Romeo and Juliet

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• Fredric March, Robert Donat and Robert Montgomery all turned down the lead before Leslie Howard was cast.
• The role of Romeo was originally offered to John Gielgud, who had just had a triumph in a stage production of the play in London in which he alternated the roles of Romeo and Mercutio with Laurence Olivier. Gielgud not only turned the part down (thinking that Shakespeare couldn't effectively be presented on screen), but was so disgusted by the finished film that he walked out of the theater after watching only fifteen minutes of it.
• Basil Rathbone played Tybalt in this film even though he had triumphed in the role of Romeo on Broadway in 1934, opposite the Juliet of Katharine Cornell.
• The role of Romeo was turned down by Laurence Olivier.