This film purports to be KING JOHN, though you'd really not recognize any of the great bard in this film. Like all the films you would have seen in 1899, it's very, very, very brief (at about three minutes, it's actually longer than many contemporary films). The problem is you really can't do a Shakespeare play in three minutes!! And it's obvious that the director really didn't try to encapsulate the entire film--just one long and very over-done scene. In fact, all the film consists of is a guy dressed like a king apparently writhing in pain (I think he's trying to pass a kidney stone or something). And that's it!!! No plot, no action apart from the writhing and no relationship to KING JOHN or any other play by Shakespeare!
Review of King John
King John
(1899)
Perhaps the earliest "Shakespeare" film,...of at least it says it's Shakespeare!
30 September 2006