--- title: "Hamlet" year: 1948 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/hamlet-1948" fi1m_score: 84 critics_score: 86 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-20T01:49:51.883609+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T01:50:17.398680+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Hamlet (1948) Directed by Laurence Olivier · 2h 33m · MPA NR · Drama **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 86 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* A man who could not make up his mind, filmed by a man who has never been surer of anything > Olivier’s black-and-white Hamlet strips the play to a family in a castle and sends Desmond Dickinson’s camera prowling through it. It is handsome, chilling and superbly spoken; it is a prince of forty in a film that insists he cannot make up his mind. ## Synopsis Elsinore, Denmark. The old King is dead and his brother Claudius (Basil Sydney) has taken both the crown and the widow, Gertrude (Eileen Herlie), within two months of the funeral. Prince Hamlet (Laurence Olivier), still in black, is the only one at court not celebrating. On the battlements the sentries Francisco (John Laurie) and Bernardo (Esmond Knight) have seen a figure in armour walking at midnight, and Horatio (Norman Wooland) brings Hamlet up to meet it. The Ghost, wearing the dead King’s face, tells him he was murdered by his brother and demands revenge. Meanwhile the Lord Chamberlain Polonius (Felix Aylmer) sends his son Laertes (Terence Morgan) off to France and orders his daughter Ophelia (Jean Simmons) to stop seeing the prince. Hamlet decides to hide what he knows behind a pretence of madness. ## Review Four years after [*Henry V*](https://film.one/film/henry-v-1944), which he had made in colour, Laurence Olivier went back to Shakespeare and did the opposite. [*Hamlet*](https://film.one/film/hamlet) is in black and white. Its Elsinore is bare stone, long stairs and empty halls, and its people stand a long way from one another. Before the play begins a voice tells us that this is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind, so that we know what to watch for. Olivier produced, directed and adapted it as well as starring, and he has cut the play to 153 minutes, losing Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Fortinbras along the way. What is left is a fine film and a smaller play, and we think the first outweighs the second. Desmond Dickinson’s camera is the first reason to see it. It climbs the staircases ahead of the actors, slides along the battlements, looks down into the courtyard from a great height and then draws back through an arch to find someone listening. Everything is in focus at once, a face in the foreground and a door at the far end of the hall, so we always know who is behind whom. The Ghost is the best thing Dickinson does. It comes out of the fog on the walls as a shape under a helmet, the soundtrack fills with a slowed heartbeat, and the picture throbs in and out of focus in time with it. Olivier speaks the Ghost’s lines himself, in a hollow whisper. We were cold for the whole scene, and we had thought ourselves past being frightened by a man in armour. William Walton’s score is the second reason. Brass for the court, drums for the walls, and a funeral march that runs through the whole film. He also writes something quieter under the soliloquies, several of which Olivier plays as thought, lips still while his voice runs on. It works in “To be or not to be”, spoken on a tower above a churning sea with the camera settling behind his head; the height and the strings made us slightly sick, which we take to be the intention. It works less well indoors, where a man staring at nothing with his mouth shut looks like an actor waiting for a cue. The cast is well chosen. Basil Sydney’s Claudius is a heavy, sweating man who has done the thing and knows it. Felix Aylmer’s Polonius is quicker and funnier than the part usually gets. Jean Simmons’s Ophelia is a girl rather than a soprano, and Simmons is best in her later scenes, which we will not describe. Peter Cushing turns up late as Osric with a hat and a bow, and Stanley Holloway’s Gravedigger arrives later still with a London voice, at which point a film that has been holding its breath for two hours finally laughs. The one odd choice is Eileen Herlie as Gertrude, who is plainly younger than the man playing her son. Olivier wants us to notice. The Queen’s bed, huge and curtained, sits at the centre of the court that Roger Furse and Elizabeth Hennings have dressed in stone and velvet, and the camera keeps going back to it. The scene in Gertrude’s closet is played close, hot and long. It is a famous reading and it is not a subtle one. Olivier himself is the difficulty. He was forty when he made it, his hair dyed almost white, and he looks forty. Every line is clear. But his Hamlet is brisk, athletic and sardonic, a man who takes stairs three at a time and enjoys baiting Polonius, and he does not look like someone who cannot make up his mind. The prologue and the performance disagree, and the performance wins. The cuts cost more than they save. Without Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Hamlet has nobody his own age to talk to, and without Fortinbras Denmark has no neighbours and the play has no politics. What remains is a family in a castle. For the middle hour we felt the length, as Helga Cranston dissolves from one grey corridor to another and the camera prowls stairs it prowled twenty minutes before. We were restless, and then we saw that the restlessness was meant, and knowing that did not help. The poster called it the motion picture of all time, for all time. It is not that. It is a handsome, chilly, intelligent film of a play that is bigger than any one reading of it, and it has a ghost we will not forget. Watch it late, with the sound up, and let Walton and Dickinson do the persuading. *Fi1m score 84, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are all favourable, and most are warmly so. The praise gathers on Olivier himself, doing three jobs at once: critics find his Hamlet intelligent, clearly spoken and free of wasted gesture, and several credit his direction with making Elsinore feel like a place rather than a set. The supporting cast is called near-perfect more than once. The later reviews add admiration for the monochrome photography, the sound and the Ghost, reading the film as closer to noir than to filmed theatre. Where critics part is on the whole against the parts. The New Yorker thinks the fine moments do not quite add up and places it below Olivier’s Henry V, though it still recommends the film. Empire notes that some of Olivier’s contemporaries objected to the cuts made to the text. The spread is narrow: one measured recommendation among six strong ones, and nobody dissenting outright. ### Reviews we read (7) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (90/100, inferred): The review praises Olivier's 1948 Hamlet as one of cinema's finest Shakespeare adaptations, noting its Freudian interpretation, atmospheric monochrome photography, and cinematic vision that makes Elsinore a character in itself. It highlights the director-star's compression of the text and interiorised soliloquies while acknowledging some contemporary criticism of liberties taken with the play. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/hamlet-5-review/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Edwin Schallert (90/100, inferred): Olivier meets the challenge of Shakespeare on screen magnificently, creating an epochal film version that will be a model for future efforts. The cast is praised as the finest, with Olivier's triune duty as producer, director, and actor singled out for its power and genius. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/story/2022-09-06/from-the-archives-hamlet-momentous-triumph-for-olivier) - **The New York Times**, Bosley Crowther (90/100, inferred): The critic hails Olivier's Hamlet as a superior movie and predicts it will be one of the great popular pictures of the times. Olivier's central performance is singled out as the most cogent, with the cast's overall acting praised for its sensitivity and power. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1948/10/03/archives/oliviers-hamlet-hailing-a-shakespearean-tragedy-as-a-hit-a-very.html) - **The Telegraph**, Campbell Dixon (90/100, inferred): The film is a triumph with minor flaws, turning one of the stage's masterpieces into one of the greatest films, largely due to its content and acting rather than technical perfection as cinema. Olivier delivers a virile, fascinating performance with every line intelligible and no superfluous gesture or false note, supported by a near-perfect cast. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william-shakespeare/10782898/Shakespeare-Laurence-Olivier-as-Hamlet-original-1948-Telegraph-review.html) - **Variety** (90/100, inferred): Olivier's Hamlet is one of the most memorable films ever to come from a British studio, with the star-producer-director's confidence resulting in exceptional teamwork. Olivier's interpretation of Hamlet as a sensitive man lacking resolution is praised, along with the film's overall quality and prestige value. [Read](https://variety.com/1948/film/reviews/hamlet-4-1200415991/) - **The New Yorker** (70/100, inferred): Olivier's Hamlet is recommended for its many magnificent moments, including fine acting, remarkable sets, and superb music, though the parts are deemed better than the whole and it falls short of his Henry V. The editing that compresses the play and the excellent swordplay are highlighted positively. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/10/02/1948-10-02-090-tny-cards-000026468) - **Paste**, Jacob Oller (85/100, inferred): The critic praises Olivier's 1948 Hamlet as a groundbreaking cinematic adaptation that brings Shakespeare's play to life through innovative sound design and noirish expressionism, particularly highlighting the haunting portrayal of the Ghost. It commends the film's psychological depth and its ability to make the story accessible and powerful on screen. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/william-shakespeare/hamlet-laurence-olivier-film-noir-ghost) ## Details - **Director:** Laurence Olivier - **Director:** Laurence Olivier - **Screenplay:** Laurence Olivier - **Cinematography:** Desmond Dickinson - **Editor:** Helga Cranston - **Music:** William Walton - **Costume design:** Roger Furse, Elizabeth Hennings - **Producer:** Laurence Olivier - **Cast:** Laurence Olivier as Hamlet - Prince of Denmark / Voice of Ghost; Basil Sydney as Claudius - The King; Eileen Herlie as Gertrude - The Queen; Norman Wooland as Horatio - His Friend; Felix Aylmer as Polonius - Lord Chamberlain; Jean Simmons as Ophelia; Terence Morgan as Laertes; Peter Cushing as Osric - **Runtime:** 2h 33m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 11 March 1956 - **Genres:** Drama - **Budget:** $750,000 ## Where to watch in the US - HBO Max: streaming, leaving 2026-09-30 - Tubi: free, hd - The Roku Channel: free, hd - Hulu: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, sd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AU, CA, DK, ES, FI, GB, IE, IT, JP, NO, NZ, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1949: Best Original Dramatic or Comedy Score (nominated); Best Supporting Actress (nominated); Best Actor (won); Best Art Direction, Black and White (won); Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (won); Best Picture (won) ## If you liked this - *Henry V* (1944), Fi1m 82: Olivier’s earlier Shakespeare, in colour and outdoors; everything this one deliberately is not — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/henry-v-1944.md) - *Hamlet* (1964): Kozintsev’s Soviet version keeps the politics Olivier cut, with Shostakovich on the score - *Throne of Blood* (1957): Kurosawa’s Macbeth in fog and armour, the other great castle film of the period - *Chimes at Midnight* (1966): Welles as Falstaff, Shakespeare cut and reassembled by a director who trusts faces - *Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead* (1990): Stoppard gives the two men Olivier removed the whole film to themselves --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/hamlet-1948