Really Surprised!

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

"Citizen Kane" was certainly a tough act to follow, which is why you're not familiar with most of Orson Welles' other films. I truly believe that you should check out all of his movies as most of them are great, but sadly not on the level of "Citizen Kane". Welles was rather fond of Shakespeare and had a great starring role. I have never seen an adaptation of "Othello" before or even read (or seen) the play performed. It actually fascinates me how it's easy to sum up. There's certainly a lot going on, but it's easy to summarize. Othello is being manipulated by Iago into thinking his wife is having an affair.The only Iago I was familiar with was the one from "Aladdin". It's great to be familiar with a character that many people consider one of the most classic villains in all of pop culture. The atmosphere is as great as you would expect it to be. It really did feel like a big epic movie even though it was only 93 minutes long. It's just hard to imagine such a great story condensed into that running time. This makes the pacing work wonderfully and it's so rewarding in the end. While not as good as his version of "Macbeth" still great. ***1/2

Orson Welles made Otello one excellent movie, because he knows everything about teatro and movies. All actors has good performances. Orson Welles, Micheál MacLiammói had great work. The movie has beautiful image in black and white. This movie is to watch with pleasure.

I love Shakespeare and learned to appreciate it from about aged 11. There are several fine adaptations based on his work, and for me this 1952 Othello is one of the best. The play is not my favourite from Shakespeare but it is a compelling one. The film does a lot of justice to the play and succeeds marvellously on its own merits. All the crucial scenes are done very well, especially the very intense and moving final scene, the dialogue is outstanding and the music compliments the film perfectly. Where this Othello really excels is in the superb direction from Orson Welles and the wonderful cinematography, costumes and settings complete with moody lighting. In terms of acting, Welles is extraordinary as Othello, Desdemona is appropriately poignant and delicate with evidence of intensity and Michael MacLiammoir is wonderful as the slimy and conniving irredeemable villain of the piece that is Iago. All in all, a brilliant film. 10/10 Bethany Cox

If you would seek some kind of perspective on the Motion Picture industry you could do worse than study the career of old Awesome; a string of masterpieces - Kane, Chimes At Midnight, Touch Of Evil - and nearasdammit masterpieces - Ambersons, Mr. Arkadin, Journey Into Fear -which he either wrote, directed and appeared in, sometimes all three, liberally laced with the trash in which he deigned to act - The Black Fox, Ferry To Hong Kong etc - in order to finance projects like this one, which belongs right up there with the masterpieces. I note that much verbiage has been spilled under this title on IMDb debating and disputing the pros and cons of the 'restored' version and whether or not it was indeed ever 'lost'. This is surely academic at best; what matters is that we now HAVE a close approximation of what Awesome intended and frankly if it were any closer I couldn't stand it. The pre-credit sequence alone is worthy of one of the great Silent masters, Gance, Dreyer and like that and the first shot proper is magisterial. Time and time again Welles uses the landscape to compose startling images only to contrast this with key speeches like 'farewell the tranquil mind ...' which he shoots more or less straight and who else but Awesome could make such a virtue out of necessity as in the scene slated for conventional filming until the costumes failed to turn up; his solution, stage it in a bath-house with the actors wearing towels which were themselves borrowed from their hotel. It was Welles himself who made the finest Shakespearean film of all time in Chimes At Midnight and with Othello he runs it a close second. Unmissable.