Captain Courtesy

Captain Courtesy is a lost[1] 1915 American silent drama film directed by Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber based upon a novel by Edward Childs Carpenter. The film stars Dustin Farnum, Courtenay Foote, Winifred Kingston, Herbert Standing, and Jack Hoxie. The film was released on April 19, 1915, by Paramount Pictures.[2][3]

Captain Courtesy
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Directed byPhillips Smalley
Lois Weber
Produced byOliver Morosco
Based onCaptain Courtesy
by Edward Childs Carpenter
StarringDustin Farnum
Courtenay Foote
Winifred Kingston
Herbert Standing
Jack Hoxie
CinematographyDal Clawson
Production
company
Hobart Bosworth Productions
Oliver Morosco Photoplay Company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • April 19, 1915 (1915-04-19)
Running time
50 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)
Building one of the sets for the film.

Plot

Set against the events surrounding the formation of the California Republic on June 14, 1846 and its occupation by United States forces on July 9, 1846,[4] Dustin Farnum plays the son of American settlers of Alta California who when he was a young boy were killed by the Mexicans, upon whom he has vowed revenge.[5] Now a young man, he invents the persona of "Captain Courtesy," a mysterious masked defender of Americans' rights in the Alta California territory. An American-style Robin Hood, he robs wealthy Mexicans and gives the plunder to his fellow Americans. Courtenay Foote plays a renegade American spying for the Mexicans who encounters Captain Courtesy at a mission and informs the Mexican authorities, who dispatch military troops to capture him. Captain Courtesy rides out of the mission, encounters a troop of American cavalrymen, and leads them back to the mission in time to liberate the local Americans. He learns that the American spy was responsible for his parents' death, but the woman he loves stops him from exacting revenge.[5]

The pictured 1915 advertisement in Variety (which erroneously lists the author as "Edward Charles Carpenter), subtitled "A romantic story of the Mexican occupation of California, 1840-1846", depicts a man clad in buckskins and promises "red blooded action, ardent love making, excellent photography from start to finish."

Cast

References
  1. The Library of Congress/FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Captain Courtesy
  2. "Captain-Courtesy - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  3. "Captain Courtesy (1915) - Overview - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  4. James Ross Kaye: Historical Fiction Chronologically and Historically Related, Snowdon Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1920, https://books.google.com/books?id=dDlaAAAAMAAJ, pp. 550-551.
  5. Larry Langman: A Guide to Silent Westerns, Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn., 1992, https://books.google.com/books?isbn=031327858X, p. 73.


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