''King John'' is the title by which the earliest known example of a film based on a play by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

is commonly known. Filmed in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England, in September 1899, at the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company's open-air studio on the Embankment, it was a

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

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 Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established t ...

. 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 William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (3 August 1860 – 28 September 1935) was a British inventor who devised an early motion picture camera under the employment of Thomas Edison. Early life William Kennedy Dickson was born on 3 August 1860 in ...

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.

Surviving copies

The EYE Film Institute Nederland has an incomplete copy of the third film lasting just under one minute. The last seconds of the scene are missing from the ''EYE'' copy; the

BFI National Archive The BFI National Archive is a department of the British Film Institute, and one of the largest film archives in the world. It was founded as the National Film Library in 1935; its first curator was Ernest Lindgren. In 1955, its name became the N ...

has a film clip of a few frames of the missing part.

Preserved still frames

The below still frames from the film were published in the 27 September 1899 issue of ''

The Sketch ''The Sketch'' was a British illustrated weekly journal. It ran for 2,989 issues between 1 February 1893 and 17 June 1959. It was published by the Illustrated London News Company and was primarily a society magazine with regular features on ro ...

'' accompanying a review of Tree's stage production. While these were known to scholars ever since Robert Hamilton Ball's ''Shakespeare On Silent Film'' (1968), and preceding journal papers, they were assumed to be ordinary production stills from the stage adaptation. It was not until B. A. Kachur's paper "The First Shakespeare Film: A Reconsideration and Reconstruction of Tree's ''King John''" (1991) in '' Theatre Survey'' that they were identified as still frames from the film. File:King John (1899) - Act 1, Scene 5 (FF3.3).jpg, ''The John—Hubert Temptation Scene'': Act 1, Scene 5, corresponding to Act 3, Scene 3 in the original play. King John persuades

Hubert Hubert is a Germanic masculine given name, from ''hug'' "mind" and '' beraht'' "bright". It also occurs as a surname. Saint Hubertus or Hubert (c. 656 – 30 May 727) is the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians, and metalworkers ...

to murder Prince Arthur . File:King John (1899) - Act 2, Scene 1 (FF3.4).jpg, ''The Lamentation Scene'': Act 2, Scene 1, corresponding to Act 3, Scene 4 in the original play. Lady Constance laments the capture of her son, Prince Arthur, as

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

, Cardinal Pandulph , and Philip of France look on. File:King John (1899) - Act 3, Scene 3 (FF5.7)-1.jpg, ''King John's Death Scene'': Act 3, Scene 3, corresponding to Act 5, Scene 7 in the original play. A poisoned and feverish King John rants as

Prince Henry Prince Henry (or Prince Harry) may refer to: People *Henry the Young King (1155–1183), son of Henry II of England, who was crowned king but predeceased his father *Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460) *Henry, Duke of Cornwall (Ja ...

, Pembroke, and

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

looks on. File:King John (1899) - Act 3, Scene 3 (FF5.7)-2.jpg, ''King John's Death Scene'': Act 3, Scene 3, corresponding to Act 5, Scene 7 in the original play. King John lays dead as Faulconbridge crowns

while the kneeling Pembroke, and

looks on.

Cast

Herbert Beerbohm Tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor and theatre manager. Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous progr ...

as King John * Dora Senior as

* Charles Sefton as Prince Arthur * James Fisher as

Earl of Pembroke Earl of Pembroke is a title in the Peerage of England that was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title, which is associated with Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in West Wales, has been recreated ten times from its origin ...

* S. A. Cookson as

Earl of Salisbury Earl of Salisbury is a title that has been created several times in English and British history. It has a complex history, and is now a subsidiary title to the marquessate of Salisbury. Background The title was first created for Patrick de S ...

Franklyn McLeay ''Franklyn'' is a 2008 British science fantasy film written and directed by Gerald McMorrow as his debut feature. Produced by Jeremy Thomas, it stars Ryan Phillippe, Eva Green and Sam Riley. Shooting took place in London in the fourth quarter ...

Hubert de Burgh Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent (; ; ; c.1170 – before 5 May 1243) was an English nobleman who served as Chief Justiciar of England and Ireland during the reigns of King John and of his son and successor King Henry III and, as a consequenc ...

Lewis Waller William Waller Lewis (3 November 1860 – 1 November 1915), known on stage as Lewis Waller, was an English actor and theatre manager, well known on the London stage and in the English provinces. After early stage experience with J. L. Toole's a ...

as Philip Faulconbridge *

Julia Neilson Julia Emilie Neilson (12 June 1868 – 27 May 1957) was an English actress best known for her numerous performances as Lady Blakeney in ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'', for her roles in many tragedies and historical romances, and for her portrayal of ...

as Constance * William Mollison as Philip, King of France *

Gerald Lawrence Gerald Leslie Lawrence (23 March 1873 – 9 May 1957) was a British actor and manager. Lawrence was born in London in 1873, the son of Emily Mills ''née'' Asher (1832-1912) and John Moss Lawrence (1827-1888), an investor. Lawrence studied sta ...

as Lewis, The Dauphin * Louis Calvert as Cardinal Pandulph

Notes and references

Sources

* * * *

External links