Susan Shentall

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Susan Shentall (born May 21, 1934 in Sheffield , Yorkshire , England , † October 18, 1996 in Market Harborough , Leicestershire , England) was a British actress . The amateur actress gained fame through the female title role in Renato Castellani's Romeo and Juliet (1954), which was to remain her only appearance in a feature film.

Life

Discovery for the movie

Susan Shentall came from the rural north of England and was the daughter of wealthy parents. The blonde, blue-eyed art student was discovered at the age of 18 in a London restaurant by cameraman Robert Krasker ( The Third Man ), who recommended her to Renato Castellani. At the time, the Italian film director was working on a movie adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and had spent a year looking in vain for the right cast for the female lead.

Although Shentall had no previous acting experience, she found pleasure in appearing in a Shakespeare production. After a meeting with Castellani, test shots followed with Krasker, who was supposed to take over the camera work on the film project. These were so satisfactory that the young Englishwoman was invited to an audition with the Shakespeare text, in which she was also convincing. Castellani then gave her the female title role. He had worked with amateur actors on his previous films and praised Shentall as a born actress who would have an instinctive understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare's poetry.

Shentall's engagement for the British-Italian co-production was announced in the spring of 1953. At the time, Claire Bloom had played the role of Juliet to perfection on British stages. The male lead was occupied by the 25-year-old theater and film actor Laurence Harvey , who made a name for himself as a Shakespeare actor in England, but had never taken on the part of Romeo until then. So that both followed the well-known film stars Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer , in 1936 the famous lovers, directed George Cukor embodies had. The shooting of Romeo and Juliet took place from April 1953 on in original locations in Mantua and Verona as well as in Venice and Rome . Castellani insisted on other unknown faces and, among other things, filled the role of Mercutio with a Veronese architect and that of Montague with a Venetian sewer worker.

Success as "Julia" and retreat into private life

Romeo and Juliet premiered in September 1954 in competition at the Venice International Film Festival . There, Castellani's first color film was in the favor of critics and the public and was awarded the Golden Lion , the main prize of the film festival. Susan Shentall also received critical acclaim. The British Times noted her agility and temperament in handling the Shakespeare text and praised her more than co-actor Laurence Harvey. The Los Angeles Times treated her as a possible Oscar candidate and as the first teenage star since Jean Simmons in Hamlet (1948): "She really has that pure quality that is desirable for this unusual heroine, along with an extraordinary warmth and zest for life." Bosley Crowther ( The New York Times ) praised her portrayal as "calm, dignified and yet radiant with warmth of youthful emotion" and later took Romeo and Juliet into his own alongside The Fist in the Neck , A Country Girl , The Holidays of Monsieur Hulot or Sabrina List of the ten best films of 1954. The American magazine Time noted that Harvey, aged 26, and Shentall, aged 20, were the youngest Romeo and Juliet actors to date on the screen. Both would present their text without fervor, but Shentall in particular has a “delicate veil of sensuality” that paints “promises of passion on her cheerful, childlike face”, which would be rare and right for a Julia interpreter. The influential American reporter Louella Parsons counted the young Englishwoman alongside the American Kim Novak as one of the best new cinema personalities, while her competitor Hedda Hopper compared Shentall's beauty to a painting in the Louvre in Paris .

Although Susan Shentall retrospectively described working on Romeo and Juliet as a wonderful experience and a successful film career was predicted, she renounced all further film offers. She also turned down a free trip to the USA, where she was supposed to advertise her film. Shentall had married the chain store operator Philip Worthington months before the premiere of Romeo and Juliet in the first half of 1954 and retired into private life in the country near Leicester in the English East Midlands . The film producer and director Charles Marquis Warren offered her the female lead of Princess Matilda of Flanders in his film project The Norman alongside Jack Palance . However, Shentall did not follow the part in the historical epic, which was at the time endowed with US $ 75,000, any more than the female lead in Irving Rapper's film project The Boy and the Bull . The Los Angeles Times she titled then derisively as "one-shot Juliet" (dt .: "a- setting -Julia") and the career of the English girl as the shortest in film history: "Miss Shental was from the start an international star. Now, overnight, she's just a British housewife. "

Shentall turned to family life after her brief foray into the movie business. She took her husband's name and became the mother of a son in April 1956. Two more children are said to have been born. Shentall died in 1996 at the age of 62 after a long illness.

Filmography

  • 1954: Romeo and Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Place of birth according to England & Wales Birth Index 1916–2005 and information from the British Film Institute
  2. ↑ a b c cf. Berg, Louis: One-Shot Juliet . In: Los Angeles Times, March 20, 1955, p. K16.
  3. ↑ a b cf. Hawkins, Robert F. (Verona). Montague, Capulet and Castellani in action . In: The New York Times, July 12, 1953, p. X5.
  4. ↑ cf. By Way of Report: Footnotes on the Latest Entry in Wide-Screen Sweepstakes . In: The New York Times, March 29, 1953, p. X5.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g cf. Schallert, Edwin: Young British Unknown Wants to Quit After Brilliant Start in Films . In: Los Angeles Times, December 5, 1954, p. E1.
  6. ↑ cf. Anglo-Italian Film Of "Romeo And Juliet": Unusual Choice For Part Of Heroine . In: The Times, March 17, 1953, No. 52572, p. 2.
  7. ↑ a b cf. Schallert, Edwin: Student Becomes New British Juliet . In: Los Angeles Times, March 27, 1953, p. B9.
  8. ↑ cf. Romeo and Juliet . In: The large TV feature film film lexicon (CD-ROM). Directmedia Publ., 2006. ISBN 978-3-89853-036-1 . P. 10377.
  9. ↑ cf. Odeon Cinema: "Romeo And Juliet" . In: The Times, September 22, 1954, No. 53043, p. 10.
  10. ↑ cf. Schallert, Edwin: Radiant Beauty of 'Romeo and Juliet' Stands Out in 'Different' Concept . In: Los Angeles Times, December 27, p. B8.
  11. ↑ cf. Crowther, Bosley: Anglo-Italian 'Romeo and Juliet' Arrives . In: The New York Times, December 22, 1954, p. 28.
  12. ↑ cf. Crowther, Bosley: The Best of 1954 . In: The New York Times, December 26, 1954, p. X1.
  13. ↑ cf. Time review In Fair Verona from December 20, 1954 at time.com (accessed May 5, 2011).
  14. ↑ cf. Parsons, Louella : Broadway Hit Bought for Movies . In: The Washington Post, Jan 15, 1955, p. 12.
  15. ↑ cf. Hopper, Hedda : Chandler Sought for Guerrilla War Story . In: Los Angeles Times, December 15, 1954, p. B8.
  16. ↑ cf. Schallert, Edwin: New 'Juliet' Pursued for Matilda Role . In: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 26, 1954, p. B7.
  17. ↑ cf. Hopper, Hedda: Metro Wants Cary for Desi & Lu . In: The Washington Post , April 3, 1955, p. H11.
  18. ↑ cf. Studio Briefs . In: Los Angeles Times, December 11, 1954, p. 14.
  19. ↑ cf. Births . In: The Times, April 24, 1956, No. 53513, p. 1.
  20. ↑ a b cf. Juliet? Never again! Answers to Correspondents . In: Daily Mail , March 21, 2007, p. 78.
personal data
SURNAME Shentall, Susan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Worthington, Susan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Sheffield , Yorkshire , England , UK
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1996
Place of death Market Harborough , Leicestershire , England , UK