Hermia (Olivia de Havilland) loves Lysander (Dick Powell), but is required by her father to marry Demetrius (Ross Alexander), who had recently had an affair with Helena (Jean Muir). The Duke (Ian Hunter), who is preparing to wed the queen of the Amazons, sides with the father and the four youths escape into the wood. In those same woods, a group of peasants, including Bottom (James Cagney) and Flute (Joe E. Brown), practice the play they are to perform at the wedding feast. The forest is filled with fairies, whose king, Oberon (Victor Jory), is fighting with Queen Titania (Anita Louise) over a boy she has stolen. He sends Puck (Mickey Rooney) to solve the problems of the human couples, but instead ends up confusing things further for both humans and fairies.
I wanted to love this film. It was a lavish production of a play that I love. It is filled with Warner Bros. A-list actors and is the first film of de Havilland, who had played Hermia on the stage. The score is Mendelssohn’s, adapted and arranged by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the greatest film composer, and this was the film that brought him to Hollywood when director Max Reinhardt insisted that only an artist of his quality could adapt the music.
But it just doesn’t work. Many of the mistakes are the common ones. The fairies are played by children, and children can seldom act, with the exception in this case of Mickey Rooney who was 14 but looked 11 and acted so hard I’m surprised the sets didn’t collapse. The dialog is performed too slowly (so that we may properly RESPECT every word). And the film is overlong, not only for the reason stated, but due to the addition of long dance sequences and establishing shots that never end. For years it was only available in a severely cut fashion, which I have not seen since I was a child so have forgotten, but I have to wonder if it is better as some cuts are needed.
The cast may have included the major stars of WB (with some odd omissions, like Bette Davis who Reinhardt requested), but they are wrong for their parts. Powell and Alexander play Lysander and Demetrius exactly the same, as smug bastards. Mind you Dick Powell was wrong for every role he was ever given. Similarly I never discovered Brown’s charms. De Havilland is lovely, but had not yet discovered the difference between stage and screen acting (nor had Reinhardt who’d directed her on stage and had never before worked on a sound picture, nor would he again). Jory is strangely stiff while Louise is beautiful, but generic. Cagney overacts almost as much as Rooney, but somehow comes off the best of the lot.
The cinematography is impressive, winning the only write-in Oscar, but it is something to appreciate more than enjoy. Yes, they painted a lot of trees to get the astounding look, but the look doesn’t help the play.
The whole thing drags such that by intermission (there’s an intermission card), I wished it was done. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy, but I never laughed. It is a romance, but I felt nothing for the lovers. Shakespeare has been poorly treated on film and this should have been something great, but is instead part of the pack of failed adaptations. I suggest seeking out a stage version.