Cleopatra (1912)

Quite some time back, TCM's Silent Sunday Nights selection was a 1912 version of Cleopatra. I'm always curious about very early movies, so naturally I recorded it to be able to see it and do a post on it.

The movie was made by one Helen Gardner, a stage actress who also was a teacher of "pantomime", which I would guess in this context means learning how to do the right gestures to try to display what action you mean in the context of silent cinema, where there's so much that you can't express with sound or dialogue. Gardner plays Cleopatra and the movie is based on a French stage play from about 1890. Obviously, being a silent film, one didn't need to worry about translating a stage play if the action could be followed; just the title cards would be necessary.

When I did my review of the movie Florence Foster Jenkins, I mentioned that the movie opens with her theatrical work presenting what were known as tableaux vivants, and much of the photography of this version of Cleopatra, being a pretty early silent, uses the same sort of staging. A fairly static camera films tableaux in medium-to-long shots, with a substantial use of title cards to add dialogue and action. (One IMDb reviewer mentions exactly 106 title cards; that number is probably right because in the print TCM showed the title cards seemed to be sequentially numbered.)

As for the plot, there are two plots. One is the relatively standard story line of Cleopatra falling in love with Marc Antony and getting him to fight the Battle of Actium against Octavian and his navy, with Antony and Cleopatra ultimately losing. This, of course, is what leads to Cleopatra retreating to her palace in Alexandria and having the venomous asp give her the fatal bite. The other plot, which takes up most of the first half or so of the movie, is about a fictitious Greek fisherman/slave named Pharon who is taken by Cleopatra's beauty and has a brief affair with her, even willing to kill himself just for the opportunity to have that affair!

One other interesting point about the movie is how many of the cast members are credited not by their full names, but as Mr./Mrs./Miss and their surnames. I know that some wives of prominent male actors would sometimes be credited as Mrs. and their husband's full name; I distinctly recall seeing Where Are My Children crediting Mrs. Tyrone Power (Sr.).

By the standards of 2024, this version of Cleopatra is an extreme antique, and notable by the fact that it does have a true feature-length running time of just under 90 minutes, which was astonishing for 1912. For anyone not interested in cinematic history, it's going to be difficult to watch thanks to Gardner not using much in the way of intercutting that other directors were already beginning to experiment with. She does use a lot of tinting, however.

Many of the IMDb reviewers also comment on the modern-day score that TCM apparently commissioned for this print some 20 year ago. That too isn't going to be to everybody's taste, but at least since it's a silent movie you can turn the volume off and imagine your own music.

The 1912 version of Cleopatra is a decided museum piece, but one that should probably be seen. As of this writing there are several copies available on YouTube.