Show Business: Triumph at Dunsinane

When Shakespeare plays television, he usually loses. A line here, a scene there, disappears under the chopper as all that spirit is crammed onto the 21-inch screen. The total effect, too frequently, is bottled bard. But this week NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame pulled out the cork, took a full setting and two hours for an excellent, virtually uncut production of Macbeth.

Filmed in England and at Scotland's Hermitage Castle in the Cheviot Hills, the play—with its bright Highland backgrounds and darkly cloistered interiors—was done in some of the most living color ever seen on television. It was well directed by George...