Over a year and a half passed after shooting TWENTIETH CENTURY before beginning ROMEO AND JULIET. It was the longest time that Barrymore was professionally idle since moving to Hollywood 12 years earlier. It was for him a disastrous 20 months. His disintegration accelerated. During the interval he was hospitalized twice, fled from and was divorced by DOLORES COSTELLO BARRYMORE, made a futile search for a "cure" in India, failed in a commitment
to film HAMLET, and was involved in a sensational cross country courtship with a teenager (ELAINE BARRIE). While filming ROMEO AND JULIET he lived at a private sanitarium in West Los Angeles.
LOBBY CARD DUEL SCENE
For the first time since 1914 Barrymore did not receive star billing. MERCUTIO is a small part with few dramatic moments. Barrymore, like SHEARER & HOWARD, is by traditional standards and appearances, miscast. He was about 30 years overage yet once again, he manages to muster and project exuberance and vitality. He throws kisses, prances, hops, guzzles wine and belches, thereby lightening and humanizing an otherwise ponderous production. But his convivial ebullience in the role contrasts starkly with the reality of the actor's situation. Even while on the set he was constantly attended by a guard from the sanitarium assigned to protect him from himself. In addition MARGARET CARRINGTON was called in to help coax the performance from him. His long lines of poetry are read with a breath control unmatched by others in the cast.
ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, IT IS A REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE.
Signed Mercutio photo
Barrymore likens Shakespeare's plays to a high-powered motor in a car. "The Actor can let the play do seven-tenths of the work for him just as the motorist steers and leaves the rest of the work to the motor," he declares. "And by speaking naturally and acting naturally the actor really gives Shakespeare a break.
"Take ROMEO & JULIET, for instance. The story will be modern in every time because its basic romance and plot can never be out of fashion. Why, then, cloak it with old-fashioned tricks in acting-not that the so-called natural acting is any new development, it date backs to KEANE.
"I admit that it takes a certain time and experience to do it with Shakespeare because of the structure of the lines. The actor has to take the language and make it sound colloquial by speaking the lines just as he would carry on his own conversation."
A FAT PART
For the first ime in her life EDNA MAY OLIVER dieted in order to win a screen role.
Her diet consisted of 5 meals a day and a snack before bedtime! The Nurse, one of Shakespeare's greatest comic characters, has been proverbially plump since she was first created in 1597. In 3 weeks, Miss OLIVER put on 20lbs and was assured that the part was hers.
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"SHAKESPEARE was not only a master of tragedy but of comedy," said Prof. WILLIAM STRUNK, JR, Shakespearean authority at Cornell University.
"It is attributed to Shakespeare that in discussing MERCUTIO, Romeo's witty friend, he said, "I was obliged to kill him in the third act - he was stealing the show from Romeo."
"MERCUTIO, ever the wit, continues to jest when dying. '"I am peppered,"' says MERCUTIO when TYBALT runs him through."
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LESLIE HOWARD underwent a minor operation on his left arm as a result of a wound suffered during a realistic duel staged with BASIL RATHBONE.
The noted British Actor was confined to his bed for more than a week and was obliged to face the operation as a precautionary measure against spread of infection. HOWARD was injured in the dueling scene with RATHBONE when he slipped upon a cobblestone paving while parrying a sword thrust. The wound was not considered troublesome until examination revealed infection.
