King John (1899 film)

• Herbert Beerbohm Tree: King John
• Louis Calvert: Cardinal Pandulph
• S. A. Cookson: Earl of Salisbury
• James Fisher: Earl of Pembroke
• Gerald Lawrence: Louis the Dauphin
• Norman McKinnell: Lymoges
• Franklyn McLeay: Hubert de Burgh
• William Mollison: Philip II
• Julia Neilson: Constance
• F. Paget's disease: Robert Bigot
• Arthur Sefton: Prince Arthur
• Dora Senior: Prince Henry
• Lewis Waller: Phillip

King John is a British silent film from 1899. He is considered the first film with a Shakespearean motif.

Action ( the fragment )

John King sitting on his throne, and expecting his death in Swinstead Abbey.

Background

The film consisted of several short scenes from Herbert Beerbohm Trees stage production of King John. He served in London as a promotional film for the theater production. In foreign sales, he was presented as recording a celebrated English stage production.

King John is considered the oldest Shakespeare adaptation in film history. It originated as a production of the British Mutoscope and Biograph, a British -funded branch of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.

The film was originally composed of four scenes, of which only a fragment has been preserved, which is kept in the Nederlands Filmmuseum.