A Doll's House

From other reviews, or your own familiarity with Ibsen's famous—and in 1879 scandalous—play, you'll know the basic story and characters of "A Doll's House." It remains a classic, well worth being performed by superior actors. The latter are in abundance in this 1959 production: the incomparable Julie Harris as tormented Nora, Christopher Plummer as her self-preoccupied husband, Hume Cronyn (excellent) as Krogstad the catalyst—not quite a villain, but by his own admission a desperate man who takes desperate, damaging measures—Jason Robards, Jr., as Dr. Rank, Nora's unrequited lover, and Eileen Heckart as Nora's friend Kristine, for whose love Krogstad pines. For 1959—for any year, in fact—this is as fine an ensemble as one could imagine. George Schaefer, from television's golden age, produced and directed.

Reluctantly I've deducted one star for primitive production values. Viewers should know that this is a live production, videotaped as a kinescope. As a consequence the lovely set design is visually murky, the audio is indistinct, and various technical glitches mar the illusion: boom mic shadows on the set, intrusive cameras whose timings were off, visual compositions and cuts between cameras that are not as sharp as they could have been had the players been able to retake certain scenes. If you can disregard these things, you'll be rewarded by a splendid performance of a play whose issues continue to resonate strongly to this day.