Railroad Raiders of '62

Civil War movies were popular in the first half of the 1910s, culminating in D.W. Griffith's BIRTH OF A NATION. The fiftieth anniversary of the conflict had it on everyone's mind, there were plenty of veterans still around and this was one of Kalem's contributions to the genre. Given that the Southern audience wanted one in which the Confederates were the good guys and that the North, which had won the war, was more relaxed about such things, this story about the hijacking of a Confederate railroad and its recovery by its engineer was a natural. The incident later served as the basis of Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL -- you can recognize several of the incidents from the latter movie.

So how does this movie stack up for 1911? Not very well. I don't much care for director Sidney Olcott's work, but this one has little to recommend it; it is title heavy, has little variation in camera-work and there are long sections when people just talk to each other with no indication of what they are saying. Try pointing a few fingers, guys.

Of some interest is the fact that director Olcott, as well as future directors Robert Vignola and J.P. McGowan act in this short.

This is the only historical picture that this reviewer has seen that equals the best historical pictures made abroad. One may be forgiven if he thinks that it far excels them all in interest. Here is a picture of real men making real war. It's as exciting as the most sensational picture, yet, as far as one can see, not a grain of truth has been sacrificed to make it so. It's a picture in which every actor seems to be equally good with the best, and much time and pains were plainly spent in making it so perfect. The audience broke into it with applause and gave it a round at the end more enthusiastic than any that rewarded any song, dance or sketch with the living actors present and smiling across, a request for applause. - The Moving Picture World, July 1, 1911

Early film version of the Civil War incident on which Buster Keaton's The General and Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase was based. The pace is so fast that it all feels a little rushed, but it must have been hugely exciting for audiences used to the more sedate pace of early silent movies. Sidney Olcott directs and stars.