Richard Burton's stage performance of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in 1964 was long thought to be only a memory for those who attended its 17-week run at the Lunt Fontanne Theater on Broadway.
One performance of the tragedy was captured on film and screened at only four performances in select U.S. movie-houses, but the screening reels were lost or destroyed.But Burton's widow, Sally Burton, found 35mm reels of the performance in the cellar of his chalet in Celigny, Switzerland, in "three rusty cans, amid old trunks and broken china," she says.
The film has been through a digital facelift and will be released in theaters this year.
Producer Paul Brownstein, who acquired the rights from Sally Burton, called it "an astonishing find." The 1964 cast included John Gielgud, Hume Cronyn, Alfred Drake, William Redfield, John Cullen and Barnard Hughes.