The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.1028. Monday, 13 October 1997.
[1] From: Barrett Fisher <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 10 Oct 1997 12:21:34 -0500 (CDT)
Subj: Othello Inspirations
[2] From: Gerda Grice <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 10 Oct 1997 15:57:31 -0400 (EDT)
Subj: Re: Other "Offspring" of Shakespeare's Plays
[3] From: Cora Lee Wolfe <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 10 Oct 1997 21:26:45 -0600
Subj: Re: SHK 8.1023 Re: Oth-Inspired Film
[4] From: David Levine <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 11 Oct 1997 00:13:28 -0400 (EDT)
Subj: Re: SHK 8.1023 Re: Oth-Inspired Film
[5] From: Martin Jukovsky <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 12 Oct 1997 12:41:10 -0500
Subj: Other Othello Adaptations
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Barrett Fisher <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 10 Oct 1997 12:21:34 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Othello Inspirations
Many thanks to those of you who have sent privately or posted some
excellent suggestions for my friend's "Othello" project. I am
embarrassed by two quite stupid errors in my original post:
Yes, I do know the difference between "Do the Right Thing" and "Jungle
Fever"! I simply typed the former when I meant the latter. (I suppose
this is one way in which e-mail is more like informal speech than formal
writing.)
And I do know the difference between Denzel Washington and Wesley
Snipes, but I simply "misremembered." Perhaps I was affected by having
seen the former recently in "Mississippi Massala." His name didn't seem
quite right as I was typing, but I charged on anyway. Mea culpa.
Thanks again; you have all been a great help.
Barrett Fisher
[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gerda Grice <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 10 Oct 1997 15:57:31 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Other "Offspring" of Shakespeare's Plays
The story of Canadian novelist Margaret Laurence's _The Stone Angel_ is
a _King Lear_ analogue. The heroine, who lavishes all her hopes and
affection on the wrong one of her two sons and who, when she is sick and
very elderly, runs away from home rather than face being put out of her
house and into a nursing home by her son and daughter-in-law is very
much a Queen Lear figure. Another of Laurence's novels, _The Diviners_
contains some elements of _The Tempest_.
Gerda Grice
Ryerson Polytechnic University
Toronto, Canada
[3]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Cora Lee Wolfe <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Friday, 10 Oct 1997 21:26:45 -0600
Subject: 8.1023 Re: Oth-Inspired Film
Comment: Re: SHK 8.1023 Re: Oth-Inspired Film
This isn't about Othello, but there is a silly Canadian comedy called
"Strange Brew" that's a take off on Hamlet.
[4]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Levine <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 11 Oct 1997 00:13:28 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 8.1023 Re: Oth-Inspired Film
Comment: Re: SHK 8.1023 Re: Oth-Inspired Film
The most direct Othello-inspired movie I know is All Night Long, which
is a very direct adaptation which also functioned as the occasion for
what I remember as a good jazz score. Othello becomes Rex, a black
bandleader and the Iago character is played by Patrick McGoohan, the
band's drummer. Cassio's "weakness" becomes pot. The story ends with
everyone being saved in the nick of time. It used to play on late night
television until about twenty years ago. I'm not sure who did the
score, but I'm tempted to say John Dankworth...if I weren't so lazy, I'd
look it up.
[5]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Martin Jukovsky <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 12 Oct 1997 12:41:10 -0500
Subject: Other Othello Adaptations
Other free adaptations of OTHELLO to the screen include MEN ARE NOT GODS
(1936), wherein, as in A DOUBLE LIFE (1947), an actor takes his playing
of Othello much too seriously; and ALL NIGHT LONG (1961), which sets it
in a contemporary jazz musician milieu.
Martin Jukovsky
Cambridge, Mass.