Richard Burton-To Be or Not to Be (From Prince of Players)

Scene of Richard Burton reciting a passage from Hamlet, as Edwin Booth in the Film Prince of Players.

[@bernardhayes4459]

OMG what a voice

[@shelleysanders9666]

And that slight hint of his Welsh accent.. The pausing & intonation are superb

[@mustafamar1437]

Shakespeare acted by Burton leads to goosebumps. He is the prince and the words and pauses penetrates the heart and mind. Awesome.

[@ccasey1904]

I agree with mustafamar.

[@kristine6996]

He plays with his voice standing on a stage. A natural.

[@nicholaskearney678]

The Burton voice, the Shakespeare words of image, 'theater of the mind' together forever intwined. 2023, where now ..?

[@lenietrollip486]

What an actor he was! Magnificent voice, and so good-looking too!😊

[@patstocker3658]

I must have seen Hamlet, Henry V and Richard III more than 100 times each. I used to go to the Academy cinema in Tottenham Court Road straight from work. See the film twice each nite over a 3 week period, year after year after year. I can still quote most of the scripts verbatim, no bad thing. Not boasting was just obsessed with Olivier, Shakespeare and my first great love history. What a magnificent actor he had , (what I consider) the most beautiful exquisite speaking voice, which totally and utterly seduced me as young teenager. Sigh. Memories aah! Indeed.

[@v4v819]

You must have been rich!!!!!!

[@patstocker3658]

@@v4v819 laugh out loud, no not at all, just obsessive about history, Shakespeare and Olivier. I was earning £3/5/6d a week. Can’t remember what cinema the prices were. Maybe 7/6d . ? I should look it up, I know at one point it was £1/0/9d( one and nines). God knows if I’ve got that right. Good old days

[@ruadhagainagaidheal9398]

@@patstocker3658Yep,1/9 (one and nine) for the rear stalls. 1/6(one and six) was nearer the front so not so well focussed. I was earning £3/17/6 in those days !

[@r.j.powers381]

Hamlet is contemplating his own existence and whether it should continue. This is the first time I've ever heard the nuances of doubt and fear and bravado that this most famous soliloquy in the English theatre demands. I've finally heard it the way it's supposed to be said. At last.

[@ianmcgrath3412]

Yes, I felt that too, Felt involved.

[@nbenefiel]

I saw Burton do Hamlet when I was a kid. He wore a black turtleneck and sat on the side of the stage. His voice was mesmerizing.

[@yvonneplant9434]

In 1964, right?

[@nbenefiel]

@@yvonneplant9434 Must have been. I was about 13. Burton was on my dad’s radio show. He gave my dad tickets to the play. He took me and my older sister. My mom stayed home with my baby sister.

[@postmodernrecycler]

Burton at his most beautiful and articulate. An astoundingly subtle performance of a tricky soliloquy.

[@yvonneplant9434]

Alcoholism destroyed him in the end. I feel nothing but sadness about it.

[@postmodernrecycler]

@@yvonneplant9434 It's such a tragedy.

[@judylittle5285]

I admire anyone who can remember and flawlessly recite all those Shakespearian lines.

[@jamesupton4996]

Well, studying them at school drills them into you. Can't say I can speak like Burton, though.

[@ManCave1972]

Commands silence that performance. That voice. But also shout out to the framing of this- the blocking. Beautifully realised.

[@prince.mushroom]

Yeah that was extraordinary. The main side shot alone-it creates a sort of "fifth wall" that reveals all the layers of the proscenium facade like a cutaway drawing, but repurposes them as pillars of what's essentially another Elsinore set extending into the wings (the ghostly stage lights, soaring drapery etc.). Tidy metaphor. Then there's the dimensions explored by the camera, the brief appearance of the audience, the use of the other actors... brilliant stuff

[@hugovallenas]

This is a brief scene with some lines of Hamlet from Prince of Players (1955), directed by Philip Dunne. Burton plays actor Edwin Thomas Booth, elder brother of John Wilkes Booth, the assasin of President Lincoln. The story depicts how the tragedy affected his career. It is a very good movie.

[@inkwarp]

not just some lines, the whole soliloquy...

[@slrsouth64]

bravo, good movie. played on a weekend as a child. a couple of times over years. I remember it also. But forgot this.

[@helensmith13]

Now it makes more sense, as it's not good acting just a famous speech spoken beautifully.

[@georgestreng]

Thanks for making that clear.

[@tracyjereb7999]

What a fabulous actor he was. I could listen to him all day, that beautiful deep voice is so soothing. Lost way too young but his legacy will live on.

[@TomLyne-fy3jg]

A few hundred years ago, Shakespeare sat at a writing desk, and thought, some day, a guy named Burton will read these lines perfectly.

[@monologamist]

And also wrote it for an actor named Richard

[@Mistersandyrobertson]

I just heard Barrymore's version of this, and was shocked how flat it was. Burton's rendering is magnificent.

[@pendorran]

Fair dues, Barrymore's recitation wasn't part of a performance but directly into the microphone.

[@johnheart6890]

I have never seen this before! Thanks!

[@monologamist]

You're welcome. Thanks for watching!

[@Br1an.J]

You can see a lot of the magic that would dominate his legendary broadway run nine years later

[@gypzs9]

To experience this in person, what that would have been.

[@electricdreamer]

When are we going to have an actor like Richard Burton again?

[@ccasey1904]

Don’t you understand? Everyone is unique and they only come around once in a lifetime.

[@pato2200]

​@@ccasey1904 carly Simon came around again

[@musicloverlondon6070]

Fascinating difference of style to the way Shakespeare is generally done today. Burton had such a distinctive voice and I like the way he pauses at particular points to show the character's thinking. The tone and pitch seem so much flatter by comparison with today's actors though and the speed is slower as well, I feel. Someone at the RSC did a study of how such speeches would have been done in the modes of speech from Shakespeare's time and discovered that plays progressed much more quickly! Personally, I much prefer the more natural, less declamatory style of today but each has its place. Famous speeches like these must be so daunting for the actors - dealing with the weight of expectation and comparisons with all those celebrated previous performers. This was very interesting. Thanks for uploading it.

[@classiclife7204]

Also worth remembering he's playing Edwin Booth from the mid-19th century, and is probably adding on some extra sentimentality to the style.

[@heidineumann-venetianer5473]

I could listen to him all day

[@piffpaff9674]

A giant as actor. Only British actors are made for that way of classical acting.

[@englishexpert1989]

What is so special about acting?

[@GoldBawls]

He wan only 5’ 10” really. You must be very small.

[@englishexpert1989]

@@GoldBawls - How is he small?

[@worrywart1311]

@@englishexpert1989 I thought you were the expert.

[@englishexpert1989]

@@worrywart1311 Why do you think otherwise ?

[@CelestialShaman44]

What an impressive actor!! Impressive!!! 💖💎💖💎👑

[@calgarytek]

How does he remember all that, insane!

[@valerieheatlie2034]

I sit in the theatre listening to these excellent thespians and am in awe . I can't remember what I wrote on my shopping list never mind reciting a soliloquy.

[@williamkazak469]

This is brilliant!

[@petermatthew123]

Great actor. Unforgettable voice!

[@innerlight617]

immense actor!!!

[@inkwarp]

wow, never seen this before? his reading is spot on...

[@briancregan407]

I have seen burton in hamlet in 1963 directed by john Gielgud which was recorded but i hadn't heard of a filmed version with burton

[@ronnieince4568]

Every time Burton spoke he creates a veritable symphony with words.

[@ellenthorne8222]

Richard Burton could read the phone book and you drawn in, hated Shakespear at school because you had to read it aloud in front of the whole class something I've never been able to do comfortably. I love hearing people's voices.

[@carpediem4290]

I'm spanish, and read Shakespeare's plays in spanish. Took me years to understand what Shakespeare wanted to transmit to posterity in this monolog, but finally I think to have understood. Is the doubt of an insecure person laking of self esteem. Victim of his passive-aggresive behavior. Great for ever Richard...Thanks fir video.

[@Ciara1594]

One of my favorite scenes is when he was playing Richard III to cowboys on the prairie. ☺️

[@TheChrisofe]

Magnificent

[@maria-christinamigone-benf5541]

He was the best Hamlet ever. R.I.P.

[@drewprice8468]

Barrymore and Geilgud were pretty good also.

[@Missjunebugfreak]

My God he was mesmerizing.

[@rosemaryallen2128]

He had the voice. He had the looks. He had the talent. And he threw it all away for money and the power of money. He admitted as much! Sad.

[@hunterluxton5976]

Not quite true. He saw acting as infantile. He true love/ ambition was writing. Others say he "threw it away" he enjoyed his " diabolical life" as he put it. The drinking ended his life prematurely. Watch his interview with Elizabeth at Oxford, he dismisses the accusation emphatically.

[@rosemaryallen2128]

@@hunterluxton5976 Whatever he thought he should be doing, the poor guy had the facial expression of a man who was not true to himself. No one hits the bottle without a deep seated problem, of course.

[@ah7910]

Rosemary, I’m certain you won’t answer my question directly but I’m curious to hear what have you done with your life? To be getting so inappropriately personal and mean-spirited about Mr Burton’s life choices. Apart from hiding behind your keyboard and firing off a critique of someone else’s life, please instead tell us what makes you such an authority. He will be remembered, he made a great deal of people happy and inspired generations. If you can stop being a crazy loon for a few minutes and acting like Kathy Bates character in Stephen King’s Misery… tell us, what is it you have contributed to the world? Apart from negativity.

[@rosemaryallen2128]

Easy-peasy. Surviving abuse, getting a degree, writing complex short stories and alliterative poetry, designing and restoring jewellery, acting (took that up in my 40s) caring (15 years, including dementia care) dealing in books and antiques, editing fiction and technical literature, being a company director and company secretary, studying the British Flora and architecture, and supporting my inventor husband through much trouble. Now I'm into opera, but I've given up learning Russian, for obvious reasons. That was fun. Do for now, silly person? PS I'm sorry to have upset your sensibilities. I merely referred to what is public knowledge.

[@stephenmihaly2337]

I wouldn’t say he threw it all away. But yes he squandered a good deal of his immense talent and could have done so much more. But what he did achieve was so much more memorable and great than only a very few other actors in history can be said of.

[@eringemini7091]

One of the best, if not THE best (and most handsome), Actors of ALL time!

[@whitesidechris]

To think Josh Brolin first tried acting Thanos “with this Richard Burton Shakespearean” direction and Marvel told him no…one can imagine Brolin falling into fanciful fluffery, or one can perhaps imagine it was twice as articulate and menacing as the final product. I’d like to see it

[@monologamist]

That would be interesting

[@franceleeparis37]

Michael Caine recounted that some guy asked John Wayne, the American actor, to recite this soliloquy for a charity event… after reading the first few lines, John Wayne stopped and then with a puzzled look asked ‘who wrote this crap..’😂😂

[@timmckee2813]

...angels...?...there is one...thanks...love...

[@inesiannini9135]

Magnifico❤

[@ceceliapassarella8485]

Breathtakingly beautiful

[@bandicoot5412]

He nailed it

[@yaskyme3064]

Interesting to compare Burton's performance here in 1955, when he was 30 years old, to the one in the 1964 Broadway production of Hamlet (also available on KZbin) when he was 39. He was still good, but the tone of his voice is far more nuanced, even musical, here. Nine years of hard drinking (up to two bottles of whiskey or vodka a day) and smoking (three to four packs a day) sure took its toll on his voice. Compare this to Olivier, whose voice stayed strong through his 50s, and even in his 60s he could do quite a bit with his voice despite poor health.

[@briangriffin4515]

This is the greatest bit of the greatest play - never hackneyed! - and Burton does it justice. Only at the end does he rattle it off too glibly. Compare Olivier's dying fall ...

[@angloaust1575]

Quite mesmerising voice No wonder women found him Irresistible!

[@anneclaffey2843]

My cousin Richard ❤

[@和男田村-z8q]

福田先生が褒めておられた、バートンのハムレットをまさか観る事が出来ようとは…😂ありがたい時代デス❗😔

[@IrenaDudnik]

Amazing.

[@ceceliapassarella8485]

I found this performance better and more intense than the modern one he did in black and white

[@fus149hammer5]

Burton could read a menu and it would sound mellifluous. If he had managed to cut back on the bottle and not had such a scandalous private life within a few years he would have been Sir Richard Burton. He was simply magnificent.

[@Aubury]

Wow !

[@suecollins1991]

That man could've read an auto repair manual and made it sound like classical literature!

[@kathleenhensley5951]

Impressive.

[@briancregan407]

Never have I -was it a film and if so when was it made?

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

As at least one earlier poster stated, this scene is from *Prince of Players* (1955), which stars Burton as the famous actor Edwin Booth, the elder brother of presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth. This movie contains a number of scenes from Shakespeare that Burton never recorded or filmed anywhere else.

[@rsr789]

So much better than any modern performance, and I'm including Branagh's version as well. All the modern versions seem too drawn out, too 'over the top'.

[@tango6nf477]

I don't get Shakespeare, I just can't seem to understand the attraction, perhaps I can blame school where we were forced to read it and (awfully) play some of the roles. However that is my loss, but listening to it being spoken by RB even if I haven't a clue what he is saying is something else. This wasn't his best but generally he could have read instructions for baking a cake and it would have been gripping.

[@majorlaff8682]

First ... rub in the flour ... with the butter ... and only the best of butter ... when it is of ... one ... composition ... slowly ... ever so slowly ... add the sugar ... (I think I know what you mean, Tango. If only RB had done cooking shows.)

[@ceceliapassarella8485]

Does anyone have the entire video

[@cynthiacassel]

That Star Wars date was rough.

[@hailaisissi3978]

Anyone know what year was this movie ? He looks quite young

[@monologamist]

Shooting started in August 1954, he turned 29 that September.

[@helensmith13]

Well I never thought I'd say this but it's so old fashioned. He is quoting, very beautifully and sonorously, but not acting as if those thoughts are occurring as he is speaking and so the speech and its meaning to him, to us and to the play loses its emotional thrust. Sorry I do love Richard Burton. I wonder how it would compare with Richard Burbage?

[@worrywart1311]

Perhaps you haven't realised he is portraying here a real actor from the mid-1800s in the role of Hamlet. There would be something seriously amiss if it DIDN'T sound "old-fashioned".

[@mikeoglen6848]

Whomsoever wrote that Script was a good writer...

[@majorlaff8682]

Who is 'Richard Burton-To'?

[@monologamist]

Good point

[@thallesvinicius2729]

00:26

[@kathrynmcfarlane1243]

Ya think Liz fell for the man no it was his amazing voice

[@hunterluxton5976]

The most famous literary advertisement for the case of suicide.

[@janel342]

Not at all. It’s exactly the opposite. Listen from ‘ after death. It’s antithetical thought.

[@patstocker3658]

Because it’s not Laurence Olivier. Now there was Hamlet. Superb, majestical , sublime

[@mustafamar1437]

Famous contemplating of suicide and concluding that the feared burdens of the next life are worse than trials of this life.

[@TheSaltydog07]

You chopped it off.

[@majorlaff8682]

Ouch! Will it grow back?

[@bobbyhanly3466]

Better than Branagh but in a poor second place to Gibson.

[@majorlaff8682]

'orses for courses - stage, studio or outdoor location? Mel's certainly re-created interest in Shakespeare when it was released in 1990.

[@CharlesMatheny]

You all seem to admire this. I disagree.

[@stephensmith5982]

I must subject myself to scorn. Not a fan of this particular rendition of a magnificent soliloquy.

[@justgivemethetruth]

I know Shakespeare is great, but this particular speech never made sense to me. It's pompous and puffed up and nothing like someone contemplating suicide would say.

[@winonamassingill7895]

Tb or not Tb, that is congestion. Consumtion be done about it? Of corps, of of corps!!!😅😅😅😅🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬

[@daiomarisan]

sorry, much as I love the actor, this is off putting. Too much Burton, too little prince of sorrows.

[@garganspencer6103]

IMHO, Paul Schofield's Hamlet was MUCH BETTER!

[@julietteyork6293]

I don’t understand what he’s saying

[@monologamist]

Check out the subtitles :)

[@julietteyork6293]

@@monologamist I should have clarified-I don’t understand Shakespearean English.

[@monologamist]

Oh gotcha@@julietteyork6293

[@georgebennett3197]

This is awful.

[@hunterluxton5976]

Why?

[@mustafamar1437]

Awesome is the word.

[@kp8381]

George. I guess you can not appreciate greatness from one of the best actors of all time. Shakespeare is not for everyone, but this is classic gold.

[@georgebennett3197]

@@kp8381 I am very well aware of the greatness of Richard Burton - I love his work and I've been reading Shakespeare and watching many productions over my lifetime. But here -in this one particular video Burton sounds more like Captain Kirk on the holodeck having a bash at Shakespeare.

[@mustafamar1437]

@@kp8381 Burton had the audience in the palm of his hand with pin drop silence. It gave me goosebumps and showed the majesty and mesmerising quality of shakespeare when performed by Burton...truly awesome.

[@christophercooper4149]

One of the most overrated actors ever

[@FergieToes]

imagine bedtime stories spoken by that voice ...