vitagraph

Britton of the Seventh. With Ned Finley as General George Custer. Released May 1916, 4 reels. Now lost. According to AFI . . . according to a news item, this film was shot along the U.S.-Mexican border, and Indians from Oklahoma reservations and United States troops appeared in the film.

See also

Is Britton of the Seventh (not pictured here) really lost? A modern reviewer seems to have seen it: "What's more fascinating than the plot is the multitude of mistakes made by director Lionel Belmore and Vitagraph's production staff in recreating 1876. For example, Rain-in-the-Face (Logan Paul) uses a repeating rifle to shoot down a couple of scouts (those guns didn't exist back then), and Britton is shown wearing a modern (circa 1916) suit and collar. Such errors were especially fatal in an era where people were still alive who remembered the times of Custer first hand. It makes you wonder why the studio -- trying for accuracy -- bothered to shoot the film in Texas with the help of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi"
www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/86022/Britton-of-the-Seventh...

Definitely not Britton of the Seventh. See note under

Actress Paula Hilburn Blackton (1881-1930): her husband James Stuart Blackton was founder of Vitagraph Studios, an early film studio. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Blackton en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Stuart_Blackton www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11517827 Paula Blackton was an enthusiastic yachtswoman, and owned a champion racing yacht. She made the news herself in 1911, when she jumped into Huntington Bay, Long Island, from the yacht Paula, "with all her wraps on," to save a waiter who had fallen out of his canoe. She also directed films, often starring her own children Violet and Charles, set at the family estate in Oyster Bay. In one of them (The Littlest Scout, 1919), her son is a Boy Scout who is kidnapped by German spies and leads a Scout troop to capture a German submarine.

pennylrichardsca: thank you for the additional information about this fascinating woman. We will add more details when we update the description.

Likely from the making of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_Cry_of_Peace which was co-written and co-directed by J. Stuart Blackton [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Stuart_Blackton ] He could certainly be the guy in the middle with a cap and glasses.

Page on The Battle Cry of Peace (1915) at www.stanford.edu/~gdegroat/NT/oldreviews/bcop.htm has a transcription of a review from the New York Times, August 7, 1915, which includes the sentence,"This new film has been devised and completed by Commodore J. Stuart Blackton of the Vitagraph Company under the inspiration of Hudson Maxim." Whether "Commodore" is an authentic title is not clear, but this accounts for the writing (mis-spelt) on the negative.

Blackton was elected as "Commodore" of the Atlantic Yacht Club (on Coney Island) He was also elected commodore of the Motor Boat Club of America. Might explain the yachting cap.

Taking a look at civilwar.gratzpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/FergusonW... I wondered if the guy to the right of the 3 on horseback might be Joseph Kilgour. But if so, he's hardly dressed as George Washington -- the role he played in Battle Cry of Peace. Another pic of Kilgour at www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11262436 And another picture of Kilgour at lower right in oval frame in the [New York] Sun., August 05, 1917, Section 4 Pictorial Magazine, Image 35 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030431/1917-08-05/ed-... A substantial piece promoting Battle Cry of Peace is in The Daily Ardmoreite., October 02, 1916, Page 3 chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042303/1916-10-02/ed-...

See

for the resolution to which movie is being filmed. It is Kilgour. He played a Ruritanian commander in "Battle Cry of War," to be a sequel to Battle Cry of Peace, but probably not finished or released.