Sapho is a 1913 silent film feature drama directed by Lucius Henderson and is based on the novel by Alphonse Daudet and its stage adaptation by Daudet and Adolphe Belot. It stars stage actress Florence Roberts and Shelley Hull. It was produced by the Majestic Motion Picture Company and released by World's Special Films. As with Queen Elizabeth (1912) and Resurrection (1912), the film was one of the first features to star a major actress known by name. It competed with a four-reel French film that same year, 1913.
Sapho as a play, written by Clyde Fitch, was produced by Olga Nethersole on Broadway in 1900 to acclaim but also tinged with scandal as the play ran afoul of the New York Police Department, who shut it down for a time and arrested its stars Olga Nethersole and Hamilton Revelle.
The play was next filmed in 1917 as Sapho starring Pauline Frederick.
Contents
Cast
Florence Roberts - Fanny Le Grand/Sapho
Shelley Hull - Jean
Arthur Cadwell Jr. - Joseph
Lamar Johnstone - *uncredited
Preservation
Sapho is currently presumed lost. In February of 2021, the film was cited by the National Film Preservation Board on their Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films list.