Max Reinhardt's production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1934 at the famous 18,000-seater "Hollywood Bowl" was a huge success. William (Wilhelm) Dieterle had the idea of making a film from the stage work; he was a pupil of Max Reinhardt and at this time under contract as a director at Warner Bros. It was agreed that he, as a seasoned filmmaker, would support his teacher. Reinhardt was to rehearse with the actors in the sets created under his guidance, Dieterle would then film everything. Reinhardt's handwritten notes from Dieterle's estate reveal something of their division of labour: the theatre man made suggestions for new scenes or retakes during filming, Dieterle responded and ticked these off once completed.

But what had appealed to the American audience on stage flopped at the box-office. The film did not even recoup its costs despite an extensive advertising campaign, outstanding actors, and a soundtrack written by the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The film critic Siegfried Kracauer even called it an "artistic failure". In Vienna, however, where A Midsummer Night's Dream was also shown in 1935, the writer Franz Werfel penned an enthusiastic review: "This time, Max Reinhart has exceeded both the theatre and himself with his rich and enigmatic visual world." Despite his international successes, the native Austrian clearly remained a man of the European theatre.

Further reading:
Klapdor, Heike: Ein Exil soll das Land sein. In: Jacobsen, Wolfgang / Prinzler, Hans Helmut / Sudendorf, Werner (Hg.): Filmmuseum Berlin. Berlin: Nikolai 2000, S. 221-262
Franz Werfel: Shakespeare und der Film. In: Neues Wiener Journal, 3. November 1935, hier zit. nach: Asper, Helmut G.: „Etwas Besseres als den Tod…“ Filmexil in Hollywood. Porträts, Filme, Dokumente. Marburg: Schüren-Verlag 2002, S. 357.