A Midsummer Night's Dream - 1935

Mickey Rooney broke his leg during filming, and was wheeled around behind bushes on a bicycle during filming.

Mickey Rooney is usually thought to have been eleven when he made this film. He was actually 14 during filming.

Olivia de Havilland was cast in the film after successfully playing Hermia in the Hollywood Bowl production.

Film debut of Olivia de Havilland, although it was released after her next two films, Alibi Ike (1935) and The Irish in Us (1935).

William Dieterle had full charge as director for about a week because of a breach-of-contract suit filed against Max Reinhardt by a French film company. The judge found in favor of Reinhardt, and lifted the restraining order.

The movie was banned in Germany by the Nazi government because Max Reinhardt and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy were Jews and considered undesirable.

The first stage production of this play was in London, about in 1595.

None of Ernest Haller's photography is in the finished film; he was fired and replaced by Hal Mohr, who re-did everything that Haller had shot.

When the forest that Max Reinhardt designed could not be lit properly, cinematographer Hal Mohr thinned the trees slightly, sprayed them with aluminum paint and covered them with cobwebs and tiny metal particles to reflect the light. As a result, he became the first (and only) write-in winner of an Academy Award.

Composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold was personally chosen by director Max Reinhardt. Both agreed in an early production stage to use the original incidental music written by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy as the film's soundtrack. (Reinhardt did a stage production of the play before and used Mendelssohn's music.) As the film runs over two hours it was obvious that Mendelssohn's composition would be too short. Instead of just repeating several musical cues to fit the film's final length Korngold adapted the incidental music and parts of some other compositions by Mendelssohn, re-orchestrated them for a larger orchestra and choir (most notably heard in his Wedding March version at the end) and composed some short musical bridges by himself. Thus he created a complete symphonic score for the movie based on Mendelssohn's music. However, he chose to remain uncredited as a composer and insisted on giving full musical credit to Mendelssohn.

The first Shakespeare adaptation to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

First Shakespeare adaptation to be nominated for Best Picture (*one of its two Oscars was a write-in winner).

Many of the actors in this version had never performed Shakespeare before and never would do so again, notably Cagney and Brown, who were nevertheless highly acclaimed for their performances. All critics agreed that Dick Powell was horribly miscast as Lysander, and Powell himself concurred with the critics' verdict.

Olivia de Havilland originally auditioned for the role of Puck in Reinhardt's legendary stage production of the play at the Hollywood Bowl. Although the cast of the stage play was mostly replaced by Warner Brothers contract players, de Havilland and Mickey Rooney were chosen to reprise their original roles.

Avant-garde director Kenneth Anger claimed in his book Hollywood Babylon II to have played the changeling prince in this film when he was a child, but in fact the role was played by child star Sheila Brown.

Cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream

Ian Hunter as Theseus, Duke of Athens
Verree Teasdale as Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus
Hobart Cavanaugh as Philostrate, Master of Revels to Theseus
Dick Powell as Lysander, In love with Hermia
Ross Alexander as Demetrius, In love with Hermia
Olivia de Havilland as Hermia, In love with Lysander (as Olivia de Haviland)
Jean Muir as Helena, In love with Demetrius
Grant Mitchell as Egeus, Father to Hermia
Frank McHugh as Quince, the Carpenter
Dewey Robinson as Snug, the Joiner
James Cagney as Bottom, the Weaver
Joe E. Brown as Flute, the Bellows-mender
Hugh Herbert as Snout, the Tinker
Otis Harlan as Starveling, the Tailor
Arthur Treacher as Epilogue
Victor Jory as Oberon, King of the Fairies
Anita Louise as Titania, Queen of the Fairies
Nini Theilade as Fairie, Attending Titania (as Nina Theilade)
Mickey Rooney as Puck or Robin Goodfellow, a Fairy
Katherine Frey as Pease-Blossom
Helen Westcott as Cobweb
Fred Sale as Moth
Billy Barty as Mustard-Seed