A growing source of silent era film information. This listing is from The Progressive Silent Film List by Carl Bennett. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

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Le duel d’Hamlet
(1900) France
B&W : [?] 174 feet?
Directed by (unknown)

Cast: Sarah Bernhardt [Hamlet], Pierre Magnier [Laertes]

Produced by Clément-Maurice Gratioulet. From the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. / [?] 35mm spherical format? Phono-Cinéma-Théâtre sound-on-cylinder synchronized sound system. / Bernhardt’s film debut. While other Phono-Cinéma-Théâtre films featured a prerecorded synchronized soundtrack on Lioretographe sound cylinders, this film was shot silent, without any spoken dialogue, and presented only with live sound effects of swords clashing. The film was distributed in France after 1907 by Urban Eclipse. The film was released in the USA (at 174 feet) by Kleine Optical Company in 1908. / Silent film.

Drama: Historical.

Survival status: Print exists in the Filmmuseum Berlin Deutsch Kinemathek film archive : A print may exist in the Cinémathèque française film archive.

Current rights holder: (unknown) [France]; Public domain [USA].

Keywords: Authors: William Shakespeare (1564?-1616)

Listing updated: 3 October 2009.

References: Ball-Shakespeare pp. 64a, 386; Bardèche-History p. 45; Barry-Griffith p. 8; Card-Seductive p. 25; Geduld-Birth p. 53; Kerr-Silent p. 7; Menefee-Bernhardt pp. 89-90, 91, 92, 96-97, 151, 153; Shipman-Cinema p. 38; Thompson-Lost p. ix.