© 2026 NPR Illinois
For your right to be curious.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
NPR Illinois is seeking a full-time multimedia journalist to co-host/produce/edit/report for a new daily, regional radio news hour with Sean Crawford. Click to apply.

A 'Merchant of Venice' of Its Own Time, for Our Time

NPR's Bob Mondello reviews the first full-length feature film of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. He says director Michael Radford's adaptation features stunning performances from Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons.

Copyright 2004 NPR

Bob Mondello, who jokes that he was a jinx at the beginning of his critical career — hired to write for every small paper that ever folded in Washington, just as it was about to collapse — saw that jinx broken in 1984 when he came to NPR.