Bruce Loeb on Piano The first thing to say about this Hamlet is that it is not based on Shakespeare. Rather its sources are the old Danish legend as recorded by Saxo-Grammaticus, an obscure German play called Fratricide Punished (itself possibly founded on a lost pre-quarto Shakespeare version), and the book The Mystery of Hamlet by Dr. Edward P. Vining which argued that Hamlet was a woman forcibly raised as a boy so as to succeed to the throne. Vining's thesis provided the Danish actress Asta Nielsen with a unique opportunity to opt for the immortality offered by the role of the Prince of Denmark. When this film was produced in 1920, Nielsen was second only to Hamlet as the world's most famous Dane. If Vining's thesis didn't exist, Nielsen would have had to invent it: she was destined to be Hamlet. In the light of her emotionally complex performances in the social dramas that preceded Hamlet, it is somewhat surprising to note that Nielsen brought to her interpretation of Hamlet an intellectual quality which, reflected in her stylized gestures and austere physical beauty, does not allow for the profound depths of expression achieved in the earlier stories of simple street life in Berlin. One admires Nielsen's tour-de-force in Hamlet just as one is struck by the enigmatic beauty of her mask-like face, pale visage and blazing eyes. Though filmed in Germany, Hamlet was directed by the Dane Sven Gade, who was also Nielsen's husband at that time. It was released as a special "art film" attraction in New York in 1921 accompanied by a full orchestra; American critics held it up as an example of superior European culture. Treasures from the Eastman House (PFA, 1972)