Cleopatra

Synopsis: Feature film directed by Charles L. Gaskill with Helen Gardner as Cleopatra.
Country: United States
Medium: Film
Technical information: Black-and-white / Sound
Year of release: 1912
Duration: c66; c6000 feet

Director

Charles L. Gaskill

Writer

Charles L. Gaskill

Cast

Helen Gardner

General: The cast names are cited as Helen Gardner (Cleopatra), Mr Sindelar (Mark Antony), Miss Sinclair (Iras), Harley Knowles (Kephren), Mr Waite (Ventidius), Mr Howard (Pharon), Miss Winter (Charmian), Mr Osborne (Diomedes) and Robert Gaillard.
Textual information: Ball believes that the adapter and director, Charles L. Gaskill freely adapted the play by Victorian Sardou, added a good deal of his own, and used Shakespeare only for a few incidents and the names of some characters.
Reviews: Ball, Robert Hamilton. Shakespeare on Silent Film: A Strange Eventful History. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968 (pp147-49, 151, 253, 339). Ball writes - ‘The cast of the Gardner film were relatively unknown and since their first names were not given, are largely unidentifiable; the settings, though there a few natural backgrounds, were largely built on a somewhat confined area; the effects are stagy and obvious; and Helen Gardner, to modern eyes, a well upholstered pantomimist but without the ‘infinite variety’ of Cleopatra’.

SHAKESPEARE