Other than Lewis Waller, none of the actors who appeared in any of the four scenes in "King John" are known to have been filmed as actors before. Lewis Waller had appeared in 'Fencing Contest From "The Three Musketeers'(1898)', also made by the British Mutoscope & Biograph Company and directed by William K.L. Dickson.
The Smedley family of Birmingham, England were closely involved with the production of both the "King John" staging at Her Majesty's Theatre and the "King John" film. W. T. Smedley was chairman of the British Mutuscope & Biograph Company which made the film and which may have invested in the play, his daughter, Constance Smedley, designed the play's 60 performances souvenir programme, which the film company published on Her Majesty's Theatre's behalf and his nephew, William Smedley Aston, was official and exclusive photographer for the stage production.
Comparing the extant Scene Three of "King John" with the three Scenes that are no longer extant, including their still photographs and their stage play versions, allows some conjecture on what speeches the unextant Scenes silently contain: Scene One, "The Temptation Scene", presumably filmed, at least, the lines from John's "Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert throw thine eye" to his "Enough", Scene Two, "The Lamentation Scene", probably went from Philip's "O fair affliction, peace" to Constance's "The different plague of each calamity" and Scene Four, "The Death Scene", most likely pictured Faulconbridge's "Oh, I am scalded with my violent motion" to Henry's "When this was now a King, and now is clay?".
In 1900 and 1901, The British Mutoscope & Biograph Company (the Biograph) promoted a tour of a selection of its films throughout England (and probably Scotland and Wales and possibly Ireland as well) in each year, showing at most of the major cities and many of the leading towns. The films chosen for both of the tours were a mix of the Biograph's recent and popular films, updated as the tour progressed, In 1901, the leading films were several of Queen Victoria 's funeral followed by reports of the Boer war in South Africa, famous people such as Pope Leo XIII, sporting events, views of and from ships and trains, and other familiar subjects of the cinema of the time, almost all shown in very short forms of one to two minutes duration each on a 26ft (7.92m) by 22ft (6.70m) screen. Attempts were also made to include Biograph films of the locality in each place in which the package was being screened.
It appears from contemporary press reports that the full, four scene, version of "King John' (as four separate films shown in sequence together) was included on the 1901 tour, although how extensively is not known and may now be impossible to know. It is also not known, with a similar unlikelihood of ever knowing, whether the four prints of "King John" were newly struck for the tour from the original negatives.
It appears from contemporary press reports that the full, four scene, version of "King John' (as four separate films shown in sequence together) was included on the 1901 tour, although how extensively is not known and may now be impossible to know. It is also not known, with a similar unlikelihood of ever knowing, whether the four prints of "King John" were newly struck for the tour from the original negatives.
The Biograph film package was shown at The Montgomery Hall, Sheffield, England, between 8-13 April, 1901. Its first screening on Monday, 8 April, 1901, was reviewed in "The Sheffield Daily Telegraph", a Sheffield daily morning newspaper, on Tuesday, 9 April 1901, under the subheading "The Biograph At The Montgomery Hall" (this review was reprinted, identically, the same day, in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph's evening edition, then known as the "Yorkshire Telegraph & Star"). The anonymous "Sheffield Daily Telegraph" reviewer wrote:
"A new departure from the usual views was seen in portions of scenes in "King John". Here the company are treated to a glimpse of the acting of Mr Beerbohm Tree and Miss Julia Neilson".
This statement further confirms the existence of Scene Two of "King John", "The Lamentation Scene". Beerbohm Tree's 1899 production of "King John" and Julia Neilson's role in it as Constance were too well known in England by 1901 for either the Scene or its actors to be mistakenly identified. As it is highly unlikely that Scene Two and Neilson's dominant role in it would be accompanied only by one or both of Tree's last two Scenes as the dying John, it must be assumed that all four Scenes were shown at Sheffield (and on the Biograph tour), beginning with John, Hubert and Arthur in "The Temptation Scene".
The "Sheffield Daily Telegraph" review is also notable for the reviewer's opinion that the inclusion of "King John" was "a new departure", contrasting it with "the usual views". A significant number of people, from various backgrounds, who saw "King John" were aware that it was something more than merely a film of "Scenes from Mr Beerbohm's Tree's latest production".
"A new departure from the usual views was seen in portions of scenes in "King John". Here the company are treated to a glimpse of the acting of Mr Beerbohm Tree and Miss Julia Neilson".
This statement further confirms the existence of Scene Two of "King John", "The Lamentation Scene". Beerbohm Tree's 1899 production of "King John" and Julia Neilson's role in it as Constance were too well known in England by 1901 for either the Scene or its actors to be mistakenly identified. As it is highly unlikely that Scene Two and Neilson's dominant role in it would be accompanied only by one or both of Tree's last two Scenes as the dying John, it must be assumed that all four Scenes were shown at Sheffield (and on the Biograph tour), beginning with John, Hubert and Arthur in "The Temptation Scene".
The "Sheffield Daily Telegraph" review is also notable for the reviewer's opinion that the inclusion of "King John" was "a new departure", contrasting it with "the usual views". A significant number of people, from various backgrounds, who saw "King John" were aware that it was something more than merely a film of "Scenes from Mr Beerbohm's Tree's latest production".