Kidnapping by Indians

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Kidnapping by Indians
Film screenshot
Directed byMitchell and Kenyon
Produced byMitchell and Kenyon
CinematographyJames Kenyon
Release date
  • 1899 (1899)
Running time
1 minute
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles

Kidnapping by Indians is a 1899 British

dramatic film in the Western genre,[3] pre-dating Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery by four years.[4]

Background

According to Jamie Holman, a local researcher,

Wild West" and ultimately led to the production of this film.[2] The British Film Institute (BFI) questions the ethnicity of the costumes used[3] but Holman has maintained that they are authentic as tomahawks, head-dress and other Western stereotypes are in evidence.[4] Holman says many cotton workers from Blackburn went to America after the American Civil War and brought back stories of the wild frontier which whetted local interest. He says: "Mitchell and Kenyon would have been aware of the appetite for the Wild West at the time".[4] The film was shot in the countryside near Blackburn and used local actors.[4]

According to Bryony Dixon, a curator at the BFI, Kidnapping By Indians is a significant film in the Western genre. The storyline of a white girl being kidnapped by Indians is in The Last of the Mohicans and many Wild West productions such as The Searchers. Ms Dixon admits the film lacks some of the usual Western elements, but then again, so does The Great Train Robbery.[4]

Plot

The plot focuses on an attack by Native Americans on a camp where white people are staying. The attackers set fire to the camp and kidnap a young girl. Some cowboys arrive and a gunfight begins. The captured girl is rescued by the cowboys. The BFI suggests the film may be a scene from a larger stage production.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ "First western was shot in Blackburn, claims researcher". The Times. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  2. ^ a b Barlow, Nigel (31 October 2019). "Could the first Western movie have been filmed in Blackburn?". About Manchester. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  3. ^ a b c "Kidnapping by Indians". BFI. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d e Paterson, Colin (31 October 2019). "World's first Western movie 'filmed in Blackburn'". BBC News. Retrieved 1 November 2019.

External links

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