It is directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, produced by Warner Bros., and stars James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Olivia de Havilland (in her film debut), Jean Muir, Joe E. Brown, Dick Powell, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Victor Jory and Ian Hunter.

The screenplay, written by Charles Kenyon and Mary C. McCall Jr., is adapted from Reinhardt's Hollywood Bowl production of the play from the previous year.

Meanwhile, Peter Quince and his fellow players gather to produce a stage play about the cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe in honor of the Duke and his upcoming marriage to Hippolyta.

Wanting to punish Titania's disobedience, Oberon instructs his mischievous court jester Puck to retrieve a flower called "love-in-idleness".

Following Oberon's instructions, Puck removes the donkey's head from Bottom, and arranges everything so that Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena all believe that they have been dreaming when they awaken.

The Athenian Court The Players The Fairies At the time of production, legendary avante garde stage director Max Reinhardt had just arrived in the United States as a refugee from the imminent Nazi takeover of Austria.

His arrival in America followed a long and distinguished career, "inspired by the example of social participation in the ancient Greek and Medieval theatres", of seeking "to bridge the separation between actors and audiences".

[4] Reinhardt previously directed an acclaimed, lavish staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Hollywood Bowl.

A gigantic stage was built and covered with green sod, heavy foliage and oak trees shipped in from Calabasas."

The production utilized Felix Mendelssohn's music composed for the play, with ballet sequences choreographed by Theodore Kosloff and Nini Theilade.

The opening cast featured Mickey Rooney (Puck), Olivia de Havilland (Hermia), David Lawrence (Theseus), Ingeborg Tillish (Hippolyta), Hollis Davenny (Egeus), Richard Stark (Lysander), George Walcott (Demetrius), Marion Shilling (Helena), and Leif Erickson (Oberon).

[7] 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.

He instead gave orders to the actors and crew in Austrian German while fellow refugee and longtime Reinhardt collaborator William Dieterle acted as his interpreter.

[10] Since the production was too expensive to be delayed, Rooney's remaining scenes had to be shot with a stand-in, George Breakston, for the running and elfin sequences.

The film failed at the box office and received mixed reviews, with the cinematography, the use of Mendelssohn's music, and the dance sequences being highly praised.

Although James Cagney was acclaimed for his performance, Warner Bros. was criticized by film critic Richard Watts, Jr. for "weakening" enough to cast an actor "whose performance is not much short of fatal", referring to box-office favorite Dick Powell, then in his "Hollywood crooner" phase, who reportedly realized he was completely wrong for the role of Lysander and asked to be taken off the film, to no avail.

His clear, distinct diction indicates what can be done by careful recitation and good recording; Olivia de Havilland, as Hermia, is a fine artist here; others are Jean Muir, Verree Teasdale and Anita Louise, the latter beautiful as Titania but occasionally indistinct in her lines."

He praised Korngold's "magnificent" score and Dieterle's direction as "enormously skillful in executing a narrative counterpoint for the four distinct situations," but was critical of the ballets, the goblins, and the "clever mechanical tricks" such as the visible wire suspending Puck in space."

Sennwald also praised the clowns, writing that Brown's was "the best performance in the show" and calling Herbert and McHugh "uproarious."

Rooney's "remarkable" puck was "one of the major delights of the work," but Cagney was "too dynamic" to play the "dullard" Bottom, and the "earnest sobriety" of Jory's Oberon "scarcely seems appropriate" to the "antic" fairy king.

"[18] As of September 22, 2020[update], Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream holds a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 8 reviews.

It was Mohr who decided that the trees should be sprayed with orange paint, giving them the eerie glow which added to the "fairyland" effect in the film.

The next year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences declared that it would no longer accept write-in votes for the awards.

"Real" characters in the cast include Jack Warner, Max Reinhardt, Will Hays, Joe E. Brown, and Jimmy Cagney.

[20] "When the enchantment of the silver screen meets the magic of Fairyland, all merry hell breaks loose, and we are treated to transformations, chase scenes, and the kind of havoc that only that certain love-juice can wreak.