Finite jest

Who, when, how long?
Maximilian Schell, 1961, as abridged to 1½ hrs. and eviscerated in 1999 by Mystery Science Theater 3000

What kind of Hamlet?
Teutonic. Very.

What's missing?
Not a pertinent question under the circumstances; according to IMDb the made-for-TV West German original was 152 min., and given the sometimes plodding pace, it can be presumed to have jettisoned at least as much as the 2½-hour versions I've seen. There's no Fortinbras/Norway plot; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear in the IMDb cast list, but MST3K dropped them.

What's changed?
Uh, aside from making the play ludicrous and boring, you mean? I was laughing too hard at the commentary to make many notes.

What's odd?
Well, apart from seeing the silhouettes of a guy and two robots sticking up in front of the "screen" and listening to their commentary, how about this: in the English-dubbed version, Claudius is voiced by Ricardo Montalban.

Flesh?
Solid. And for the first time, I got to see Hamlet jump into the grave while Laertes is in it.

Ghost?
Oh, golly. Liberacesque? One of the robots suggested Rip Taylor, and that's a fair call too. But where have I seen those jutting shoulders before? I've got it: Riff and Magenta in the finale of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Ham-Gert eros?
Not so you'd notice.

Other people?
Yes, there are.

It's funny: I'm looking on Nf and seeing a bunch of one- and two-star reviews from fans of MST3K. I've seen the show only once or twice before this, and if this is really one of the worst episodes ever aired, as several reviewers claim, I might as well buy the whole series right now, because I found it brilliant. The irreverent cracks about Shakespeare's language are funny, but the best remarks show both a sophisticated knowledge of the play and a well-developed critical sense of acting and direction. Oh, and lest you suspect that they made an adequate production bad via their cuts, 252 IMDb raters have given the (presumably full) production an astonishing average of 2.3 stars out of 10. This version, though, gets four jester's caps from me.