SHAKESPEARE

Synopsis

A version of Macbeth with Arthur Bouchier and Violet Vanbrugh. Other leading parts were played by German actors.

Country

Germany

Medium

Film

Technical information

Black-and-white / Silent

Year of release

1913

Duration

50 mins; c4500 feet

Availability

Presumed a lost film.

Credits

Cinematographer

Carl Hoffman

Cast

Arthur Bourchier	Macbeth
Violet Vanbrugh	Lady Macbeth

Additional Details

Production type

Fiction Films

Plays

Macbeth

Subjects

Drama

Keywords

Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Notes

Notes

The film was announced variously as 4200, 4500 and 4700 ft.

General

Macbeth’s castle was a conversion from ruins near Bad-Duerkhem, but parts of the film were shot in Hardenberg (now Neviges). Reports were that when rain stopped the filming of the meeting between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth (I v) and this was re-shot in England at Lululand, the home of Sir Hubert von Herkomer in Bushey.

History

The film was copyrighted in the United States March 7 1916, and distributed in five parts by the Big A Film Corporation. Ball notes that it was meant to be accompanied by dramatic readings to cover the mouthed, but unheard speeches on the screen.

Reviews

Ball, Robert Hamilton. Shakespeare on Silent Film: A Strange Eventful History. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968 (pp 183-8, 348-9). The film was well reviewed in England, less so three years later in the United States. Lynde Denis in Moving Picture World July 15th wrote: ‘Anyone seeing this production and taking it as an example of what Shakespeare on the screen means would be careful to avoid Shakespearean pictures in the future, thereby reducing the patronage for commendable works. The Big A Film Corporation is distributing old trash on the strength of a great name’.

Production Company

Name

Film-Industrie