![]() Despite the feuding, production continued with only minimal disruption, thanks to what Gielgud called, "Mankiewicz's consummate tact that kept us together as a working unit." Namely on me!" The subsequent shift in directorial attention didn't escape Brando, who threatened to walk off the film if Mankiewicz "threw one more scene to Mason", alleging a ménage à trois among Mankiewicz, Mason and his wife Pamela Mason. ![]() During filming, James Mason became concerned that Brando was stealing the audience's sympathy away from him and his character, Brutus, so Mason appealed to Mankiewicz, with whom he had bonded earlier while making the film 5 Fingers, requesting that the director stop Brando from dominating the film and "put the focus back where it belongs. ![]() In him a major talent has emerged.” Brando was so dedicated in his performance during shooting that Gielgud offered to direct him in a stage production of Hamlet, a proposition that Brando seriously considered but ultimately turned down. Brando's diction, which has been guttural and slurred in previous films, is clear and precise in this instance. Brando's performance turned out so well that the New York Times' Bosley Crowther stated in his review of the film: “Happily, Mr. Brando asked John Gielgud for advice in declaiming Shakespeare, and adopted all of Gielgud's recommendations. Mankiewicz even considered Paul Scofield for the role of Mark Antony if Brando's screen test was unsuccessful. Pasinetti, Italian-American writer, scholar, and teacher at UCLA served as a technical advisor.īrando's casting was met with some skepticism when it was announced, as he had acquired the nickname of "The Mumbler" following his performance in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). By this time, however, Welles and Houseman had had a falling out, and Welles had nothing to do with the 1953 film. John Houseman, who had produced the famous 1937 Broadway version of the play starring Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre, also produced the MGM film. Gielgud later played the title role in the 1970 film with Charlton Heston, Jason Robards and Richard Johnson (as Cassius) and in a stage production directed by John Schlesinger at the Royal National Theatre. John Gielgud had played Mark Antony at the Old Vic Theatre in 1930 and Cassius at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1950, James Mason had played Brutus at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in the 1940s, and John Hoyt, who plays Decius Brutus, also played him in the Mercury Theatre's 1937 stage version. Many actors in this film had experience in the play. Houseman says they "decided to do it as a small production, not a spectacle to do it for what it really is-the drama of a political power play." Casting Marlon Brando in the film's trailer. Many of the sets and costumes were repurposed from Quo Vadis (1951), with several setpieces deconstructed, flown from Rome to California, and rebuilt on MGM's Culver City studio backlot. Though Houseman originally intended to shoot the film in Italy, production ultimately took place in Los Angeles instead. Houseman says MGM wanted to make the film in color but he and Mankiewicz refused, "partly because we wanted people to relate to the newsreels, to the Fascist movements in Europe, which were still relevant" and also because they would be "using a lot of the Quo Vadis sets, and it seemed idiotic to invite comparison with Quo Vadis." "If it was going to be cast all-English, it should be an English picture, made in England and we might as well forget about it." "I'd done a lot of Shakespeare in America," he said. Houseman did not want to use an all-British cast. Mankiewicz to direct because he thought he and William Wyler were "probably the two best dialogue directors in the business" and that Mankiewicz was "younger and more flexible." MGM's head of production Dore Schary offered the project to Houseman, who said he wanted Joseph L. Producer John Houseman says the film was made because Laurence Olivier's 1944 production of Henry V had been a success.
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