Julius Caesar (1908), dir. William V. (“Billy”) Ranous/Vitagraph
Cast:
Julius Caesar: Charles Kent
First Citizen: William Shea
Gaius Cassius: William V. Ranous
Calpurnia: Florence Lawrence
Marcus Brutus: Earle Williams
Maurice Costello
Paul Panzer
W. Stephen Bush, “Julius Caesar,” Moving Picture World 3, no. 23 (Dec. 5, 1908):446-7.
URL: http://archive.org/stream/movingor03chal#page/n453/mode/2up
To render “Julius Caesar” into moving pictures, following in the main the outlines of the Shakespeare play, was a grave and difficult problem. In such a case, especially, a critic has need to be lenient, and it would be perfectly absurd to apply the highest standard of criticism. I am inclined to hold that on the whole the problem has been fairly well solved, and it is surely better that the lovers of the moving picture have a faulty or imperfect rendering than no rendering at all. “Julius Caesar” is not up to the standard of “Antony and Cleopatra,” Richard III,” “Macbeth” and “Othello.” Of course, none of these plays without a lecture are more than a bewildering mass of moving figures to the majority of patrons of electric theaters, but none stands more emphatically in need of a good lecture than “Julius Caesar.” The adapted has done clever work, the acting of Cassius is superb, that of Antony and Brutus good, but of “Caesar” only fair. The scene showing the assassination is excellent, the scene in the forum likewise, and is an exact representation of the famous painting by Gerome. The get-up of Mark Antony is burlesque: he looks far too old and resembles a waited in a French restaurant far more than the dashing Roman. It would be well for all makers of films to bear in mind that American audiences have a finely developed sense of humor, and there were some broad smiles at the thought of this Mark Antony winning the race at the Lupercal; either the rest of the runners had leaden shoes of the contest was not honestly run. A far more serious fault will be come apparent to those that have seen “Antony and Cleopatra” by the same maker. In the latter play Antony is history and in Shakespeare is older than is the lifeline of the great Julius, speaking of Octavius as a “boy” and referring to his own “grizzly head.” The film maker makes Antony in “Antony and Cleopatra” a dashing soldier in the heyday of early manhood. This might have been excused on the plea of poetic license, but to show the same man in a much earlier period in his life (in “Julius Caesar”) looking like 45, is unpardonable. If you want to shoot high it is always well to aim high. The constant offering of swords by Brutus and Cassius to their retainer with a request to be killed is out of place in the film and not a bit necessary and poorly done at that. When Brutus starts in to do the Roman hari-kari by proxy, people who have just seen Cassius do the same thing either get tired or begin to laugh. The ending is poor, dramatically and every other way; the “funeral pyre” had a fatal resemblance to a Rhode Island clambake.
“Comments on Film Subjects,” Moving Picture World 3, no. 23 (Dec. 5, 1908 ):448. URL: http://archive.org/stream/movingor03chal#page/n455/mode/2up
“Julius Caesar.” A historical film of some interest. The action is weak, Caesar especially, but the staging seems to be as nearly correct as possible. It is, however, marred in some instances by weak photography and an attempt to tone the film some color other than black and white. It would have been much better if it had been left black and white. From the first scene to the death of Brutus the film is watched with eagerness, proving beyond question that almost any audience can be interested in this class of films. The Vitagraph Company are aiming high, and that alone is commendable.
“Stories of the Films,” Moving Picture World 3, no. 23 (Dec. 5, 1908 ):462. URL: http://archive.org/stream/movingor03chal#page/n469/mode/2up
VITAGRAPH COMPANY.
JULIUS CAESAR: An Historical Tragedy–An elaborate production of Shakespeare’s admirable play.
Scene 1. Street in Rome. Casca and Trebonius upbraid the citizens for praising Caesar.
Scene 2. The Forum. A soothsayer bids Caesar “beware of the ides of March.”
Scene 3. Mark Antony wins the race and “thrice he offers Caesar a crown.”
Scene 4. Cassins tempts Brutus to join the conspiracy against Caesar.
Scene 5. Brutus’ garden. Meeting of the conspirators.
Scene 6. Caesar’s palace. Calpurnia tells Caesar of her dream and begs him not to go to the senate. The conspirators enter, laugh at his fears, urge and get his consent to go.
Scene 7. Street near Capitol. The soothsayer a era in warns Caesar.
Scene 8. The Capitol. The assassination of Caesar.
Scene 9. The Forum. Brutus addresses the mob. Antony enters with Caesar’s body.
Scene 10. Brutus’ camp near Sardis. Cassius upbraids Brutus.
Scene 11. Brutus’ tent–quarrel–Caesar’s ghost.
Scene 12. Plains of Phillipi. Armies of Mark Antony and Octavius Caesar and Bruins and Cassius.
Scene 13. The baffle. “Caesar, thou art revenged even with the sword that killeth thee.”
Scene 14. Brutus slays himself. “Caesar, now be still. I killed not thee with half so good a
will.”
Scene 15. Brutus’ funeral pyre. “This was the noblest Roman of them all.”
Length, 9S0 feet.
“December Films,” The Nickelodeon (Jan. 1909): 31. URL: http://archive.org/stream/nickelodeon12elec#page/n5/mode/2up/
Vitagraph Company: “Julius Caesar”–An historical tragedy of the time of Julius Caesar, in fifteen gorgeous scenes.