Save your money for something good and enjoyable

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This movie had everything going for it. Clearly, visibly a big budget, with some very impressive production numbers. Some very fine actors - John Barrymore may have been drunk much of the time, but he still gives a memorable performance as Mercutio. Edna May Olliver is great as the Nurse. Basil Rathbone is evil as Tybalt. But for reasons I can't really explain, this movie just didn't hold me. I kept thinking of the Midsummer Night's Dream that Max Rinehardt did for Warner Brothers about the same time, in many ways a magical movie. This movie is often impressive, but, for me, it was never magical.Some will criticize the casting of Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer as Romeo and Juliet. Yes, they are clearly much too old to be taken as adolescents. But they don't try to be adolescents, so the play becomes the story of two middle-aged people in love, which didn't bother me at all. I find Shearer to be a very mannered actress, good in some things stilted in others. She very much overdoes Juliet, to my eyes, though I could see a teen-age girl acting just the same way.If you like the play, or even if you don't, watch this movie once. I don't know that I could sit through it again a second time myself.

I do love Shakespeare, as I do Romeo and Juliet. Of the other three versions I loved Zeffirelli's but was underwhelmed by Luhrmann's. This version is good and in between the two for me. It boasts handsome costumes and sets, the cinematography is gorgeous and the whole film is beautifully directed by George Cukor. The story is compelling and moving still, and the writing likewise, though one or two speeches could have been delivered a little slower. The music also is charming and wonderfully romantic in places. Of the cast I did get more pleasure of the supporting turns more than the leads. Though the leads certainly weren't bad. Leslie Howard is perhaps too mature and lacks Romeo's boyish passion but he does at least have a grasp of the style. Norma Shearer starts off a little shaky, coming across as too "giddy" on her first appearance(was it an attempt to show some girlish naivety?) but she is very moving from that point on and exudes good chemistry with Howard. John Barrymore also was a point of controversy, true he is a little too insidycratic in places but as Mercutio overall he is delicious and steals his scenes. The best turns though come from Edna May Oliver as a warm and humorous Nurse and the wonderfully oily Tybalt of Basil Rathbone. Ralph Forbes does what he can, though the role of Paris is rather thankless. All in all, a good version. 7/10 Bethany Cox

For years, I put off watching this version of Shakespeare's classic love story, knowing that all the main players were about thirty years too old for their roles. Finally, when the film came on late on night, I decided to take a look, because I do admire the work of so many of the players.Provided you can put aside the problems of the ages of the actors, the result is a very pleasant surprise. The biggest surprise for me was the performance of Norma Shearer - I've always liked her work, but considered her rather lightweight for Shakespeare. Not so - she delivered her lines with a great feel for the style and pace, and was as delightful and open a Juliet as one could wish. Her age became irrelevant; this was a young girl new to love, completely swept off her feet and ready to surrender all - for the first time.Leslie Howard was also comfortable with the Shakespearean dialogue, if slightly lacking the boyish passion we rightly expect to see. He was more the slightly older suitor, taken by surprise with the fresh appeal of his Juliet, but ready to cast aside previous attachments to pursue and win her. His lovely voice delivered the lines with ease and fluency.John Barrymore's Mercutio was much more the ageing playboy than the dashing young blade, but his sure touch with the dialogue showed clearly why he was considered the preeminent Shakespearean actor of his day in America. His delivery of the "Queen Mab" speech was a delight. His body was way too old, but his spirit lacked nothing.Flora Robson came near to stealing most of her scenes, as she so often did, and Basil Rathbone was fully at home in the role of Tybalt; fine performances from these two, as we would expect from their backgrounds.It was, to my mind, rather over-produced, with the actors in danger of being lost in the expansive sets, but remembering that had these actors been performing on stage, we wouldn't bat an eyelid at their ages, they provide us with an engrossing experience and deliver a play that even the experts couldn't fault.

I am sick and stayed home from work and TCM was having a Shakespeare festival. Having never heard of the 1936 version of this play, I decided to give it a whirl even though I am not a Leslie Howard fan. Well, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Even though I knew the actors were too old for their roles (turns out they were even older than I thought!) their delivery was great, which is important when you are delivering the Bard's lines verbatim, for the most part. Even if you couldn't catch the literal meaning of the words, the actors provided plenty of non-verbal context for you to pick things up.I thought Norma Shearer was going to be awful at first, as one other commentary has mentioned, her first scene makes her look a little too mindlessly sweet and giddy--almost like the look is plastered on her face--but she really came through in the end. When she had to amp up the emotion, she did, especially considering the Hayes Code was now being enforced.I have to concur that one of the best character acting jobs I have seen in thirties cinema is by the lady who plays Juliet's nurse (her name escapes me). She switches from broad comedy to contemplation effortlessly. Basil Rathbone is appropriately vile, oily and relentless. I would have liked to have seen a little more of him on screen. And I had no idea that Barrymore's turn as Mercurito was so controversial until I read the other comments here. His approach may be an eccentric, idiosyncratic one, but it is absolutely riveting (although I CAN believe he was in his cups when filming it--which somehow makes it work all the more).I do agree that there may be a whiff of the effeminate running through the major male characters (I had to chuckle when Romeo says his love for Juliet has made him "effeminate"), but that didn't ruin the picture for me at all. The sets are great. Though limited, they are attractive and the shots are well thought out. ****SMALL SPOILERS*** I found the crypt where the final sword fight takes place something right out of a Universal horror movie, and somewhat reminiscent of Fritz Lang, too.A modern audience may find this version of the play a little deliberate, but I thought the Franco Zeffereti version, once you get past the novelty of its modern approach to sex and passion, dull at its heart, and this is much better than seeing John Luguzamo brandishing a weapon. Check it out.