After watching this production of King Lear I can appreciate more and more what the BBC did in giving good productions to all the Shakespeare plays. Sad to say this has become badly dated.
Not to criticize Orson Welles who would have made a magnificent King Lear in a full blown big budget production for the big screen. He fills the role out fine here. But the production is a cut rate version literally.
Everything in the way of a subplot is a eliminated here. We only see what happens to that foolish old king when he decides to turn over power to his daughters and their husbands because he wants to enjoy a little peace and quiet. As Shakespeare said in another of his works "uneasy lies the head that wears the crown" and King Lear is looking for a life of some ease toward the end. As we know it all went disastrously wrong.
Alan Badel as the fool also stands out with his sly trenchant comments about the situation at hand. This was Orson Welles television debut and it was on the Omnibus program with Alastair Cooke's silky and intellectual narration. It also has the prehistoric look of early television.
You will see Orson Welles doing Shakespeare to better advantage in his own production of Othello, a bit less so in his MacBeth where Republic's penny pinching Herbert J. Yates constricted him considerably. But fans of Welles will definitely enjoy this.
Not to criticize Orson Welles who would have made a magnificent King Lear in a full blown big budget production for the big screen. He fills the role out fine here. But the production is a cut rate version literally.
Everything in the way of a subplot is a eliminated here. We only see what happens to that foolish old king when he decides to turn over power to his daughters and their husbands because he wants to enjoy a little peace and quiet. As Shakespeare said in another of his works "uneasy lies the head that wears the crown" and King Lear is looking for a life of some ease toward the end. As we know it all went disastrously wrong.
Alan Badel as the fool also stands out with his sly trenchant comments about the situation at hand. This was Orson Welles television debut and it was on the Omnibus program with Alastair Cooke's silky and intellectual narration. It also has the prehistoric look of early television.
You will see Orson Welles doing Shakespeare to better advantage in his own production of Othello, a bit less so in his MacBeth where Republic's penny pinching Herbert J. Yates constricted him considerably. But fans of Welles will definitely enjoy this.