Thanks to the year-long efforts of UCLA Film Archives preservation officer Robert Gitt, Orson Welles' Macbeth-a film which was cut by 21 minutes, re-recorded to Americanize the dialogue, and then rarely shown-has been restored to its original length with footage found with great difficulty, and to its original Scottish-accented soundtrack. UCLA's beautiful 35mm print will be preceded by a 10-minute film comparing the short and long versions of Macbeth.
In addition to the restored footage, which contains additional scenes and slightly different cuts of the same sequences found in the 16mm print, eight minutes of musical overture and three-and-one-half minutes of exit music by the film's composer, Jacques Ibert, are included in this definitive version.
Long-time Welles collaborator Richard Wilson considers Macbeth "the greatest experimental American film ever made under the Hollywood studio system." One great stylistic eye-opener included in the lost-found footage is a take that occupies an entire camera reel of film; this in a film made shortly before Hitchcock's no-cut (and little seen) Rope, and probably a first in Hollywood. It drove the studio ‘absolutely mad,' recalls Wilson. The 10-minute scene required numerous re-takes simply because the film ran out before the actors had gotten through all the dialogue.