Shakespeare Movies: A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1935

My exploration into the "deep cuts" of Shakespeare movies begins with Reinhardt and Dierterle's 1935 rendition of  A Midsummer Night's Dream.  I was impressed.  This is a beautifully designed and shot movie with wonderful special effects.  And it is very, very funny.  
When watching old movies, I find that it takes me a while to get used to the acting, or over-acting.  At nearly two and a half hours, A Midsummer Night's Dream allows time for that.  So, things that were annoying at the beginning, like Puck's spastic laughter, had become charming by the end.  A few scenes, especially the pre-dawn fairy round-up, could have been edited down significantly, but these scenes allowed the film-makers to indulge their whimsy, creating truly magical illusions of fairies floating on the mist or disappearing into the starry night sky.  Still, "brevity is the soul of wit."
It is impossible not to compare this movie to Michael Hoffman's 1999 A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of my absolute favorites.  As is typical, the acting in the more contemporary movie is much more subdued.  The actors in the 1935 movie often sound like they are reciting, not acting.  This is also typical, as the prevailing philosophy about Shakespearean acting has shifted over time to a more natural, less formal, style.  This is most evident, I think, in the character of Oberon, whose style follows his costume.  Making use of the black and white pallet, Reinhardt and Dierterele dress him up in a shiny black body suit and oversized crown of glittering sticks.  Hoffman, on the other hand, dressed Oberon down, way down, to almost nothing.  While overdressed Victory Jory nearly sings his lines, Rupert Everett speaks his lines effortlessly, almost sleepily.  
The performance of Helena is another study in contrasts.  Jean Muir, in Reinhardt and Diertle's movie, responds to Demetrius' rejection with helpless sobbing.  Calista Flockhart, however, is  highly entertaining in Hoffman's movie as a spiteful, obstinate mess of emotions (and hair), who makes the bicycle prop an integral part of her character.  Only Stanley Tucci as Puck uses it as well, and it helps his character even more.  After seeing the 14-year-old Mickey Rooney as Puck (pictured above), however, I have to say that a young Puck makes more sense.  The innocent, playful energy that Rooney brings to the part is electrifying, once you get used to it.  He steals the show.
In Hoffman's movie, Bottom is the center.  With additional brief action scenes, backstory, and exceptional acting by Kevin Kline, the character attains a nuanced, heroic quality.  While Kline grips your heart in his "Bottom's Dream" soliloquy, James Cagney laughs his way through it.  But that works, too.  It's a traditional take on the character, a sympathetic fool.  And while there's nothing wrong with that, Kline's performance is, in my opinion, transcendent.
Reinhardt and Dierterle's A Midsummer Night's Dream is worth watching, if for nothing else, for the cinematic artistry.  It's so impressive what these folks were able to do with film, real physical film.  It's both innovative for it's time and true to the original play.  It's exactly what it should be: comedy.