J. Stuart Blackton

Directing

J. Stuart Blackton

Born — Died

1875-01-05 — 1941-08-13

Place of birth

Sheffield, Yorkshire [now South Yorkshire], England, UK

Known for

Directing

Credits

54 titles

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

King Lear poster
4.2

An impressively tactile, if slightly over-ambitious, adaptation of King Lear from Vitagraph Studios.

King Lear

1909

Dawn poster
7.0

Keith, an artist, begins to go blind as a result of having fallen out of a tree as a child. His fiancé Dorothy, a wealthy heiress, had previously said that she thought blind people were "disgusting", and he refuses to see her. Dorothy plans to have her father, an eye surgeon, perform an operation on Keith that may help him regain his sight, but things don't go as planned.

Dawn

1919

The Film Parade poster
8.0

Pioneer filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton was intrigued by the idea of a film about the history of the movies as early as 1915. He finally released a 52-minute feature called The Film Parade that was shown in New York and favorably reviewed by "Variety" in 1933. He continued tinkering with the film for the rest of the decade, and later filmmakers and distributors used Blackton's footage for stock or to produce their own variously titled and truncated versions. -UCLA Film & Television Archive

The Film Parade

1933

Princess Nicotine poster
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

1909

Missing poster
NR

When a woman's husband is presumed dead in the war, her sister, for her own unscrupulous reasons, attempts to get her remarried. But the husband, it seems, is not dead after all.

Missing

1918

Elektra poster
NR

Agamemmon returns to Argos from the Siege of Troy, bringing, as a prisoner and trophy of war and victory, Cassandra, the beautiful daughter of King Priam of Troy. Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, has a lover, Aegisthus, who fans the flames of jealousy aroused in Clytemnestra by the arrival of Cassandra, with whom Agamemnon is very much infatuated.

Elektra

1910

Film credits

1900s · 11 titles

Lightning Sketches poster
4.7

An illustrator draws some sketches at lightning speed. He first illustrates how he can turn a written word into a sketch of that word.

Lightning Sketches

1907

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces poster
5.8

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

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

1906

And the Villain Still Pursued Her; or, the Author's Dream poster
6.3

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

Hooligan Assists the Magician poster
4.8

This is a new adventure in which our friend, Mr. Hooligan, appears in an entirely new capacity. On a stage a professor of magic is performing some wonderful experiments, and when he requests some assistance Happy Hooligan immediately volunteers his services and climbs upon the platform.

Hooligan Assists the Magician

1900

Happy Hooligan Interferes poster
5.4

An organ-grinder is playing beneath the window of a cranky old woman. She objects strenuously. The organ-grinder, egged on by Hooligan, keeps on playing until a policeman appears.

Happy Hooligan Interferes

1903

The Twentieth Century Tramp; or, Happy Hooligan and His Airship poster
5.1

A comic picture that defies description. It depicts the Twentieth Century up-to-date tramp flying over the chimney tops of New York City in the latest improved flying machine. Weary Willie has the indispensible tin can hanging from his waist and he waves his hands to his friends as he flies along. He passes over the top of the Equitable Life building and other New York sky scrapers. He flies over the East River and clears the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, and appears to be making his way toward Staten Island. When he is about in the centre of the river, his flying machine explodes, and like the unfortunate McGinty, down goes Weary William.

The Twentieth Century Tramp; or, Happy Hooligan and His Airship

1902

The Enchanted Drawing poster
6.4

A cartoonist defies reality when he draws objects that become three-dimensional after he lifts them off his sketch pad.

The Enchanted Drawing

1900

The Automobile Thieves poster
9.0

A young couple conducts a series of robberies, followed by a chase, in which they are shot and killed.

The Automobile Thieves

1906

No artwork available
4.0

No synopsis available yet.

Happy Hooligan

1900

No artwork available
NR

A stout, happy German is standing in front of his beer saloon. In front of him is a top hat. When a small boy comes along and starts to kick the hat, the German grabs him and explains the trick to him. Just then Happy Hooligan appears and draws back his foot to kick the hat, but seeing the amused expression on the German's face, he walks around the hat and gives the German a knowing look. The German takes a large bottle of whiskey from under the hat, puts it to his mouth and drinks the contents. The tramp is so overcome that he falls on the sidewalk and goes into a fit.

Happy Hooligan April-Fooled

1901

No artwork available
7.0

Happy Hooligan is thrust into prison, but makes the most of his hardship. He is seen in his cell enjoying a full meal of prison hash.

Hooligan in Jail

1903

Behind the camera

King Lear poster
4.2

An impressively tactile, if slightly over-ambitious, adaptation of King Lear from Vitagraph Studios.

King Lear

1909

Dawn poster
7.0

Keith, an artist, begins to go blind as a result of having fallen out of a tree as a child. His fiancé Dorothy, a wealthy heiress, had previously said that she thought blind people were "disgusting", and he refuses to see her. Dorothy plans to have her father, an eye surgeon, perform an operation on Keith that may help him regain his sight, but things don't go as planned.

Dawn

1919

Dawn poster
7.0

Keith, an artist, begins to go blind as a result of having fallen out of a tree as a child. His fiancé Dorothy, a wealthy heiress, had previously said that she thought blind people were "disgusting", and he refuses to see her. Dorothy plans to have her father, an eye surgeon, perform an operation on Keith that may help him regain his sight, but things don't go as planned.

Dawn

1919

Dawn poster
7.0

Keith, an artist, begins to go blind as a result of having fallen out of a tree as a child. His fiancé Dorothy, a wealthy heiress, had previously said that she thought blind people were "disgusting", and he refuses to see her. Dorothy plans to have her father, an eye surgeon, perform an operation on Keith that may help him regain his sight, but things don't go as planned.

Dawn

1919

The Film Parade poster
8.0

Pioneer filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton was intrigued by the idea of a film about the history of the movies as early as 1915. He finally released a 52-minute feature called The Film Parade that was shown in New York and favorably reviewed by "Variety" in 1933. He continued tinkering with the film for the rest of the decade, and later filmmakers and distributors used Blackton's footage for stock or to produce their own variously titled and truncated versions. -UCLA Film & Television Archive

The Film Parade

1933

Princess Nicotine poster
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

1909

Princess Nicotine poster
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

1909

Missing poster
NR

When a woman's husband is presumed dead in the war, her sister, for her own unscrupulous reasons, attempts to get her remarried. But the husband, it seems, is not dead after all.

Missing

1918

Elektra poster
NR

Agamemmon returns to Argos from the Siege of Troy, bringing, as a prisoner and trophy of war and victory, Cassandra, the beautiful daughter of King Priam of Troy. Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, has a lover, Aegisthus, who fans the flames of jealousy aroused in Clytemnestra by the arrival of Cassandra, with whom Agamemnon is very much infatuated.

Elektra

1910

No artwork available
NR

Ruy Blas, one of Don Salluste's lackeys, falls in love with the young Queen of Spain, Maria de Neubourg. Spurned by the Queen, Don Salluste takes revenge by introducing her to his bright young valet, Ruy Blas, whom he has disguised as his noble cousin Don Cesar. When the queen falls in love with Blas, Don Salluste humiliates them both by revealing the handsome young man as his lackey. Blas kills Don Salluste to save the honor of the queen, then drinks poison and dies.

Ruy Blas

1909

No artwork available
4.7

Biographical drama, adaptation of Shakespeare's play.

Julius Caesar, an Historical Tragedy

1908

The Cavalier's Dream poster
4.7

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

The House of the Tolling Bell poster
9.0

According to the will of old Anthony Cole, his heir must live for one year in the spooky residence known as "the house of the tolling bell." The dread of the house and the superstitions enshrouding it are so great that only two people consent to undergo the ordeal. They are Cole's grandson Richard Steele, who had been disinherited when his mother ran away with a dance teacher, and Lucy Atherton. Jules La Rocque, a distant relative, plots to obtain both Lucy and the Cole millions.

The House of the Tolling Bell

1920

The House of the Tolling Bell poster
9.0

According to the will of old Anthony Cole, his heir must live for one year in the spooky residence known as "the house of the tolling bell." The dread of the house and the superstitions enshrouding it are so great that only two people consent to undergo the ordeal. They are Cole's grandson Richard Steele, who had been disinherited when his mother ran away with a dance teacher, and Lucy Atherton. Jules La Rocque, a distant relative, plots to obtain both Lucy and the Cole millions.

The House of the Tolling Bell

1920

Antony and Cleopatra poster
2.5

A short film based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. It was the first film to dramatize the ill-fated romance between Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt.

Antony and Cleopatra

1908

The Life and Death of King Richard III poster
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

The Common Cause poster
NR

Helene Palmer and her husband Orrin have grown apart, and she becomes infatuated with bachelor Edward Wadsworth. With the outbreak of World War I, Orrin and Edward enlist, while Helene works as a Red Cross nurse in a small French town. Edward is wounded on a dangerous scouting mission near the town and Orrin carries him to safety. The enemy invades during the night, and Orrin rescues Helene as she is about to be overpowered by a German officer. The dying Edward, morally strengthened by his experience as a soldier, encourages the couple to reunite. Soon after, peace is declared.

The Common Cause

1919

The Common Cause poster
NR

Helene Palmer and her husband Orrin have grown apart, and she becomes infatuated with bachelor Edward Wadsworth. With the outbreak of World War I, Orrin and Edward enlist, while Helene works as a Red Cross nurse in a small French town. Edward is wounded on a dangerous scouting mission near the town and Orrin carries him to safety. The enemy invades during the night, and Orrin rescues Helene as she is about to be overpowered by a German officer. The dying Edward, morally strengthened by his experience as a soldier, encourages the couple to reunite. Soon after, peace is declared.

The Common Cause

1919

The Battle Cry of Peace poster
NR

Enemy agents under the leadership of "Emanon" conspire with pacifists to keep the American defense appropriations down at a time when forces of the enemy are preparing to invade. The invasion comes, and New York, Washington, and other American cities are devastated.

The Battle Cry of Peace

1915

The Battle Cry of Peace poster
NR

Enemy agents under the leadership of "Emanon" conspire with pacifists to keep the American defense appropriations down at a time when forces of the enemy are preparing to invade. The invasion comes, and New York, Washington, and other American cities are devastated.

The Battle Cry of Peace

1915

The Battle Cry of Peace poster
NR

Enemy agents under the leadership of "Emanon" conspire with pacifists to keep the American defense appropriations down at a time when forces of the enemy are preparing to invade. The invasion comes, and New York, Washington, and other American cities are devastated.

The Battle Cry of Peace

1915

My Husband's Other Wife poster
10.0

Popular actress Adelaide Hedlar, cherishes her career and ambitions more than a home and children, much to the chagrin of her husband, Dr. Mark Ridgewell. Following their divorce, Mark goes West, meets country girl Nettie Bryson and marries her. Meanwhile, Adelaide refuses to marry playwright Wilifred Dean until she is certain that her husband has remarried. Upon discovering Mark's marriage, she decides to win him back and subsequently travels West, meets Nettie and determines to regain Mark's love.

My Husband's Other Wife

1920

My Husband's Other Wife poster
10.0

Popular actress Adelaide Hedlar, cherishes her career and ambitions more than a home and children, much to the chagrin of her husband, Dr. Mark Ridgewell. Following their divorce, Mark goes West, meets country girl Nettie Bryson and marries her. Meanwhile, Adelaide refuses to marry playwright Wilifred Dean until she is certain that her husband has remarried. Upon discovering Mark's marriage, she decides to win him back and subsequently travels West, meets Nettie and determines to regain Mark's love.

My Husband's Other Wife

1920

No artwork available
NR

The first scene shows part of Flint's old pirate crew, with one-legged John Silver in the lead. They have discovered the hiding place of Billy Bones, the mate of Flint's ship, the "Walrus," and they send Black Dog, one of the crew, to tip Billy Bones to the "black spot" at the Admiral Ben Bow Inn; but Billy Bones drives Black Dog away, and will have nothing to do with him.

The Story of Treasure Island

1908

No artwork available
NR

The first scene shows part of Flint's old pirate crew, with one-legged John Silver in the lead. They have discovered the hiding place of Billy Bones, the mate of Flint's ship, the "Walrus," and they send Black Dog, one of the crew, to tip Billy Bones to the "black spot" at the Admiral Ben Bow Inn; but Billy Bones drives Black Dog away, and will have nothing to do with him.

The Story of Treasure Island

1908

No artwork available
7.0

A biographical two-reel series starring Joseph Kilgour as Washington. The first part, "Washington Under the British Flag" (released June 29), focused on Washington's early life and French and Indian War experiences as a British colonial officer. The second part "Washington Under the American Flag" (released July 3) continued 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

Passers-By poster
7.0

A young Englishman falls in love with the children's governess in his step-sister's home. His step-sister, however, cannot abide the class differential in the romance and sabotages it. The young man, in a state of boredom and depression, begins to invite into the house anyone who happens to pass by in the street.

Passers-By

1920

No artwork available
NR

A rich merchant, Antonio is depressed for no good reason, until his good friend Bassanio comes to tell him how he's in love with Portia. Portia's father has died and left a very strange will: only the man that picks the correct casket out of three (silver, gold, and lead) can marry her. Bassanio, unfortunately, is strapped for cash with which to go wooing, and Antonio wants to help, so Antonio borrows the money from Shylock, the money-lender. But Shylock has been nursing a grudge against Antonio's insults, and makes unusual terms to the loan. And when Antonio's business fails, those terms threaten his life, and it's up to Bassanio and Portia to save him.

The Merchant of Venice

1908

Bride of the Storm poster
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

Womanhood, the Glory of the Nation poster
NR

When the nation of Ruthania declares war on the United States, an army of enemy soldiers invades the U.S. and captures New York. But the American forces have prepared adequately for such an event, and hidden booby traps, trick fortifications, and remote-controlled bombs...

Womanhood, the Glory of the Nation

1917

The Diary of a Puppy poster
10.0

The first of six installments in Paula Blackton's Country Life Stories series.

The Diary of a Puppy

1917

Whom the Gods Destroy poster
NR

A tale set during the 1916 Irish Easter Rebellion against the British.

Whom the Gods Destroy

1916

Whom the Gods Destroy poster
NR

A tale set during the 1916 Irish Easter Rebellion against the British.

Whom the Gods Destroy

1916

A Midsummer Night's Dream poster
4.8

An early film adaptation of the Bard's comic fantasy.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

1909

Tides of Passion poster
7.0

In a small Nova Scotia, Canada, fishing village, Charity Byfleet marries William Pennland, a romantic soldier of fortune, just before he leaves on a long voyage. The irrepressible William, however, soon initiates a flirtation with the captain's wife and is thrown overboard. He swims to shore, landing on a rough and isolated stretch of the Nova Scotia coast, where he is found half-dead and nursed back to health by Hagar Levanti.

Tides of Passion

1925

Little Nemo poster
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

Hell-Bent for Heaven poster
7.0

Sid Hunt and Jude Lowery are Carolina sweethearts but hired-hand Rufe Pryer also has his eyes on her. Rufe lies to Andy, Jude's brother, and a family-feud is started when Andy goes gunning after Sid. But Sid quiets the drunken Andy, and is taking him home when a shot is fired from ambush and Sid's horse comes home riderless. But he shows up unhurt, and the jealous-maddened Rufe sends him on a ruse to the big dam. Rufe sets off a dynamite explosion to catch Sid in the swirling waters but Jude is the one who is caught.

Hell-Bent for Heaven

1926

No artwork available
7.0

Early short film dramatizing the biblical story of Jephthah (Judges 11).

Jephtah's Daughter: A Biblical Tragedy

1909

Kidnapped in New York poster
7.5

When a trio of criminals kidnap a rich man's daughter and nurse, a detective goes undercover into the Italian-immigrant ghetto where they're being held.

Kidnapped in New York

1915

The Moonshine Trail poster
9.0

After her father and two brothers are killed, Cynthia and her mother go to New York, where Cynthia gets a job in his office working for a wealthy stockbroker who's attracted to her.

The Moonshine Trail

1919