The New Pictures, Nov. 1, 1948

Macbeth (Mercury Production; Republic), as Actor-Director Orson Welles tells it in this movie, is not quite the great tragedy of a noble man gone wrong; it is more the story of a dead-end kid on the make. Like an energetic small boy tinkering with an alarm clock, Orson breaks down the drama into bits and pieces—and cannot seem to fit it together again. Nonetheless, it is an interesting, unconventional try.

Shakespeare's Macbeth is a turbulent melodrama, full of spooky claptrap, but its central figure gives it the dignity of classic tragedy. Welles has kept...