YouTube Postings of scenes from Renato Castellani's 1954 Film: Romeo and Juliet

Below are links to YouTube postings of scenes from a movie, done without the permission of the rights holders to that movie. From time to time the rights holders of a movie inform YouTube (a video file-sharing service by Google, Inc.) that a particular posting(s) violate their copyright and that they request YouTube to "take down" the specified illegal postings(s). This process takes time, but ultimately YouTube does comply with such a request, provided the copyright holder establishes (in writing) its ownership of the material that was posted.

In many cases, the copyright holders of a movie that has been posted in its entirety request that only some of its segments be taken down, often the first or last part of the movie. While it is impossible to know for certain why they would do this, it seems reasonable that the movie companies believe that having some of their movie shown (even most of it) acts as free advertising, keeping the movie in people's minds long after it leaves the theaters, and may actually lead to sales of DVDs or other media versions.

Thus, there are numerous legal, financial, and ethical implications involved in the posting of copyrighted work and, perhaps in linking to such unauthorized posts, and even viewing them. (See Digital Media Literacy Discussion Group on Property Rights and Permissions in a Digital World.)

The following YouTube postings were taken from Renato Castellani's 1954 Film: Romeo and Juliet with Lawrence Harvey as Romeo.

You can buy this movie from the CyberClassics Store to view as Video-on-Demand

YouTube Postings

Note: To help the viewer move back and forth between the movie postings below and a written version of the play, for each posting we have provided Act, Scene, and Line numbers (from the 1597 Quarto of the play) to approximately identify the corresponding start and end points in Shakespeare's text . However, because this movie is an adaptation of Shakesepeare's play, it often deviates from his original script by eliminating or moving dialogue even entire scenes. Thus, the dialogue and action in a given posting will not correspond exactly to that contained between the provided start and end points of Shakespeare's text.


Part 1 of 13
From the Prologue, Line 1 through Act I, Scene 1, Line 203

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Part 2 of 13
From Act I, Scene 1, Line 203 through Act I, Scene 5, Line27

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Part 3 of 13
From Act I, Scene 5, Line 62 through Act II, Scene 1, Line 8


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Part 4 of 13
From Act II, Scene 1, Line 8 through Act II, Scene 3, Line 2


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Part 5 of 13
From Act II, Scene 3, Line 2 through Act II, Scene 6, Line 15

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Part 6 of 13
From Act II, Scene 2, Line 6 through Act III, Scene 2, Line 42 

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Part 7 of 13
From Act III, Scene 2, Line 40 through Act III, Scene 4, Line 54

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Part 8 of 13
From Act III, Scene 5, Line 1 through Act III, Scene 5, Line125

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Part 9 of 13
From Act III, Scene 5, Line 125 through Act IV, end of Scene 1, Line 126

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Part 10 of 13
From Act IV, end of Scene 1, Line 126 through Act IV, Scene 3, Line 57

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Part 11 of 13
From Act IV, Scene 3, Line 58 through Act IV, Scene 5, Line 95 

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Part 12 of 13
From Act V, Scene 2, Line 1 through Act V, Scene 3, Line 112 

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Part 13 of 13
From Act V, Scene 3, Line 111 through end of play
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