Romeo and Juliet on screen the story have also been filmed, most notably "West Side Story", Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet" and "Romanoff and Juliet". Several theatrical films, such as "Shakespeare in Love" and "Romeo Must Die", consciously use elements of Shakespeare's plot. Producer Irving Thalberg pushed MGM for five years to make a "Romeo and Juliet", in the face of the studio's opposition: which stemmed from Louis B. Mayer's belief that the masses considered the Bard over their heads, and from the austerity forced on the studios by the depression. It was only when Jack L. Warner announced his intention to film Max Reinhardt's
Romeo and Juliet on screen non-Shakespearean story. "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet" are the two plays which have most often been used in this way. Usually, Shakespeare's story has some parallel or resonance with the main plot. Films featuring characters performing scenes from "Romeo and Juliet" include the 1912 and 1982 film versions of Charles Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby", "Cured Hams" (1927), "Drama De Luxe" (1927), "Broadway Fever" (1928), "Les amants de Vérone" (1949), "Marjorie Morningstar" (1958), "Carry on Teacher" (1959) "Shakespeare Wallah" (1965) and, significantly, "Shakespeare in Love" (1998). The 1941 film Playmates features bandleader Kay Kyser and Shakespearean actor John Barrymore playing themselves in