Filmed in London, England, in September 1899, at the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company's open-air studio on the Embankment,[1] 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 TheatreLondon.[2]
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.[2]
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 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 accompanying a review of Tree's stage production.[3] 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.[4] 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.[2]
Preserved still frames from King John (1899)
The John—Hubert Temptation Scene: Act 1, Scene 5, corresponding to Act 3, Scene 3 in the original play. King John(center) persuades Hubert(left) to murder Prince Arthur(kneeling on the right).
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(in the throne, center stage) rants as Prince Henry(center stage to John's right), Pembroke, and Salisbury looks on.
King John's Death Scene: Act 3, Scene 3, corresponding to Act 5, Scene 7 in the original play. King John(in the throne, center stage) lays dead as Faulconbridge(rear center) crowns Prince Henry(front left of Faulconbridge) while the kneeling Pembroke, and Salisbury looks on.
Anonymous King John Souvenir | Shakespeare's Historical Drama King John | Her Majesty's Theatre. London, England, British Mutoscope & Bioscope Company, 1899 [Theatre Programme].
Barnes, John The Beginnings Of The Cinema In England 1894-1901 | Volume Five: 1900. Exeter, England, Exeter University Press, 1997. ISBN9780859895224
McKernan, Luke & Terris, Olwen Walking Shadows | Shakespeare In The National Film And Television Archive. London, England, British Film Institute, 1994. ISBN085170414X
McKernan, Luke A Scene - King John - Now Playing At Her Majesty's Theatre in: Fitzsimmons, Linda & Street, Sarah Moving Performances | British Stage & Screen 1890s-1920s. Trowbridge, England, Flick Books, 1999. ISBN9780948911545
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Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.
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Pandulf Verraccio, whose first name may also be spelled Pandolph or Pandulph, was a Roman ecclesiastical politician, papal legate to England and bishop of Norwich.
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The following is an overview of the events of 1899 in film, including a list of films released and notable births.
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The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over 3000 short films and 12 feature films. During the height of silent film as a medium, Biograph was the most prominent U.S. film studio and one of the most respected and influential studios worldwide, only rivaled by Germany's UFA, Sweden's Svensk Filmindustri and France's Pathé. The company was home to pioneering director D. W. Griffith and such actors as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and Lionel Barrymore.
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Julia Emilie Neilson 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 Rosalind in a long-running production of As You Like It.
Violet Vanbrugh, born Violet Augusta Mary Barnes, was an English actress with a career that spanned more than 50 years. Despite her many successes, her career was overshadowed by that of her more famous sister, Dame Irene Vanbrugh.
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Louis James Calvert was a British stage and early film actor of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and an actor-manager. He is perhaps best remembered today for having created roles in plays by George Bernard Shaw and for appearing in King John (1899), the earliest known example of any film based on Shakespeare,
Hamlet, released in the United States as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was a 1907 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès, based on William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. The film, now presumed lost, was the first cinematic version of any Shakespeare play to unfold across multiple scenes. In 175 meters of film, it presented a character study of the mentally troubled Prince Hamlet, as seen in glimpses of several famous moments from the play: his encounter with the gravediggers and the skull of Yorick; his meeting with his father's ghost; his betrothed Ophelia, seen in a ghostly vision of her flower-throwing frenzy just before her death; and his final duel with its fatal aftermath.
Dora Lilian Tulloch was an English stage performer, actor and playwright known as Dora Tulloch, Dora Senior and Dora Clement Salaman. She appeared in the 1899 film King John, adapted by Herbert Beerbohm Tree, the first film adaptation of a Shakespeare play.
William Haviland was a British actor-manager specialising in the works of Shakespeare who during his long stage career performed with some of the leading actors of his time including Henry Irving and Herbert Beerbohm Tree.
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The John—Hubert Temptation Scene: Act 1, Scene 5, corresponding to Act 3, Scene 3 in the original play. King John (center) persuades Hubert (left) to murder Prince Arthur (kneeling on the right).
The Lamentation Scene: Act 2, Scene 1, corresponding to Act 3, Scene 4 in the original play. Lady Constance (front left) laments the capture of her son, Prince Arthur, as Lewis (rear left), Cardinal Pandulph (front right), and Philip of France (rear right) look on.
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 (in the throne, center stage) rants as Prince Henry (center stage to John's right), Pembroke, and Salisbury looks on.
King John's Death Scene: Act 3, Scene 3, corresponding to Act 5, Scene 7 in the original play. King John (in the throne, center stage) lays dead as Faulconbridge (rear center) crowns Prince Henry (front left of Faulconbridge) while the kneeling Pembroke, and Salisbury looks on.
