Othello (1952)

Against the wishes of her father, the daughter (Suzanne Cloutier) of a senator elopes with a Moorish general (Orson Welles) in the Venetian army. It isn't long after the wedding that an Ensign (Micheal Mac Liammoir), who hates the Moor, begins to plant suspicions in his mind about his wife's fidelity. Based on the play by William Shakespeare and directed by Orson Welles (CITIZEN KANE). Not unusual for Welles during this period in his life, he found it difficult to get his films funded. OTHELLO was filmed sporadically over a three year period and released in 1952 (where it won the grand prize at the Cannes film festival) but released in the U.S. in 1955 in a recut version. This is a pared down version of Shakespeare's OTHELLO with much of the play's text cut. But as he proved with CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT and MACBETH, Welles was an expert at visualizing Shakespeare for the screen. Certainly, not the definitive film of OTHELLO (that might be Olivier's 1965 movie) but still, a masterly rendering. That aside, while Welles makes for a robust Othello, I found Liammoir's Iago on the wan side and Cloutier's Desdemona bland. With Fay Compton, Robert Coote, Michael Laurence and Doris Dowling.