Movies—well, one movie

OTHELLO (1965) boasts excellent performances by Frank Finlay as Iago, Laurence Olivier as the Moor of Venice, Maggie Smith as Desdemona and Derek Jacobi as Cassio. Unfortunately, this is very dull visually, looking like they’d done it on a stage play’s set (the cast apparently carried over from an acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company production)—Olivier’s Hamlet had a lot more imagination. A bigger problem is that this was made back when having a white guy in blackface play the role was unremarkable—and blackface is not meant as realistic black makeup. As a result, Olivier looks more like a nonhuman than a blackman, which really undercuts the production. “Though all the world should team with woman’s tears, each drop that falls will prove a crocodile!”