Restored 1912 ‘Richard III’ an Endearing, Historic Treat

Before the beautiful new safety print of the 1912 “Richard III” unspooled Tuesday night at the AFI Film Fest’s gala premiere, William Buffum exclaimed to the audience in LACMA’s Bing Theater: “Now I get to see it on a big screen instead of a white sheet!”

Buffum, a 78-year-old retired flour mill manager from Portland, Ore., donated his nitrate print of “Richard III” to the American Film Institute last September. At the time, he had no idea that it was, as far as can be ascertained, the oldest extant American feature film--and apparently the first film of a Shakespeare play. Since it was long believed lost, like an estimated 70% of pre-1920 movies, AFI director Jean Firstenberg likened its reappearance to the discovery of a “Beethoven’s 10th Symphony or a lost Rembrandt.”

While this “Richard III” is nowhere near the artistic level of Beethoven or Rembrandt, its survival in near-perfect form is scarcely short of miraculous. It occurred because Buffum had once been a projectionist and knew that his ancient nitrate print needed to be stored properly and to be rewound annually to keep it from sticking together.

“Whenever I couldn’t find my hand-cranked rewinder my wife would help me rewind it on a pencil,” he said. Buffum acquired it around 1960, along with “When Bearcat Went Dry” (1919) starring Lon Chaney, in a trade with another collector. (Buffum also donated the Chaney film, said to be in poorer condition.) Buffum was awarded a special plaque from AFI board of trustees chair Tom Pollock.

The durably entertaining “Richard III” was the second of eight American feature-length films made in 1912, the first year features were made. The first, “Oliver Twist,” is missing a reel, and only three of the five 1912 features known to exist are complete.

Seen today, the 55-minute “Richard III,” with its clear, beautiful sepia images, comes across as a surprisingly engaging example of the well-filmed play. Director James Deane, who also played the Earl of Richmond, never moves the camera and uses close-ups only to enable us to read letters and messages yet displays a strong sense of composition.

He knew how to place his large cast for the camera and how they should move effectively in front of it. Above all, he knew how to tell the story of the hunchbacked Richard, who murdered his way to the throne, with clarity and an admirably brisk pace. Presented by M.B. Dudley, “Richard III” was shot on location in and around New York for $30,000. While many of the settings are patently phony (in an endearingly quaint way), the costumes, doubtless from stage productions, are magnificent.

Richard is played by Frederick Warde, a 61-year-old British-born Shakespearean actor whose popularity was revived by this film. (He also filmed his Lear, but that film is lost.) Warde comes across as a sturdy, crowd-pleasing trouper who plays Richard with great relish, and you can understand how he and his Shakespeare company were popular.

“Richard III” was preceded Tuesday by a 1921 Kellum Talking Picture, a short donated by the UCLA Film Archive and featuring the distinguished-looking Warde reciting one of his own poems in his deep, resonant voice with its stentorian tones. It was Warde’s custom to recite from Shakespeare before “Richard III” screened, and actors David Dukes and Armin Shimmerman did the honors Tuesday.

“Richard III” benefited greatly from Robert Israel’s elegant yet sprightly score, which was performed live by his seven-piece ensemble. The Joseph H. Kanter Foundation underwrote the restoration and preservation of “Richard III” as well as Israel’s score and the entire historic evening.