Page 163 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

152 / Shakespeare in the Movies

and the playing of mind games. Literary critic T. M. Parrott pointed
out that Othello can be considered the earliest example of a domes-
tic tragedy, shifting high drama from the throne room to the middle-
class household.
In 1604, Shakespeare's immediate challenge was to surpass Hamlet
by offering an original, even alternative, hero. The melancholy Dane
had been destroyed by his own ultralogical mind; Othello, on the
other hand, is a slave to his illogical emotions. Taken as a set of com-
pliments, the plays warn against extremism of any kind. To avoid a
tragic fate, the wise man treads a balanced pathway between head
and heart.

The Stage Tradition

In Shakespeare's time, Richard Burbage played Othello with the
expected bombast, all but exploding onstage; generations later,
Edmund Kean did the part, as might be expected, by quietly implod-
ing before his audience. At the Globe in 1604, Joseph Taylor enacted
lago as a literal demon; Edwin Forrest, opposite Kean, scaled the role
down to human dimensions. The cinematic Othellos and lagos of
our century necessarily chose between the two possible extremes.

Early Efforts

The first-known Othello, with a running time of five minutes, was
shot in Italy late in 1906 by director Mario Caserini. It remains (at
this writing) among the lost Shakespearean films. Likewise lost is
the first sound Othello, shot in Germany the following year.
Adapted from Verdi's opera Otello (itself derived from the play), this
featured actor Henny Porten delivering "The Death of Othello"
(actually lip-synching to a phonograph record played simultaneously
while the movie was projected).
The oldest Othello in existence was produced in Austria in 1908
by Pathe Freres. An ambitious experiment that ran a then-impressive
half hour, this was an early talkie. A plus was the striking exteriors
shot on location in Venice, although the acting was in the overly
histrionic approach popular at the time. The first American version
was produced in 1908 by J. Stuart Blackton at Vitagraph, with pop-
ular actor William Ranous starring and directing. During the 1910s,
Othellos (each progressively more ambitious in technique and
length) were produced in Italy (one by Gerolamo LoSavio in 1911;