A Midsummer Night’s Dream
1909: Charles Kent, J. Stuart Blackton

Running a total of about twelve minutes, this is an early silent foray into filming Shakespeare.

The end product is about what one might expect — there are of course no words, and so none of Shakespeare’s lyrical lines. The outlines of each of the several scenes is presented on a card before the scene, which is then mimed with extravagant gestures.

Bottom is a long-limbed gangly fellow, whose insufferable mugging for the show is the apparent source of comedy, though it’s rather steeply over-played.

The fairies represent a peculiar departure from the norm. Perhaps the Titania/Oberon clash was deemed too risqué for the standards of the period: the net result is that the part of Titania is taken over by one Penelope (otherwise unaccounted for), and it is their quarrel (which is stipulated, but never described) that brings about Bottom’s transformation into a donkey, and the ensuing (very tame) amorous encounter with Titania.

As currently available on DVD, this is part of the valuable Silent Shakespeare collection; the pieces are presented in reasonably clean format (especially for film so old); some of them are hand-tinted, but most are black and white. The overlaid musical sound-track, using piano and cello, verges on the tedious and depressing after six minutes, but one is under no obligation to keep the sound turned up.

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