Salwyn Hurwitz | Romeo & Juliet / c. 1940s

a short burlesque

 

by Douglas Messerli

 

Salwyn Hurwitz (director) Romeo & Juliet / c. 1940s

 

Ed Alty again stars in this quick, Cliff Notes-like dance version of Romeo & Juliet. But this is also no quick Prokofiev dance version, as Alty dressed up again in a kind of tutu as Juliet is approached, courted, and often times felt-up by the film’s Romeo played by Hurwitz’s sister Judy, in a cross-dressing role as Romeo.

     Once again, there is a lot of posing and vogue mockery straight out of burlesque, along with the stumbling pratfalls of Alty. It’s sort of fun while it lasts, but thank heaven, at 1.13-minutes it doesn’t last long.

     Hurwitz also did other films, most notably Durban, with a male dancer on the beach and a snapshot which includes Noel Coward talking on the beach with Ernest Thorpe.

    Another short film without a title, and simply listed as Unidentified exists, but as Wagner puts it, is of inferior quality. There were also probably others, now lost or never fully realized. But it is Thorp’s far more serious film, Nil Desperandum, to which we now turn.

 

Los Angeles, November 10, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (November 2026).

 

Los Angeles, November 10, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (November 2026).