Othello (1951 film) to Orson Welles, the cast consisted of Micheál MacLiammóir as Iago, Robert Coote as Roderigo, Suzanne Cloutier as Desdemona, Michael Laurence as Cassio, Fay Compton as Emilia and Doris Dowling as Bianca. Three versions of the film have seen theatrical release — two supervised by Welles, and a 1992 restoration supervised by his daughter, Beatrice Welles. Welles trimmed the source material, which is generally around three hours when performed, down to a little over 90 minutes for the film. One of Welles' more complicated shoots, "Othello" was filmed erratically over three years. Shooting began in 1949, but was forced to
Emilia Lanier The character Emilia speaks some of the first feminist lines on an English stage and could thus be seen as a contemporary allegory for Emilia Lanier herself, while the musicians in both plays, Prior argues, are allegories for members of her family. For these and other reasons it has been argued by Prior and other scholars that Lanier co-authored these plays, especially the 1623 First Folio version of "Othello" which contains 163 key lines not present in the 1622 Quarto. In addition, Hudson believes that another "signature" exists in "Titus Andronicus" where there are an Aemilius and a Bassianus, each