Overview

Hamlet at Elsinore is a 1964 television version of Shakespeare's play. Produced by the BBC in association with Danish Radio, it was shown in the U.S. on NET. Winning wide acclaim both for its performances and for being shot entirely at Helsingør, in the castle in which the play is set, it is the only version of the play to have actually been shot at Elsinore Castle. This programme was recorded and edited on video tape and not 'filmed'. The director was Philip Saville. It is the longest version of the play telecast in one evening up to that time, running nearly three hours. The Canadian actor Christopher Plummer took the lead role as the Melancholy Dane and earned an Emmy Award nomination for his performance. In supporting roles were Robert Shaw as Claudius, Donald Sutherland as Fortinbras, Roy Kinnear as the Gravedigger and Michael Caine, in his only Shakespearean performance, as Horatio. Sutherland, Caine and Shaw were, at the time, almost completely unknown to American audiences, and just before the presentation's first U.S. telecast, Plummer began to gain popularity in the U.S. because of his appearance in the 1965 musical film The Sound of Music.