Romeo and Juliet

Synopsis: Abbreviated version of the play with Julia M.Taylor as Juliet and George Lessey as Romeo. Ball (op cit) notes ‘The costuming was good, and all in all the film contains considerable visual movement, and avoids the unintelligible talkiness we have met before partly by the inclusion of explanatory subtitles, a few of which are Shakespearean’.
Country: United States
Medium: Film
Technical information: Black-and-white / Silent
Year of release: 1911
Duration: c2,000 feet

Director

Screenplay

Cast

Notes: The BFI National Archive copy is incomplete (16mm, 360ft, 10mins). Depicts the duel between Tybalt and Mercutio, Friar Laurence advising Romeo to flee, Romeo departing from Juliet’s bedchamber, Juliet’s parents tell her to marry Paris, Juliet and her nurse visit Friar Laurence, the Friar writes to Romeo, Juliet drinks poison, Romeo hears of her death and buys poison from the apothecary, Romeo kills Paris at Juliet’s tomb, Romeo takes poison and dies at Juliet’s side, Juliet awakes and kills herself. Friar Laurence enters the tomb [final sequence missing].
General: The identification of William Garwood as the Friar is tentative. Some sources give Irma Taylor as Juliet. Ball credits Barry O’Neil as director and Gertrude Thanhouser and Lloyd Lonergan as the script writers,
History: Originally distributed as two separate reels, each a complete story, leaving exhibitors with the choice of showing them singly or together. Part 1 was released 1 September 1911 and Part 2 September 8.
Reviews: Ball, Robert Hamilton. Shakespeare on Silent Film: A Strange Eventful History. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968 (pp70-3, 317).

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