Romeo and Juliet (1954 film) Romeo and Juliet (1954 film) Romeo and Juliet is a 1954 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name. It was directed by Renato Castellani and stars Laurence Harvey as Romeo, Susan Shentall as Juliet, Flora Robson as the Nurse, Mervyn Johns as Friar Laurence, Bill Travers as Benvolio, Sebastian Cabot as Lord Capulet, Ubaldo Zollo as Mercutio, Enzo Fiermonte as Tybalt and John Gielgud as the Chorus. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and was named the best foreign film by the National Board of Review, which also named Castellani as best
Romeo and Juliet Peter Ustinov's cold-war stage parody, "Romanoff and Juliet" was filmed. The 1961 film of "West Side Story"—set among New York gangs–featured the Jets as white youths, equivalent to Shakespeare's Montagues, while the Sharks, equivalent to the Capulets, are Puerto Rican. In 2006, Disney's "High School Musical" made use of "Romeo and Juliet" plot, placing the two young lovers in different high school cliques instead of feuding families. Film-makers have frequently featured characters performing scenes from "Romeo and Juliet". The conceit of dramatising Shakespeare writing "Romeo and Juliet" has been used several times, including John Madden's 1998 "Shakespeare in Love", in