Macbeth (1916 film)

Macbeth
Directed by John Emerson
Produced by D. W. Griffith
Written by John Emerson (scenario) and Anita Loos (intertitles)
Story by William Shakespeare
Based on Macbeth (play)
Starring Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Constance Collier
Cinematography Victor Fleming
George W. Hill
Distributed by Triangle Film Corporation
Release date
  • June 4, 1916 (1916-06-04) (United States)
Running time
 8 reels (~7500 feet)
Country United States
Language Silent film (English intertitles)
Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Macbeth

Macbeth is a silent, black-and-white 1916 film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play Macbeth..[1] It was directed by John Emerson, assisted by Erich von Stroheim, and produced by D. W. Griffith, with cinematography by Victor Fleming. The film starred Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Constance Collier, both famous from the stage and for playing Shakespearean parts. Although released during the first decade of feature filmmaking, it was already the seventh version of Macbeth to be produced, one of eight during the silent film era. It is considered to be a lost film.[2]

In the companion book to his Hollywood television series, Kevin Brownlow states that Sir Herbert Tree failed to understand that the production was a silent film and that speech was not needed so much as pantomime. Tree, who had performed the play numerous times on the stage, kept spouting reams of dialogue. So Emerson and Fleming simply removed the film and cranked an empty camera so as not to waste film when he did so.[3]

Cast

Further reading

  • Buchanan, Judith (14 May 2009). "6". Shakespeare on Silent Film: An Excellent Dumb Discourse. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-87199-0.

References

  1. ↑ Macbeth at silentera.com
  2. ↑ Leggett, Steve (29 December 2016). "List of 7200 Lost U.S. Silden Feature Films 1912-29" (PDF). Library of Congress. National Film Preservation Board.
  3. ↑ Brownlow, Kevin; Kobal, John (1979). Hollywood: The Pioneers. Knopf. ISBN 978-0394508511.
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