The Tempest is a 1908 British-made silent film directed by film pioneer Percy Stow who specialised in trick photography.
The 'delightful'[1] film was made by the Clarendon Film Company founded by Stow and Henry Vassal Lawley. It was written by Langford Reed and was the second screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, the first being when Charles Urban filmed the opening storm sequence of Herbert Beerbohm Tree's stage version at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1905 for a 2+1⁄2-minute flicker. Stow's film can be said to be the first cinematic version designed specifically for film and in its 12 minute length manages to convey some of the magic of Shakespeare's play.[2]