Gratuitous Llama Netflix Movie Review

Much Ado About Nothing (1984)

A delightful production from the Beeb, this Much Ado plays it right down the middle, with lavish Italian Renaissance costumes and sets, together with period music (alas, performed somewhat slowly and clunkily by current scholarly standards). As with most of the other offerings in this series, this is not a "movie" version but rayther a stage production put on film, so do not go into it expecting the lavish shlock that so burdens Ken Brannagh's version from the 90's. It never reaches any particular height of theatrical brilliance, but then again, it never takes a false step, either.

As also in the other Beeb productions I've seen, this one is populated by solid, steady Shakespearians whom you and I have never heard of. Robert Lindsay is a dark-eyed, animated Benedict, without too overpowering an ego. Cherie Lunghi (who, it turns out, was Guinevere in the Wagnerian Excalibur) has an excellently subtle and sharp air about her that reminds me of my sister. I recognized Katharine Levy, who plays a rayther lumpy and fish-eyed Hero, from a bit part she had in I, Claudius. And Vernon Dobtcheff proves, contra Keanu Reeves, that Don John isn't completely cardboard, but in the right hands can be turned into a somewhat interesting villain. Who is Vernon Dobtcheff, you ask? Well, probably his most famous line in films is, "Zis is a castle. And ve haff many tapestries. And if you are a Scottish lord, zen I am Mickey Mouse!" (I'll leave it to you to i.d. the quote.)

I happen to love this play. Because so much of its humor revolves around the sniping between Benedict and Beatrice, I can't help thinking that the Bard was indulging himself here, perhaps even showing off a bit. In any event, it's definitely one of the ones you have to both see and read so as not to miss any of the delicious turns of phrase. For example, I love this line of Benedict's:

Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour?

-MAAN, Act ii. Sc. 3.

I've always though that "Paper Bullets of the Brain" would make an excellent blog title. (Or should it be "Pixel Bullets"?) Also, I've always enjoyed his musing on musick:

Is it not strange that sheeps’ guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies?

-Ibid.

One other note about this performance is its treatment of Dogberry, played by Michael Elphink. One of the major weak points of Branagh's version was his letting loose of Michael Keaton to do Dogberry as a warmed over Beetlejuice, not only incomprehensibly swallowing his malapropisms, but also playing him as some kind of slapstick lunatic. I don't think that's right at all. Dogberry is a buffoon, a dolt and a comic foil, but there's a certain pathos to him as well that almost makes one feel sorry for him. Consider this response (heavily edited in the Brannagh movie) when Conrade calls Dogberry an ass during the interrogation:

Dost thou not suspect my place? dost thou not suspect my years? O that he were here to write me down an ass! But, masters, remember that I am an ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass. No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow, and, which is more, an officer, and, which is more, a householder, and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns and every thing handsome about him. Bring him away. O that I had been writ down an ass!

Dogberry's defense of his own dignity, and his insistence on laying out all the proofs of his respectability in the face of Conrade's charge - his office, his property, his "two gowns" and the like - is not the talk of a comic book loony. Instead, and the note about "losses" hints at this as well, Dogberry is almost desperate to prove that he has - or at least once had - some kind of spot in Society, however small. He has, maybe, been driven to the edge, but I think these hints at a better past make him a far more interesting and, as I say, pathetic character than Brannagh lets on.

(I know, I know. Comparisons like this between a Beeb staging and Brannagh's "Shakespeare For The Masses" are what Dogberry himself would call "odourous", but I can't help it.)

Robbo's Recommendation: Five Yips! out of five if you like your Shakespeare orthodox.