The subtitling into Spanish of the film version of Hamlet was aimed at a cultivated minority interested in gaining a greater access to the original version. In this sense, the adaptation by artistic director L. Olivier is clearly a faithful and traditional approach to Shakespeare’s original text, in terms of both the acting and the language used. However, the Spanish subtitled version appears to be more linguistically simplified and accessible. Therefore, the author argues that the subtitled version fails to successfully convey the deeply traditional and archaic flavour of the original text, as regards both content and style. Finally, the article concludes that a greater fulfilment of the audience’s artistic requirements is needed on the part of the subtitler in order to compensate the limitations inherent in the subtitling of film plays and of this adaptation in particular.