The Plays of William Shakespeare, Vol. 5 - The Merry Wives of Windsor

Amazon.com

Think of this DVD (part of a series taped in England in the 1970s and 1980s) as Shakespeare on the cheap: serviceable, overacted, aimed squarely at a student level. It's hardly the Bard for the connoisseur, but its broad, slapstick approach translates into comprehensible comedy that works on a verbal level as well as a physical one. This productions stars Leon Charles as Sir John Falstaff, who engineers a roguish plan to seduce two married women, then blackmail them into protecting their reputations. But the wives, played by Gloria Grahame and Valerie Seelie-Snyder, turn the tables on Shakespeare's oversized knight errant. The acting is professional in a provincial way, with sets that look as much like cardboard as they are. If shown in a classroom, where its 150-minute length can be broken up into more easily digestible bites, it might be able to promote interest in Shakespeare nonetheless. --Marshall Fine

Description

The clearest and most understandable Shakespeare productions ever made. Staged as seen in the 16th Century, featuring award-winning performers. A timeless comedy about marital fidelity. Starring Leon Charles, Gloria Grahame, Valerie Seelie-Snyder, Dixie Neyland Tymitz and Joel Asher. 150 minutes.

Customer Reviews:

Amateur [Junk].......2003-04-16

Do not buy a copy of this production in any form. It is cheap and nasty. It is amateur-city. Even the costumes look old and worn out. The acting is [bad.] the direction simple-minded, the video technically sub par. How this production ever made it onto tape in the first place and into a commercial arena is beyond me. The only taping this production should ever have been subject to is the one taken to show "Mother" and "Auntie Lucy" at home on the farm to prove the "actors" actually learned their lines!

Shakespeare more accessible.......2002-02-23

While it's not Olivier starring in this very accessible production, the acting is certainly better than adequate. Use of American actors makes Shakespeare a great deal easier to understand for US students, and the recreation of the original Globe sets adds authenticity. Kultur is to be congratulated for providing this DVD at a reasonable price when the school market isn't exactly welcoming the new format with open arms; one is certainly spared an infinite amount of winding backwards and forwards by the scene search function.

Beware: Not "Shakespearian Drama of the Highest Quality".......2001-07-21

I was extrememly dissatisfied with the quality of the product, 'The Plays of William Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor' on DVD . Despite the claim that this series is 'Shakespearian Drama of the Highest Quality", this DVD is an amateurish home video-translated production. The audio was unitelligible, large parts of the play were out of focus and the digital navigation was impossible to use. While none of this is the fault of Amazon, the end result is a little like selling a book with several chapters missing. I wouldn't give this product to a high school, let alone sell it for [price] to a good customer. I asked for my money back, and strongly recommended Amazon reevaluate its relationship with this company, Kultur.

Horrible!.......2001-06-12

This video was so bad that I could barely watch it. And the fact that I had paid over $..... for it made me even madder. Shakespeare is abused in this video! The acting is terrible. Probably the worst I have ever seen. I am a high school drama teacher, and I have 14 and 15 year olds who can act better than these so-called professional actors! The direction was horrible, too. They say that this was probably how Shakespeare was actually played in the 16th Century. Bull! If any acting company ever played him like this, they would have been out of business really soon. I feel sorry for people who watch this and think that this is what Shakespeare is about. Don't buy this video!

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