British Universities Film & Video Council

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Antony and Cleopatra

Synopsis
Antony and Cleopatra directed by Charles Kent with Betty Kent (the director’s wife) as Cleopatra. The film was shot entirely in the studio, Vitagraph’s promotion describing the film as a ‘stupendous production, a fine picture of Roman pride and Eastern magnificence, elaborately staged, superbly acted’.
Country
United States
Medium
Film
Technical information
Black-and-white / Silent
Year of release
1908
Recording date
3 Nov 1908
Duration
995 feet

Credits

Director
Charles Kent
Cast
Charles ChapmanMark Antony
Betty KentCleopatra
William PhillipsOctavius Caesar
Paul PanzerLieutenant to Octavius Caesar (uncredited)

Additional Details

Production type
Fiction Films
Historical period
Ancient Rome
Plays
Antony and Cleopatra
Subjects
Drama
Keywords
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Notes

Notes
Ball notes that the cast identifications are tentative. IMDb credits Florence Lawrence as Cleopatra and Maurice Costello as Antony.

The Library of Congress holds only a fragment from the film - 33 ft. of sample frames from thirteen scenes. This material originally come to the Library in the form of a perforated paper roll submitted for copyright registration purposes, and was transferred onto 35mm film in the 1980s. The "truncated" format (a few frames from each shot/scene) was a common method of registering motion pictures for copyright in the early days. The film elements are listed in LC’s online catalogue as part of [VITAGRAPH PAPER PRINT FRAGMENTS. NO. 5].
Reviews
Ball, Robert Hamilton. Shakespeare on Silent Film: A Strange Eventful History. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968 (pp47-8, 49,88,312).

Motion Picture World (7 November 1908).

Production Company

Name

Vitagraph Company of America

Archive

Name

Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound Division

Web
http://catalog.loc.gov/ External site opens in new window
Phone
(20) 707-8572
Fax
(20) 707-237’1
Address
Motion Picture & Television Reading Room
James Madison Building, LM 336
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, D.C.
20540-4690
United States

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