The Winter's Tale (1910)

Directed by

Barry O'Neil, Theodore Marston

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

United States

Runtime

14 min

Rated

NR

Rating

5.7 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A jealous king falsely accuses his wife of infidelity and orders their newborn daughter abandoned. Years later, the lost daughter falls in love with a prince, which leads to a family reunion and a miraculous revelation.

condensedmelodramaticdatedplot-heavystiffadaptationtheatrical

What happens

The Winter's Tale is a 1910 American silent short drama produced by Thanhouser Company. The plot is an adaptation of The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare and requires fore-knowledge of the plot in order to understand the condensed one reel work. The film focuses on the conflict arising from two Kings, one of Bohemia and one of Sicily, during a meeting. Queen Hermione enrages her jealous husband, Leontes, by entertaining Polixenes. Leontes decides to kill him with poison, but the plan is foiled by the courtier tasked with the assassination. For this, Leontes imprisons his wife. Hermione gives birth to a daughter and Leontes orders the baby to die out in the wilderness. Hermione is then brought before the court and apparently dies after interrogation. Fifteen years pass and Polixenes confronts and then secretly follows his son, appearing as he declares his intention to marry a shepherdess. The two lovers seek protection with Leontes, the King of Sicily. Mourning and repentant for his past actions, Leontes learns the shepherdess is his daughter and blesses the marriage of the lovers. The royal party goes to see a statue of the late queen Hermoine which is revealed to be alive. The cast includes Anna Rosemond, Frank H. Crane and Martin Faust, but the directorial and production credits for the film are unknown. The production was a success for the Thanhouser Company and the film was met with positive reception following its May 27, 1910 release. The film survives in the Library of Congress, but it is missing the final scene of the production. The surviving print suffers from significant deterioration. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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