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Hamlet (1948, UK)
In actor/director/producer Laurence Olivier's Shakespearean
tragi-drama set in 15th Century Denmark - a follow-up film
to his own previously-directed and acted bard-film Henry V (1944);
its four Academy Awards Oscars included Best Picture, Best Actor,
Best B/W Art/Set Direction/Decoration, and Best B/W Costume Design:
- the famous soliloquy of the bedeviled crown Prince
of Denmark Hamlet (Oscar-winning Laurence Olivier) - one of the
few lengthy speeches in the film that remained intact from the
original play: ("To
be, or not to be: that is the question; Whether 'tis nobler in
the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end
them. To die, to sleep; No more; And by a sleep to say we end the
heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to
- 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
to sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub. For in that
sleep of death, what dreams may come....")
- the gravedigger scene in which Hamlet came upon the
skull of an old jester Yorick, someone he knew as a child: ("Alas,
poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most
excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, but
now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rims at it. Here
hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your
gibes now? Your songs, your gambols, your flashes of merriment that
were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own
grinning? Quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, tell
her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come; make
her laugh at that")
- the final dueling sequence in which Hamlet
engaged in a sword-fight to the death against Laertes (Terence Morgan)
when he was slashed in the arm with a poisoned blade (at the same
time that his mother Gertrude (Eileen Herlie) was dying after drinking
from a poisoned cup); before Hamlet perished, however, he stabbed
Laertes in the wrist with his own poisoned blade, and then made an
athletic leap (or swan-dive) from a balcony down to the throne where
he was able to knock treacherous King Claudius (Basil Sydney) to
the ground and viciously stab him in the chest with the 'venomous'
sword blade before expiring himself while seated on the throne
- after kissing deceased Hamlet's forehead, Horatio
(Norman Wooland) delivered a few final words to the dead Hamlet:
"Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy
rest"
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"To Be Or Not to Be" Speech
Grave Digger Scene
Hamlet's Duel Against Laertes
Hamlet's Leap into the Air
Hamlet's Death
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