David Bradley had been working in films--as director, actor, producer--for some ten years before making Macbeth, which, according to newspaper clippings from the time, he began producing on the very day he was discharged from the military (April 23, Shakespeare's birthday). An independent production by Bradley and his associates, who pooled their resources and talents to make the film, Macbeth was enthusiastically received by critics. The New York Times reported, “It's not Hollywood, of course, but performance and photography are on a high level, and the film is certain to rank as one of the finest produced by amateurs.” Bradley stars as Macbeth, and director Thomas A. Blair as Banquo. Theirs is undoubtedly the only version of Macbeth shot in Winnetka, Illinois; graveyards, a college library, a quarry, a castle (100 miles from town) and various churches were the shooting sites. The battle of Birnam Wood was enacted at Crow Island, just west of Winnetka, with 100 extras sufficing for Shakespeare's recommended 10,000.