King John
- Alternative title
- Scene - ‘King John’ - Now Playing at Her Majesty’s Theatre, A Beerbohm Tree, The Great British Actor
- Synopsis
- Four scenes from the Her Majesty’s Theatre production of King John, one of which survives. The descriptions quoted are from the copyright records in The National Archives:
THE BATTLEFIELD NEAR ANGIERS - "King John of England instigating Hubert de Burgh to murder King Arthur of Brittany the rightful Heir to the Throne".
THE FRENCH KING’S TENT - "The Lady Constance, Mother of Arthur, hearing that her boy is prisoner in King John’s hands passionately denounces those who have deserted him".
THE ORCHARD OF SWINSTEAD ABBEY (first scene) - "The last moments of King John of England in the Orchard of Swinstead". This is the surviving sequence from the film, which shows King John in his death agony, seated in a chair, watched by Prince Henry, Pembroke and Robert Bigot.
THE ORCHARD OF SWINSTEAD ABBEY (second scene) - "The little Prince Henry, afterwards Henry III, accepted by the Barons as John’s Successor & Faulconbridge prophesies a glorious future for England under the Youthful King". - Country
- Great Britain
- Medium
- Film
- Technical information
- Black-and-white / Silent
- Year of release
- 1899
- Recording date
- Sep 1899
- Duration
- 90 feet
Credits
- Director
- William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson
- Cinematographer
- William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson
- Production Design
- Walter Pfeffer Dando
- Cast
Additional Details
- Theatre
- Her Majesty’s Theatre, London
- Production type
- Fiction Films
- Historical period
- Medieval
- Plays
- King John
- Subjects
- Drama
- Keywords
- Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Notes
- Notes
- Originally filmed in 70 mm; viewing copies in archives are on 35 mm. There is a further fragment of just five feet at the BFI National Archive, which shows King John rising out of his seat.
- General
- The film was taken at the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company’s open-air studio on the Thames embankment, close to the Tivoli Theatre (the exact location is unknown). The backdrops are imitations of those used in the stage production. The stage production premiered at the Her Majesty’s Theatre on 20 September 1899, with the film being exhibited at the Palace Theatre, London, the same night.
- History
- Exhibited on screen and in peepshow Mutoscopes, either as four separate scenes or, usually, as the single scene showing the death of King John.
- Textual information
- The surviving film shows action from Act V Scene vii: the King’s speech from "Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow-room" to "On unreprievable-condemned blood".
- Reviews
- Kachur, B.A., ‘The First Shakespeare Film: A Reconsideration and Reconstruction of Tree’s King John’, Theatre Survey no. 32 (May 1991), pp. 43-63
McKernan, Luke, ‘A Scene - King John - Now Playing at Her Majesty’s Theatre’ in Linda Fitzsimmons and Sarah Street (eds.), Moving Performance: British Stage and Screen, 1890s-1920s (Trowbridge: Flicks Books, 2000), pp. 56-68.
McKernan, Luke, ‘Beerbohm Tree’s King John Rediscovered: The First Shakespeare Film, September 1899’, Shakespeare Bulletin (Winter 1993), pp. 35-36.
McKernan, Luke, ‘Further News on Berbohm Tree’s King John’, Shakespeare Bulletin (Spring 1993), pp. 49-50
McKernan, Luke and Olwen Terris. Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film and Television Archive. London: BFI, 1994, pp. 81-82
Online Availability
Production Company
Archive
- Name
BFI National Archive
- Web
- http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collections/searching-access-collections/research-viewing-services External site opens in new window
- Phone
- 020 7255 1444
- Fax
- 020 7436 0165
- Address
- 21 Stephen Street
London
W1T 1LN
- Name
Nederlands Filmmuseum
- info@filmmuseum.nl
- Web
- http://www.filmmuseum.org External site opens in new window
- Phone
- +31 (20) 5891435
- Fax
- +31 (20) 5891454
- Address
- Het Filmmuseum
P.O. Box 74782
1070 BT Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Distributor (DVD)
- Name
British Film Institute
- Web
- http://www.bfi.org.uk External site opens in new window
- Phone
- 020 7255 1444
- Fax
- 020 7436 7950
- Address
- 21 Stephen Street
London
W1T 1LN
- Name
Milestone Film & Video
- milefilms@gmail.com
- Web
- http://www.milestonefilms.com External site opens in new window
- Phone
- +1 201 767 3117
- Fax
- +1 201 767 3035
- Address
- PO Box 128
Harrington Park
New Jersey 07640 0128
USA
How to cite this record
Shakespeare, "King John". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av68096 (Accessed 19 Sep 2024)