The Merchant Of Venice (1973) - Laurence Olivier - National Theatre

National Theatre The Merchant of Venice (1973) IMDb tt0070386 Released by Shoutcast From a televised production coded in small size for easy download. Runtime 2 hrs 8 mins no interval break. Directed for the stage by Jonathan Miller Directed for the Screen by John Sichel Cast Laurence Olivier Shylock Joan Plowright Portia Jeremy Brett Bassanio complete cast and crew in the credits. Summary from IMDb Antonio's friend Bassanio is in love and needs money to go courting. Using Antonio as his collateral, he borrows money from Shylock. But when the debt comes due, Shylock demands repayment in the form of a pound of Antonio's flesh. My notes Shoutcast released this version of Merchant of Venice recently. The quality by today's standards is VHS and that might have been the source from which it was digitized. I have in the loninappleton collection a number of Merchant of Venice productions. The one missing, if it exists, would be the Joseph Papp Public Theatre production with George C. Scott as Shylock. Each of the Merchant of Venice productions has special features. The highlight in this one of course is Olivier here seen as an Edwardian banker. The Trevor Nunn production also on TPB in my collection is set in pre-War Nazi Germany. This is played up in a cabaret scene in which the music is a genius stroke. There is a more recent one just below this entry in my group from The Royal Shakespeare Company directed by Polly Findlay. Here again the production has a special look.