The first time I came across Orson Welles’ OTHELLO was in 1980 in Charleston SC. The Spoleto Festival that year was honoring Welles with a showing of all the movies that he had directed. The most recently completed (and the last one he finished) was the 1979 documentary FILMING OTHELLO which goes into great detail showing the tortuous 3 year history (1949-1951) of the making of the film. It needs to be seen to be believed. How anyone could manage to pull together a movie under those conditions, much less a Shakespearean one, is one of cinema’s all time miracles. The fact that it is an excellent adaptation of OTHELLO is even more miraculous.
This is the first of Welles’ many European productions and, with the exception of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (another Shakespearean film), it is his best. As with all his Shakespeare adaptations (film and stage) Welles does not give a straightforward telling of the story. Instead he turns it into a cinematic experience by cutting down the text and rearranging scenes and combining some of the minor characters. The opening titles refer to OTHELLO as “a motion picture adaptation” and that is precisely what it is. The uncut version of the play runs around 3 hours. Welles’ film version is half that.
The black and white cinematography is crisp, stark and full of brooding imagery. The editing is deliberately disorienting as Welles wants to show the disintegration of Othello’s mind as he becomes completely consumed with jealousy. It also reflects the devious machinations of Iago’s mind as he plots Othello’s destruction. While there is some location shooting in Venice, most of it takes place at a monumental old stone fortress on the coast of Morocco. The famous scene in a Turkish bath (actually a Moroccan laundry ) came about because Welles had not paid for the costumes he rented so he had to improvise.
As in his 2 other Shakespeare adaptations (MACBETH & FALSTAFF), Welles plays the lead role. While it is performed in blackface, it is the most subtle and natural use of it that I have ever seen especially when compared with Laurence Olivier’s in his 1965 version. The acting honors go to Irish actor Michael MacLiammoir as a truly malevolent Iago and to Fay Compton as his pathetic wife Emilia who is also Desdemona’s handmaid. Suzanne Cloutier looks the part of Desdemona but most of her dialogue has been cut. The movie can be described as the “essence” of OTHELLO and a distilled version of Shakespeare.
The movie exists in 3 different versions. There is the original 1952 European version which is 93 minutes, the 1955 American / U.K. version which is 91 minutes, and a 1992 restored version done by Welles’ daughter which also runs 93 minutes. As with all his European movies, Welles essentially shot OTHELLO as a silent movie adding the dialogue and music in post-production. Like most dubbed films, there were occasional synchronization problems and volume irregularities but those have been corrected in the Criterion release. It features both versions and much needed subtitles. The Beatrice Welles version does not have them.
The Capsule Critic 