Abstract
Abstract
This chapter presents an account of the confrontation between British actor Laurence Olivier and American producer David O. Selznick over what were effectively rights of property in films of Shakespeare plays. In April 1946, Selznick registered the titles of seven Shakespeare plays, including Hamlet, with the Title Registration Bureau of the Motion Picture Association of America. Following his refusal to allow Vivien Leigh to take the part of Katherine in Henry V, Selznick used this registration to try to frustrate Olivier’s plans for his celebrated production of Hamlet. The chapter discusses the importance of Shakespearean films in the internationalist milieu of the post-war American film industry, and tracks Selznick’s deployment of title registration as a form of industrial espionage into the anti-communist backlash of HUAC and the post-Marshall Plan stand-off between the British and American film industries in 1947–8.
Publisher
Oxford University PressOxford
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