Shot in 23 days on a shoestring budget at the cheapjack Republic Pictures, Orson Welles’ “Macbeth” was poorly received by American critics and audiences when it first came out in 1948 and again in 1950 when its compact 107-minute running time was edited by about a half-hour and the Scottish burr used by the actors was redubbed into accent-free English. Even today, Welles’ original vision doesn’t carry the same level of respect that his later Shakespearean films “Othello” (1952) and “Chimes at Midnight” (1966) enjoy.
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