King John. Dir. William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson and Walter Pfeffer Dando. Perf. Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Dora Senior, F. M. Paget, and James Fisher. British Mutoscope and Biograph Company. 1899. DVD. Image Entertainment, 2000.What Shakespeare play would you guess the earliest filmmakers would think to put on film? Perhaps a comprehensible tragedy like Romeo and Juliet? Or a relatively-straightforward comedy like Midsummer Night's Dream?
Well, I won't keep you in suspense. It was King John. It's the deathbed scene. It lasts about a minute and a half. It's not terribly interesting. But it is the earliest extant extract of Shakespeare on film—it was made in 1899: a hundred and nine years ago!—and that makes it, of necessary, both significant and fascinating! Here it is, in its entirety:
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