Traveling across a misty moor one night, Macbeth (Orson Welles) meets three strange women who tell him he will be Thane of Cawdor. He’s already the Thane of Glamis, and Cawdor belongs to someone else – or does it? They also predict he'll become King of Scotland, unless certain unlikely events lead to his destruction. Fueled by their prophecy, he goes back to King Duncan’s (Erskine Sanford) castle where he shares this with his wife, who is very ambitious (Jeanette Nolan), and that starts a plot to kill the king and put him on the throne – but what will it cost them all? This is my favorite Shakespeare play, full of darkness and mysticism; of betrayal, deceit, and as close to pure evil as I’ve ever seen on stage. While I do think Welles might have been better off with a different costume—he looks like a Mongolian warlord—his handling of some of the most powerful speeches in English is quite good. Nolan also does well as the scheming, downright wicked wife who only cares about power and nothing else. The rest of the actors are okay, but there aren’t many Scottish performers here. It could have been even creepier with people like Finlay Currie and John Laurie instead of Dan O'Herlihy; the performances of Roddy McDowall as "Malcolm"—son of a murdered father—and Edgar Barrier’s “Banquo” are pretty weak. The photography by John Russell and Fred Ritter’s art direction make good use of the studio space, creating believable scenes from this 11th-century king's nearly twenty-year reign. As with all his work, Shakespeare uses approaching armies and battles well, but even more effectively he explores the human mind to create fear, guilt, and paranoia – and Welles really brings out the troubled nature of Macbeth’s character. It’s still best experienced live on stage, but as a film version, this is a powerfully frightening portrayal that has aged nicely.

Source on TMDB