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By
FRANK BEHRENS
While Shakespeare's "King
Lear" has fared very well on audio recordings, it
has never quite been done entirely satisfactorily
on video. The ancient Orson Welles telecast
version is cut to the bone, the "Lear" from the
complete Thames Television series is done all in
close-ups, the Paul Scofield film has barely a
third of the text, while the version with Laurence
Olivier is by far the best. Now A&E has issued the
1974 "King Lear" from Thames Television that is
quite watchable but not without flaws.
For starters, one-third of the text is missing, as
the production notes explain, due to time
limitations. The sets are obviously studio sets
but pleasant to look at, if a little too nice for
pre-Christian Britain. The text is clearly read,
except for the usual incomprehensible ravings of
Edgar when he pretends to be mad. The acting is
all of a more-than-adequate to quite good
standard—but never does any of it rise to
greatness.
The main problem is the strange interpretation of
the title role by Patrick Magee. He plays his
first two scenes in an almost comatose fashion, as
if holding things at a low boil until his "big"
moments on the heath. But when those moments come,
he is still underplaying and at this point I
realized this was as dramatic as he was going to
get!
Patrick Mower, who is featured in a bonus
interview on this DVD, generates some heat as the
villainous Edmund, especially with Lear's evil
sisters, Regan (Ann Lynn) and Goneril (Beth
Harris), both of whom are attractive enough to
make it all credible. Ray Smith plays a stolid
Kent and Ronald Radd a somewhat subdued
Gloucester. The rest of the cast, as I said, are
pretty good, several of whom are not even credited
at the end.
So while the Olivier version is by far the best
choice, this A&E offering deserves a viewing,
mostly because of the clarity with which the lines
are spoken. |
