What was the first film remake?
The earliest I can think of is Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein from 1931, which can be seen as a remake of Thomas Edison’s 1910 film Frankenstein. But there must have been earlier remakes, what were they?
Well, there was a 1911 Richard III that might be seen as a remake of the 1908 one. And I doubt that’s even the earliest example…
The Kiss was first made in 1896, starring May Irwin and John C. Rice. It proved so popular that the producer (Thomas Edison) made two further versions
Over in England, Cecil Hepworth had to make several versions of Rescued by Rover (1905), as it too proved so popular that the negative wore out.
I woild give more details, but IMDB just told me that “There have been an unusually high number of pages requested by you (or from your organization’s web proxy). If you’ve just been heavily browsing, please take a break before continuing.”
Bitches.
The IMDb makes a distinction between “versions” and “remakes”. “Versions” are two different movies based on the same literary property. “Remakes” are when the original screenplay of a movie is reused by a subsequent movie, for example, the original screenplay A Star Is Born (1937)* is remade in 1954, or the original screenplay King Kong is remade in 1976.
So myles – are you talking about “versions” or “remakes”?
- No, this was not a remake of What Price, Hollywood? (1932), although it has similar plot elements.
I wonder where The Kiss would fall? It’s from the play The Widow Jones, and consists of, well, two people kissing for about 15 seconds.
By the way, you can see it here!
In 1904 the film company S. Lubin filmed an unauthorized, scene-for-scene remake of Edison’s big hit The Great Train Robbery (1903). Until U.S. copyright law was modified in 1912 to acknowledge photoplays, such blatant ripoffs were possible.