Macbeth [1971]

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1971
Running Times: 140 mins
Format: Technicolor     35mm     Todd-AO 35
Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Caliban Films / Playboy Productions Inc
Executive Producer: Hugh M. Hefner
Assistant Executive Producer: Victor Lownes
Producer: Andrew Braunsberg
Associate Producer: Timothy Burrill

SCRIPT
Script: Roman Polanski, Kenneth Tynan
Play: William Shakespeare
Artistic Advisor: Kenneth Tynan

DIRECTION
Director: Roman Polanski
2nd Unit Director: Hercules Bellville
1st Assistant Director: Simon Relph

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Gil Taylor
Camera Operator: Alec Mills

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Alastair McIntyre

MUSIC
Music: The Third Ear Band

SOUND
Sound Mixer: Simon Kaye
Dubbing Mixer: Nolan Roberts
Dubbing Editors: Jonathan Bates, John Ireland [uncredited]

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Key Make Up: Tom Smith
Chief Hair: Biddy Chrystal
Costume Designer: Anthony Mendleson
Wardrobe: Jackie Breed, Phil Pickford

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Ted Samuels

VISUAL EFFECTS
Process Consultant: Richard Vetter

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Wilfrid Shingleton
Art Director: Fred Carter
Assistant Art Director: Jack Stephens
Set Decorator: Bryan Graves

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Angela Allen
Choreographer: Sally Gilpin
Production Advisor: David W. Orton
Horse Master: Jeremy Taylor

LOCATIONS
Locations: Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, England, UK; Ffestiniog, Wales, UK; Lindisfarne Castle, Northumberland, England, UK; St Aidan's Church, Northumberland, England, UK
Studio: Shepperton Studios, London, England

STUNTS
Stunts: Russ Jones (uncredited)
Fight Director: William Hobbs

CASTING
Casting: Miriam Brickman

CAST
Jon Finch [Macbeth]
Francesca Annis [Lady Macbeth]
Martin Shaw [Banquo]
Terence Bayler [Macduff]
John Stride [Ross]
Nicholas Selby [Duncan]
Stephen Chase [Malcolm]
Paul Shelley [Donalbain]
Maisie MacFarquhar [1st witch]
Elsie Taylor [2nd witch]
Noelle Rimmington [3rd witch]
Noel Davis [Seyton]
Sydney Bromley [Porter]
Richard Pearson [doctor]
Patricia Mason [gentlewoman]
Michael Balfour [1st murderer]
Andrew McCulloch [2nd murderer]
Keith Chegwin [Fleance]
Andrew Laurence [Lennox]
Bernard Archard [Angus]
Bruce Purchase [Caithness]
Frank Wylie [Menteith]
Diane Fletcher [Lady Macduff]
Mark Dightam [Macduff's son]
Bill Drysdale, Roy Jones [King's grooms]
Vic Abbott [Cowdor]
Ian Hogg [1st Thane]
Geoffrey Reed [2nd Thane]
Nigel Ashton [3rd Thane]
William Hobbs [young Seyward]
Alf Joint [old Seyward]
Paul Hennen [doctor's apprentice]
Olga Anthony, Roy Desmond, Pamela Foster, John Gordon, Barbara Ann Grimes, Aud Johansen, Janie Kells, Dickie Martyn, Beth Owen, Christina Paul, Maxine Skelton, Don Vernon, Anna Willoughby [dancers (uncredited)]
David Ellison, Howard Lang [old soldiers (uncredited)]
Clement Freud [hanging man (uncredited)]
Terence Mountain [soldier (uncredited)]

The Scottish lord Macbeth murders the king and steals the throne. His wife suffers a nervous breakdown brought on by guilt and begins to hallucinate, eventually throwing in her lot with dead king's son in an effort to topple MacBeth from his seat of power.

This astonishing take on the Scottish play - surely the only version ever to be played as a horror film - is Shakespeare as you always knew he would have been presented had the Bard of Stratford not been hijacked by the middle class intelligentsia. And clearly it was a film that could never have been made had Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate not met such a horrific end at the hands of Charles Manson's 'Family'. It's a bitter film, full of hatred and passion and it's almost impossible to see it as anything but an exorcism for Polanski. Brutal, uncompromising and deeply angry, it has angered many Shakespeare purists but it's difficult to deny its power and passion. [Full Review]

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Finland
Rating: K-16

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: X; 18

USA
Rating: R

1971
National Board of Review, USA
Best Picture: English Language - winner

1973
British Academy Awards, UK
Best Costume Design [Anthony Mendleson] - winner
Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music [The Third Ear Band] - nominated

1971
October
13: USA - theatrical release

1972
March
3: Finland - theatrical release

September
13: Sweden - theatrical release

Makbet - Polish title

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
Hugh Hefner: Once Upon a Time [1992]

SEE ALSO
Istana berdarah [1964]
Joe MacBeth [1955]
Kumonosu jo [1957]
Macbeth [1908]
Macbeth [1909]
Macbeth [1910]
Macbeth [1911]
Macbeth [1913]
Macbeth [1915]
Macbeth [1916]
Macbeth [1946]
Macbeth [1948]
Macbeth [1949]
Macbeth [1954]
Macbeth [1960]
Macbeth [1966]
Macbeth [1970]
Macbeth [1979]
Macbeth [1981]
Macbeth [1982]
Macbeth [1983]
Macbeth [1987]
Macbeth [1992]
Macbeth [1997]
Macbeth [1998]
Men of Respect [1991]
Sibirska Ledi Magbet [1961]

MAGAZINES

American Cinematographer vol.83 no.8 [August 2002] p.18 [USA]
illustrated DVD review

CinemaTV Today no.9966 [5 February 1972] p.24 [UK]
review

Film [BFFS] no.71 [March 1979] p.7 [UK]
review

Film Quarterly vol.25 no.3 [1972] pp.41-48 [UK]
article

Filmfacts vol.14 no.24 [1971] p.730 [USA]
review reprints

Films and Filming vol.18 no.7 [April 1972] pp.53-54 [UK]
review

Films and Filming vol.25 no.5 [February 1979] p.49 [UK]
review

Hollywood Reporter vol.213 no.33 [6 November 1970] p.14 [USA]
credits

Hollywood Reporter vol.219 no.10 [15 December 1971] p.3 [USA]
review

Kine Weekly no.3292 [14 November 1970] p.13 [UK]
review

Kino vol.34 no.3 March 2000 pp.16-19 [Poland]
illustrated article

Literature / Film Quarterly vol.1 no.4 [Autumn 1973] pp.291-298
article

Literature / Film Quarterly vol.14 no.4 [1986] pp.203-210; 211-213 [USA]
articles

Literature / Film Quarterly vol.22 no.2 [1994] pp.105-108 [USA]
illustrated article

Literature / Film Quarterly vol.29 no.2 [2001] pp.101-106 [USA]
illustrated article, bibliography

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.39 no.458 [March 1972] p.53 [UK]
credits, synopsis, review

Shakespeare on Film Newsletter vol.13 no.2 [April 1989] p.7 [USA]
articles

Shakespeare on Film Newsletter vol.15 no.1 [December 1990] pp.1, 2, 9 [USA]
articles

Sight and Sound vol.40 no.2 [Spring 1971] pp.77-78 [UK]
article

Sight and Sound vol.41 no.2 [Spring 1972] p.108 [UK]
review

Sight and Sound vol.1 no.3 [July 1991] p.61 [UK]
note

Sight and Sound vol.12 no.9 [September 2002] p.83 [UK]
DVD review

Today's Cinema no.9853 [3 November 1970] p.9 [UK]
credits

Today's Cinema no.9869 [5January 1971] pp.8, 10 [UK]
review

Variety 15 December 1971 p.14 [USA]
credits, synopsis, review

OTHER SOURCES

British National Film Catalogue vol.14 [1976]
credits

play into film, ghosts, prophecies, visions, witches, axe murders, child murders, bear baiting, decapitations, scotland, sleepwalking, suicide, bears, castles, crowns, kings, queens, royalty, daggers, arson, betrayal, nightmares, rape, revenge, swords

Last Updated: 6 March, 2007