The film's survival ''complete in its original print is really astounding,'' said the silent-film historian Kevin Brownlow. The movie was long considered lost and ''expunged from the memory,'' said Mr. Brownlow, the author of ''The Parade's Gone By,'' a book about silent films.

''Richard III'' was one of eight American dramatic and documentary feature films released in 1912, the first year that features were made in the United States. Only five survive in any form, and of those, only ''Richard III'' and two others released later that year survive in their entirety. (Film archivists define a feature film as a work of at least 40 minutes, or four reels of 35-millimeter film.) From 1895 to 1912, American companies released single-reel films, lasting 10 to 15 minutes.

By all accounts, ''Richard III,'' made by the M. B. Dudley Amusement Company of New York City, made a splash when it was first released. Filmed in Westchester County and at City Island in the Bronx at a cost of $30,000, the film includes lavish battle scenes with a cast of hundreds, large for the day.

In an interview with The Brooklyn Eagle in November 1912, Warde, the film's star, who for years had his own stage company, described his first film experience.

''The staging and methods of the moving-picture people were revelations to me,'' he said. ''I thought I knew all the tricks of acting, but their work was simply amazing to me. The director of the company simply told the other actors what to do, telling them when to look glad or sorry, when to shout and when to fight, without telling them why they did any of these things.''