Othello

Locations
Call Number: DVD 822.33 Sh T7
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 1st Floor 1-week checkout	DVD 822.33 Sh T7	1-week checkout	On Shelf

Originally performed on the stage in 1965.
Special features: Vintage featurette "Olivier talks about Othello;" theatrical trailer.
Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Joyce Redman, Frank Finlay.
Desdemona defies her father to marry the Moor of Venice, the mighty warrior, Othello. Lago is determined to bring about the downfall of Othello's new favorite, Cassio, and destroy Othello in the process, by casting aspersions on Othello's new bride.
DVD, region 1, widescreen (letterbox, enhanced) presentation; Dolby Digital mono., dual-layer.
Contents: Othello.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Laurence Olivier in blackface submitted by willow on July 31, 2015, 3:29pm Laurence Olivier applied dark makeup, spoke with a deep voice in an "exotic" accent, and walked in a distinctive manner to depict Othello, the Moor of Venice.

Bosley Crowther, in a New York Times film review (1966) noted that, "What's more, he caps his shiny blackface with a wig of kinky black hair and he has the insides of his lips smeared and thickened with a startling raspberry red. Several times, in his rages or reflections, he rolls his eyes up into his head so that the whites gleam like small milk agates out of the inky face.

"The consequence is that he hits one—the sensitive American, anyhow — with the by-now outrageous impression of a theatrical Negro stereotype. He does not look like a Negro (if that's what he's aiming to make the Moor)—not even a West Indian chieftain, which some of the London critics likened him to. He looks like a Rastus or an end man in an American minstrel show. You almost wait for him to whip a banjo out from his flowing, white garments or start banging a tambourine."