As You Like It

The tale of Rosalind, who dresses as a boy to attract the attentions of Orlando, is one of Shakespeare's most beloved comedies and in 1936, the fifth screen adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It was released. It was one of the first of the Bard's film offerings to be made with sound, and it starred Laurence Olivier - then an-up-and-coming stage actor. Top billing, however, went to Elisabeth Bergner, a popular Austrian actress at the time; it should be noted that the director, Paul Czinner, was also her husband! Bergner actually recommended Olivier for the part after seeing him in the 1935 production of Romeo and Juliet, put on by his friend and colleague John Gielgud. Bergner reportedly declared to Czinner, "That is the man I want as my partner." Olivier was not sure about taking the role; his pal Gielgud was opposed to the idea of filming Shakespeare. In the end, however, money talks--faced with the irresistible draw of 600 pounds a week, he took the part. In a studio interview, he justified the decision as a rare opportunity to work with Bergner: "No one can play with Bergner without learning something from her. I suppose she is the finest Rosalind in the theatre today. She has played Rosalind so often that there cannot be a line of the dialogue or a detail of the part that she doesn't know exactly what to do with. It's a big chance for me to play with her." Olivier would soon be eating those words. Olivier had committed to a tight working schedule by signing on with As You Like It. He was still performing Romeo and Juliet at night with Gielgud. During the thirteen week production schedule, he found himself on the film set at dawn and in front of an audience in the evening. Czinner assuaged the actor's concerns by hiring a top-notch production crew. Sir J.M. Barrie, author of the children's classic Peter Pan, was responsible for minimal rewrites of the script, and Jack Cardiff, who would become one of the industry's legendary cinematographers, was behind the camera. Cardiff, one of the first cameramen (and the first Brit) trained in Technicolor, would be later recognized for his masterful usage of light and his innovative techniques of filming. The son of vaudevillian parents, Cardiff was in front of a camera at the ripe age of four, working with such personalities as Will Rogers and Adolphe Menjou. Ten years later, he had his first production job as a runner on The Informer (1929). An interview with Cardiff reveals the following anecdote: "During the making the assistant cameraman called the young Jack over, "When I tell you, during the shot, I want you to rotate the lens from this pencil mark to the other one." The scene was shot and Jack asked what he had done. "Well sonny, you followed focus." And that was the start of it all." Cardiff's greatest triumphs would come through his collaborations with director Michael Powell. He won an Oscar® for Black Narcissus (1947), and the pair followed up their success with the ballet-themed The Red Shoes (1948), hailed as their piece de resistance. Cardiff went on to work with the best of the business, from directors such as Hitchcock, Huston, Vidor, Ford, and Mankiewicz, to talent such as Garbo, Bogart, Monroe, Dietrich, both Hepburns, and Fonda. In 2002, he was presented with an honorary Oscar® recognizing his "exceptional contribution to the state of motion picture arts and sciences," becoming one of the few "technicians" (as Cardiff refers to himself) to receive such a distinction. He is still working today, at almost ninety years of age. For As You Like It, Cardiff had a co-cinematographer, Harold Rosson, who earned Oscar® nominations for The Wizard of Oz (1939) and The Bad Seed (1956); he was also well known in the Hollywood community for his brief marriage to Jean Harlow. Together Cardiff and Rosson filmed As You Like It in a tasteful but conservative visual style. The chemistry between the two leads was also subdued; Olivier and Bergner were not the ideal screen team the producers had envisioned. Olivier huffed, "I was trying to play Orlando . . . to a Rosalind with a German accent, whose impersonation of a boy hardly attempted to deceive the audience. . ." Bergner charged back, "He was not charming or friendly to work with. He could be inspirational, but he treated us both - me and my husband - as foreigners." As Olivier came in to shoot in the morning, and Bergner did not arrive to the set until mid-afternoon, the two rarely saw each other; thus most of their words and actions were delivered to empty spots where the other actor should be standing. As You Like It opened to mixed reviews, but was really just a starting point for Olivier, who would continue to see his star rise as Bergner's fell. The film has attained a curious cult status amongst Shakespearean film fans, many lauding Olivier's performance. He must not have thought much of it, though, as there is no mention of the film (or its co-star!) in his autobiography. Producer: Paul Czinner, Joseph M. Schenck Director: Paul Czinner Screenplay: J.M. Barrie, Robert Cullen Cinematography: Jack Cardiff, Harold Rosson Film Editing: David Lean Art Direction: Lazare Meerson Music: William Walton Cast: Elisabeth Bergner (Rosalind), Laurence Olivier (Orlando), Sophie Stewart (Celia), Henry Ainley (Exiled Duke), Leon Quartermaine (Jacques), Felix Aylmer (Duke Frederick). BW-96m. by Eleanor Quin