Silent Shakespeare

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A compilation of seven silent film adaptations of plays by William Shakespeare, accompanied by a specially-written score by Laura Rossi. Created from nitrate prints held in the National Film and Television Archive. They are: 'King John' (GB, 1899) directed by William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson, produced by British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, featuring Herbert Beerbohm Tree (King John), Dora Senior (Prince Henry) and F.M. Paget (Robert Bigot) the first Shakespeare film ever made, released both as a film in variety theatres and as a peepshow Mutoscope on the same day as Tree's production of the play opened at the Her Majesty's Theatre, London; 'The Tempest' (GB, 1908) directed by Percy Stow, produced by Clarendon Film Company, cast unknown; 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (USA, 1909) directed by J. Stuart Blackton/Charles Kent, produced by Vitagraph Company of America, starring William V. Ranous (Bottom), Maurice Costello (Lysander) and Julia Swayne Gordon (Helena); 'King Lear/Re Lear' (Italy, 1910) directed by Gerolamo Lo Savio, produced by Film d'Arte Italiana, starring Ermete Novelli (King Lear) and Francesca Bertini (Cordelia); 'Twelfth Night' (USA, 1910) directed by Charles Kent, produced by Vitagraph, starring Florence Turner (Viola), Charles Kent (Malvolio) and Julia Swayne Gordon (Olivia); 'The Merchant of Venice/Il Mercante di Venezia' (Italy, 1910) directed by Gerolamo Lo Savio, produced by Film d'Arte Italiana, starring Ermete Novelli (Shylock), Olga Giannini Novelli (Portia) and Francesca Bertini (Jessica); 'Richard III' (GB, 1911) produced by Co-operative Film Company, starring Frank Benson (Richard III), Alfred Brydone (Edward IV) and James Berry (Henry VI), a condensed version of one of the Stratford productions mounted by the F.R. Benson Company.