Romeo and Juliet is a silent film short made in 1908 made by Vitagraph Studios.^[1] It was t he first American film version of the play. Directed by J. Stuart Blackton, it was filmed at Bethesda Terrace in Manhattan, New York.

The film starred Paul Panzer as Romeo and Florence Lawrence as Juliet.

According to the Silent Era Company, a complete print of the film survives.^[2]

The film presents a significantly abridged version of the Romeo and Juliet story. The extant second half of the film covers the last three acts of the play in only fifteen minutes, from Romeo's duel with Tybalt to the respective suicides of Romeo and Juliet. As in the play, the film depicts Romeo dueling and killing Tybalt before fleeing on the advice of Friar Laurence. Juliet is ordered to marry Count Paris but devises a plan to fake her death using poison; however, her letter informing Romeo of the plan is not delivered, and he believes she has actually died. In despair, he commits suicide. Once Juliet realizes this, she commits suicide as well.

The film, silent with only limited intertitles, contains very little dialogue. Most of the plot is communicated through the body language of the performers. As such, many parts of the plot are communicated only indirectly or elided--for example, although the film's ending depicts Friar Laurence in despair after the couple's death, it does not directly show a reconciliation between the Capulet and Montague families.

• Paul Panzer - Romeo
• Florence Lawrence - Juliet
• John G. Adolfi - Tybalt
• Josephine Atkinson - Bit
• Louise Carver - Nurse
• Charles Chapman - Montague
• Gladys Hulette
• Charles Kent - Capulet
• William V. Ranous - Friar Lawrence
• William Shea - Peter
• Harry Solter
• Florence Turner

• Romeo and Juliet at IMDb