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J. Stuart Blackton

J. Stuart Blackton

Directing

Biography

James Stuart Blackton was a pioneer Anglo-American filmmaker and can be credited with the first feature-length American production. He founded Vitagraph Studios in 1897 and was among the first filmmakers to use stop-motion and drawn animation.

Known For

Humpty Dumpty Circus
1.5

The Humpty Dumpty Circus is the first animated short film created in stop-motion technique. It features a circus with acrobats and animals in motion.

Humpty Dumpty Circus

1898
The Gilded Highway
10.0

After inheriting a fortune from an uncle they barely and carelessly cared for during his last years, the Welbys become social-climbing snobs to the point of ignoring old friends and breaking off marriage engagements. A lost film.

The Gilded Highway

1926
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4.7

Biographical drama, adaptation of Shakespeare's play.

Julius Caesar, an Historical Tragedy

1908
The Haunted Hotel
5.6

A traveler stays the night at a rural inn, but gets no rest as he is tormented by various spectres and mysterious happenings.

The Haunted Hotel

1907
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7.0

A two-part silent movie, with the first part focusing on Washington's early life and French and Indian War experiences as a British colonial officer (Washington Under the British Flag), starring Joseph Kilgour, and the second part (Washington Under the American Flag) continuing his story through the Revolution and presidency, portraying his journey from surveyor to commander and first president, aiming to educate audiences on America's founding father.

The Life of George Washington

1909
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4.0

Monsieur Beaucaire, a French nobleman & relative of the King, engages in a sword fight with the jealous Duke of Winterset over a card game, leading to a kidnapping attempt on the woman Beaucaire loves, Lady Mary Somerset, forcing Beaucaire to fight valiantly, get imprisoned, and then escape in disguise to stop the Duke from marrying Lady Mary, culminating in him revealing himself as the officiant during the wedding ceremony!

Monsieur Beaucaire, the Adventures of a Gentleman of France

1905
The Life of Moses
1.0

Released in five parts (The Persecution of the Children of Israel by the Egyptians, Forty Years in the Land of Midian, The Plagues of Egypt and the Deliverance of the Hebrews, The Victory of Israel, The Promised Land), 4 December 1909 to 19 February 1910. A Vitagraph advertisement in the Moving Picture World (31 Dec. 1909) refers to The Life of Moses as a "Biblical Film-de-Luxe". It is preserved in the Library of Congress collection.

The Life of Moses

1909
The Life and Death of King Richard III
4.7

Shakespeare's tragedy of the wicked and hump-backed Duke of Gloucester, who rises to the throne of England by chicanery, treachery, and brilliance.

The Life and Death of King Richard III

1912
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces
5.7

A cartoonist draws faces and figures on a blackboard - and they come to life.

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

1906
Between Friends
7.0

When Jack Greylock elopes with Jessica, wife of his lifelong friend David Drene, they are taken with remorse and she commits suicide. Later, Jack falls in love with Cecile, David's model, who loves Drene. A jealous rival, Quair, informs David about the elopement with Jessica, and to satisfy David's vengeance Jack proposes to kill himself. By mental telepathy, David prevents the tragedy and forgives him. —AFI

Between Friends

1924
Life's Greatest Problem
N/A

Big Steve and Little Lefty, a pair of hobos, are happily drifting through life until the First World War comes and enter it and find their lives forever changed.

Life's Greatest Problem

1918
Bride of the Storm
8.0

An American ship is wrecked off the coast of the Dutch East Indies, and little Faith Fitzhugh and her mother have washed ashore on a rocky island that supports only a lighthouse. Faith's mother lives only long enough to inform the three Dutch lighthouse keepers that her daughter is the heiress to a large fortune. Years pass and Faith grows to womanhood. Jacob Kroon and his son, Piet, then conspire to marry Faith to Piet's idiot son, Hans, in order to bring her fortune into the family. Dick Wayne, a sailor on an American cruiser that is repairing a damaged cable in the waters of the lighthouse, learns of Faith's captivity and comes to her rescue. Piet kills Jacob in a fit of jealousy, and Dick then kills Piet in a fight. Hans sets the lighthouse on fire and incinerates himself. Dick and Faith make it back to the cruiser.

Bride of the Storm

1926
And the Villain Still Pursued Her; or, the Author's Dream
6.5

A pulp writer dozes off at his desk and dreams himself into a melodrama of love and rivalry. What begins as a familiar tale soon veers into absurdity—complete with outrageous twists, overblown villains, and even a gunshot to the head. J. Stuart Blackton’s parody gleefully skewers the clichés of stage melodrama in one of early cinema’s most inventive comedies.

And the Villain Still Pursued Her; or, the Author's Dream

1906
Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy
5.8

A smoker falls asleep, and two mischievious fairies play with his pipe. He discovers this, and imprisons them in a cigar box. He removes a flower from the box, which contains a fairy smoking a cigarette. Next, he leaves briefly while his smoking paraphenalia clears itself from the table and the flower reassembles itself into a cigar. He lights the cigar, then breaks a bottle containing the fairy, who interacts with him in various ways reeling from his cigar smoke, building a bonfire that he extinguishes, etc.

Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy

1909
The Artist's Dilemma
6.0

In the artist's studio, he asleep in his chair. A large old fashioned clock opens and a young lady comes out and awaking the artist, requests him to paint her picture. While the artist is executing the work a clown comes from the clock, takes in the situation and begins to make love to the lady. The artist detects him and compels him to desist his love making. He continues to paint. The clown becomes interested and asks the artist to allow him to paint the picture, and begins smearing a whitewash brush over the canvas, and a most perfect image of the young lady appears. The image then steps down from the frame, joins the young lady in the studio, and the figures, each a perfect counterpart of the other begin to dance to the great astonishment of the artist. The clown waves his hand causing the figures of the two girls to merge into one. The artist then assumes his seat and awakens in shock. The film was a Vitagraph production, but later acquired and copyrighted by the Edison Company.

The Artist's Dilemma

1901
The Fighting Trail
N/A

15 chapter adventure tale starring forgotten serial queen Carol Holloway. The chapter titles were: (1) The Priceless Ingredient; (2) The Story of Ybarra; (3) Will Yaqui Joe Tell?; (4) The Other Half; (5) Torrent Rush; (6) The Ledge of Despair; (7) The Lion's Prey; (8) The Strands of Doom; (9) The Bridge of Death; (10) The Sheriff; (11) Parched Trails; (12) The Desert of Torture; (13) The Water Trap; (14) The Trestle of Horrors; and (15) Out of the Flame.

The Fighting Trail

1917
A Midsummer Night's Dream
4.7

An early film adaptation of the Bard's comic fantasy-- and perhaps the first screen adaptation of a Shakespeare play.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

1909
Little Nemo
6.4

Cartoon figures announce, via comic strip balloons, that they will move - and move they do, in a wildly exaggerated style. Also known as "Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics".

Little Nemo

1911
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9.0

The Passionate Quest is a 1926 American drama film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and written by Marian Constance Blackton. It is based on the 1924 novel The Passionate Quest by E. Phillips Oppenheim. The film stars May McAvoy, Willard Louis, Louise Fazenda, Gardner James, Jane Winton, and Holmes Herbert.

The Passionate Quest

1926
The Cavalier's Dream
4.4

He sits asleep at a bare table; old witch enters, raps three times, then disappears; cavalier sees table spread for a sumptuous repast. Mephistopheles appears; then the old witch, who suddenly changes to a beautiful young girl. The changes and magical appearances are startling and instantaneous.

The Cavalier's Dream

1898