans Caninenberg..he makes you realize that Claudius is just up to no good whatsoever. A few extra points for Denmark being in another dimension..a dimension not only of sight and sound but of...ah, you know the rest!

There's probably a reason why no one's heard of this German version of Hamlet, or that no one's heard of anything else the director Mr. Wirth did, or as well why the only recognizable name here (acting-wise) is Maximillian Schell, the noted character/stage actor. That is, simply, because it stinks. It's not a horrible movie, it's just really turgid and boring and staged like at one of those stiff parties that your friend tries to tell you is something hip while you feel like gouging your eyes out with the monotony of the proceedings. Nothing is staged with invention or wit, the actors either are poorly staged or with nothing to express except blank SHOCK faces (or, as with the King during the final fencing duel a weird stoned expression), and as if that wasn't bad enough it's dubbed in such a way that I would very definitely nominate it as one of the worst dubbings in all humanity. Oh sure, Ricardo Montalban is there to carry some of the hammy weight of scenes, but overall it's such a drag that you end up wanting to insert words of your own.Which leads me as to why you should see it: the only way to watch it now is in a truncated version via the guys at Mystery Science Theater 3000. Never thought they could tackle the Bard? Guess again! It's one of their funniest with Mike Nelson, with many of the lines going not just for the horrid acting and weird staging in some instances (there's one particularly dancing type of scene that gives them plenty of good ammo to shoot at the screen) but the actual Hamlet dialog itself. As usual they make the drekkiest drek to ever drek on crap street more than tolerable, but with an added appreciation that for all of the effort, whatever it was, it comes out swell such as that really, really bad death scene with Schell (I'm not spoiling Hamlet! read the darn thing!) where he tops Donald Sutherland's death scene in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the longest and most ridiculously awful in movies.

This movie is definitely not the best production of Hamlet, it's rather bleak and slow, but halfway watchable.As to the MST3K episode, this is the ONLY one in my collection that I've only watched once (I've even watched Catalina Caper and The Sidehackers multiple times). Boring! I appreciate that they were trying something a little different, but Mike and the 'bots just don't seem to know what to do with this one. After all, no matter how poor the production of Hamlet, the words would still be Shakespeare's, and it just doesn't work with MST-style humor.However, if you're looking to get this episode as part of the DVD collection vol. 4, vol. 4 is still absolutely worth the money for three of the funniest episodes ever: Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, Girl in Gold Boots, and Space Mutiny!

I've seen all kinds of "Hamlet"s. Kenneth Branagh's was most ambitious, Mel Gibson's was quick and to the point, Laurence Olivier's was the best - hands down. But now we come to Maximilian Schell's take on the Bard.For one, this is a dubbed version of a German TV production of William Shakespeare's venerable chestnut. But if there's a slower, more plodding, more lethargic and worse-staged version out there somewhere, it must have been acted at grade school-level. Having seen it on MST3K helps, with Mike and the robots taking jolly good jabs at the old boy, puncturing the profundity of black and white TV, Shakespeare and the wisdom (?) of Germans acting out an English play and making it look like an Ingmar Bergman reject.Of course, the best parts are the MST riffs. Best lines? "I'm gonna unleash the Great Dane", "I don't think so, 'breather'", "Meet the Beatles", "Hey, Dad, will you help me with my science project" and, my personal favorite, during a party - "Garrison Keillor's leaving Germany (YAAAY!!)".But then there's Schell, playing Shakespeare's greatest character much like a department store mannequin would, only not as expressive. No doubt he's a great actor, but here he comes off about as well as Paul Newman in "The Silver Chalice". Ever see that one? You GOTTA watch these two on a double-bill!In the end, this is one instance where it's true that you're much better off to just read the book. At least the book isn't dubbed by Ricardo Montalban.One star only for this "Hamlet"; ten stars, naturally, for the MST3K version.Good-night, not-so-sweet prince.