Of all Shakespeare’s plays, few hold fascination with artists and audiences quite like The Tragedie of Macbeth. Romeo and Juliet has the romance and Hamlet has the speech, but Macbeth — first published in 1623 — is filled with control, corruption and comeuppance. There’s the role of Lady Macbeth, one of the best the Bard ever penned, Macbeth’s “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy, action, drama, even a little humor. What’s not to love?
For lovers of live theater, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) is currently staging Macbeth through Aug. 11 with a lens on exposing the play’s misogyny. (Catch a review of Macbeth and other CSF shows in the July 18 issue.)
When CSF last staged Macbeth in 2013, it was set in 1980s Afghanistan. Macbeth contains multitudes. There’s a malleability to the play that can and does fit any period, setting and artistic vision.
Scan the number of cinematic adaptations, and you’ll find Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth from 2021, which centered on the middle-agedness of a couple searching for purpose in a childless void. Roman Polanski’s 1970 version used the violence of the play to exercise personal demons following the bloody murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, and his unborn child at the hands of Charles Manson followers. Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa relocated the play from medieval Scotland to feudal Japan and merged it with traditional Noh Theater for his 1957 adaptation, Throne of Blood. A decade before him, Orson Welles staged the play on the sets of Republic Pictures in Hollywood for the first of his three cinematic Shakespeare adaptations.
Restored in 2022 and recently released on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, Welles’ Macbeth looks as crisp and clean as it must have when released in 1948. The black and white cinematography from John L. Russell shimmers, the sparse but abstract set from Welles and Dan O’Herlihy enchants, and the performances from Welles as the titular king, Jeanette Nolan as Lady Macbeth and O’Herlihy as Macduff are perfect for their wild eyes and unhinged readings. It’s hard not to see Welles’ Macbeth as the progenitor for so many modern versions of the Scottish play — be it the atmospheric quality of Kurosawa’s Throne, the employment of a low-budget production à la the Polanski version or the moody black and white photography of Coen’s Tragedy. When it comes to cinema, all roads lead back to Welles.
But only posthumously. Welles’ career was floundering at the time, and he needed to prove to Hollywood financiers that he could deliver a hit with little funds and a lot of creativity. So Welles turned to Herbert Yates of Republic Pictures — a B-movie studio known for singing cowboys — with the promise that he could shoot Macbeth on those same horse opera sets for next to nothing and in a couple dozen days. Yates wanted to bring critical acclaim to his studio and took the former wunderkind up on his offer.
And Welles delivered. Welles, a lifelong playwright devotee, believed Shakespeare belonged to everyone. His Macbeth illustrates this beautifully by anchoring the stage-bound setting within an abstract space, blending long takes, where actors constantly move in and out of close-ups, with cinematic flourishes impossible to visualize on the stage. It’s a wonder to watch, even though three-quarters of a century has passed.
But that damned spot would not come out. Too many in Hollywood already had their knives out for Welles. Macbeth flopped, and Republic took the picture, cut it from two hours to 85 minutes, re-recorded the audio to lose the Scottish brogue and re-released it in 1950. Surprise, surprise, Macbeth flopped again. If Welles’ days in Hollywood weren’t already numbered, they were now.
As Welles predicted, “They’ll love me when I’m dead,” and interest in anything Welles touched has soared since his death in 1985. Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray includes both the 1948 and the 1950 versions of Macbeth, two scholarly commentary tracks and a handful of interviews about the movie and the making of.
Watching Macbeth again, it’s hard not to see how much of an influence Welles’ staging and visualization have carried throughout the years. How applicable Shakespeare’s play is to any era. It is both of a time and timeless. And will be “to the last syllable of recorded time.” ON SCREEN: Macbeth is available from Kino Lorber wherever Blu-rays are sold.