New York State Writers Institute - Classic Film Series

A Midsummer Night's Dream

March 6, 1998 (Friday) at 7:30 p.m.

Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue
(Free and Open to the Public)

(American, 1935, 117 minutes, black & white, 16 mm)
Directed by William Dieterle and Max Reinhardt
Starring James Cagney, Joe E. Brown, Mickey Rooney

This film version of Shakespeare's comedy features some inspired casting with James Cagney as Bottom and Joe E. Brown as Flute. Like most of Shakespear's comedies, the story contains several seemingly unrelated plot lines, all tied together by a single unifying event, in this instance, the impending wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. A visual tour de force, the film earned cinematographer Hal Mohr the first write-in Academy Award in Hollywood history.

Sponsored as part of the University at Albany's Shakespeare Semester

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