Captain Courtesy


Captain Courtesy is a lost 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.

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, 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. 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.
The pictured 1915 advertisement in Variety, 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