Hamlet (1913)
The film begins at Elsinore Castle, where the sentinels on duty spot a ghost on the battlements. Horatio, Hamlet’s close friend, tells him that the apparition closely resembles the late King of Denmark—Hamlet’s father—whom Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, is suspected of murdering in order to seize the throne. Claudius has also married Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude, barely a month after the king’s death. Moved by Horatio’s story, Hamlet decides to see the ghost for himself. When it reappears at midnight, the spirit reveals to Hamlet that it is indeed his father and recounts how Claudius murdered him. The ghost urges Hamlet to avenge the crime.
To carry out this revenge, Hamlet pretends to be mad, especially in his interactions with Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, with whom he is in love. Hamlet then arranges for a group of actors to perform a play in front of the king and queen, depicting a scene similar to his father’s murder, hoping to gauge Claudius’s reaction. Claudius, stricken with guilt, decides to eliminate Hamlet by sending him to England.
In the meantime, Hamlet mistakenly kills Polonius, thinking he is Claudius, when he finds him hiding behind a curtain, eavesdropping on a conversation between Hamlet and his mother. While en route to England, Hamlet is captured by pirates but manages to escape and return to Denmark. He also discovers that Claudius had sent letters ordering his execution upon arrival in England. Hamlet switches the letters, so the ambassadors accompanying him are sentenced to death instead.
During Hamlet’s absence, Ophelia, driven mad by grief over her father’s death, drowns herself. Her brother Laertes, misled by false reports, leads a rebellion against the king, believing Claudius is responsible for Polonius’s death. But when he learns that Hamlet is the culprit, he joins Claudius in a plot to kill Hamlet secretly. The two agree to a fencing match, with Laertes using a poisoned blade. Claudius also prepares a poisoned cup in case the blade fails.
During the match, Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword, but in the ensuing fight, they exchange weapons, and Laertes is fatally wounded by his own blade. Gertrude accidentally drinks from the poisoned cup meant for Hamlet and dies. As Laertes dies, he confesses the plot and implicates Claudius. Hamlet, in a final act of revenge, stabs Claudius with Laertes’s sword. The film ends with news of the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who were executed as a result of Hamlet's forged letters, and a eulogy for Hamlet by Horatio. Fortinbras is then chosen as the new King of Denmark.
Books with an entry on Hamlet
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Robert B. Connelly The Motion Picture Guide, Silent Film 1910-1936 Chicago, 1986 |
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| Ivan Butler Cinema in Britain, An illustrated Survey South Brunswick and New York - London, 1973 |
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