Othello (1952)

Orson Welles' take on Shakespeare's Moor of Venice is a brave but flawed film. While visually striking, the disjointed and distant feel of Othello makes it hard to connect with the story or characters.

Welles sticks faithfully to the story, with the titular Venetian General falling foul of the scheming of his supposedly faithful servant Iago, and being tricked into doubting his wife’s fidelity, with tragic and deadly consequences. However, trimming a three hour play in half creates two problems. Firstly, the pacing becomes so frantic that the story becomes confusing and garbled at times. Secondly, the cuts mean we lose some of the characterisation and ambiguities that make the play so rich. Subsequently, the characters are not as interesting, and the scenario of a dignified intelligent person being destroyed by mix of a devious scheme from a master plotter (and a fizzing energetic bundle of evil) and his own insecurities, becomes a slightly dim man being tricked by a slightly devious man. Desdemona is similarly diminished as a personality, from the fiery, independent woman of the text, defying her father to marry the man she loves, to a simpering helpless, passive girl. Some of the shots seem designed to put distance or a barrier between the audience and the figures on screen, which, when combined with the two-dimensional characters makes for uninvolving viewing, lacking the emotional core that can make Othello so devastating.

Welles plays Othello in “Blackface” make-up, which looks more silly and distracting than offensive nowadays. There is little to read into this in terms of racism as he was simply following the theatrical convention of the time, and indeed, race is one of several themes left unexplored thanks to the copious chops made to the text.

Having said all of that, Othello looks magnificent, making full use of the locations in Venice,Tuscany, Rome and Morocco where it was shot. Given the nightmare Welles had making the film, with frequent lengthy breaks in production, while he went off to make other films to raise money to finish this one, it is obviously a labour of love, and he deserves recognition and credit as someone who broke new ground in transferring Shakespeare from the stage to the screen, and making good use of the medium along the way.

One for Welles completists, and cinematic Shakespeare completists, but this version of Othello may leave the more casual viewer cold.