King John (1899)

Directed by

Herbert Beerbohm Tree

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

5 min

Rating

4.9 of 10 from 25 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a silent film from 1899 that adapts short scenes from Shakespeare's play King John. It shows moments like the temptation of King John and his death. The film was made to promote a stage production.

historicfragmentedstagedsilenttheatricalearly-filmbriefarchival

What happens

King John is the title by which the earliest known example of a film based on a play by William Shakespeare is commonly known. Filmed in London, England, in September 1899, at the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company's open-air studio on the Embankment, it was a silent film made from four very short separate films. Each of those films showed a heavily edited scene from Herbert Beerbohm Tree's forthcoming stage production of Shakespeare's mid-1590s play, King John, at Her Majesty's Theatre London. The first film was of The Temptation Scene with John, Hubert, and Arthur, the second of The Lamentation Scene with Constance, Philip of France, Lewis, and Pandulph, the third of King John's Dying Scene with John, Henry, Pembroke, and Salisbury, and the fourth of King John's Death Scene with John, Henry, Falconbridge, Pembroke, and Salisbury. The filming of King John was produced and directed by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson and Walter Pfeffer Dando. The acting and production design was by Herbert Tree, the cinematography was by William Dickson, and the production company was the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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