Mexican Filibusters
About Mexican Filibusters
In a Texas town near the border, M. Oliverez fronts a Mexican junta as a fruit-company agent and is loading rifles for the insurgents. Pedro, a young man in the junta, loves Oliverez's daughter Blanca. Monte, scolded for standing idle while the freight car is packed, tells the U.S. Secret Service. Blanca sees him go into their office, warns the men, and uncouples the ammunition car as the agents reach the station, so the guns still cross the line.
Cast & crew
More about Mexican Filibusters
Kenean Buel directed Carlyle Blackwell as Pedro and Alice Joyce as Blanca. The General Film Company released the one-reeler on 3 March 1911. A Moving Picture World synopsis of that month supplies the junta, the traitor Monte, and Blanca's uncoupling of the car.
Themes
Background
The story is set on the U.S. side of the Mexican Revolution, with a Texas junta running arms south.
Making
The Moving Picture World text has the Secret Service men disgusted with Monte even as they act on his tip.
Preservation
A print survives in the EYE Filmmuseum, in the Desmet collection, with Dutch titles.
Notes
- Kalem and the trade papers spelled the title Mexican Filibusterers.
- Silent Era gives the length as one reel, 306 metres.
- A print with Dutch titles is in the EYE Filmmuseum Desmet collection.
- The same year Buel, Joyce, and Kalem made other border pictures, including By the Aid of a Lariat and The Mexican Joan of Arc.
Scenes
- Monte slips into the Secret Service office while the car is still being loaded.
- Blanca uncouples the ammunition car as the agents arrive and the train pulls out.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-mexican-filibusterers)
