The White Caps
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About The White Caps
Two White Caps nail a warning on a man's house. He tears it down and beats his wife. She leaves with their child. The hooded men take rifles, chase him into the woods, tie his feet, strip his shirt, cover him with tar and feathers, and drive him out of town.
Cast & crew
More about The White Caps
Wallace McCutcheon and Edwin S. Porter directed. Porter photographed. Shot in August 1905 in Demarest and Fort Lee, New Jersey. Edison released it in September 1905. Copyright 14 September 1905 by Thomas A. Edison, H65546. Length 835 feet. Wikipedia times a surviving copy at 12 minutes and counts 14 shots, almost all on location, with no intertitles.
Themes
Background
Edison sold the picture as a portrait of White Cap vigilance in the Midwest and also advertised it under a Ku Klux Klan title, while the plot itself is the punishment of a wife beater.
Making
Fourteen shots, nearly all outdoors in New Jersey, and no titles. The last setup is a torchlit clearing where the tar is applied.
Look
Edwin S. Porter photographed the Demarest and Fort Lee locations, including the chase and the clearing.
Preservation
A copy of about 12 minutes survives and has been described shot by shot.
Notes
- Kate Toncray and John R. Cumpson are the named players on Wikipedia and AFI. Arthur V. Johnson is also credited.
- The husband has been identified as Lionel Barrymore and, in another source, as John Wade.
- Edison's ad compared the White Caps to the California vigilantes of 1849 and to groups in Ohio and Indiana, and said the film showed how they dealt with undesirable citizens.
- One advertisement called it "The Ku Klux Klan or White Caps." The Portsmouth Daily Herald described the White Caps as reputable citizens punishing wife beaters and habitual drunkards. The Altoona Mirror listed it as Punishing a wife-beater or The White Caps.
- Charles Musser, in Before the Nickelodeon, notes that Porter knew Thomas Dixon Jr.'s stage version of The Clansman was in rehearsal. AFI also points to the 1900 film Indiana Whitecaps.
- The Klan of Reconstruction had largely gone by 1872. Midwestern White Cap groups were active at the time this was made. Dixon's play later fed The Birth of a Nation (1915).
Scenes
- The husband rips down the White Cap notice and beats his wife.
- In a forest clearing they tie him, take off his shirt, and cover him with tar and feathers.
Influenced by
- Thomas Dixon Jr.'s The Clansman, then in rehearsal, and earlier White Cap pictures such as Indiana Whitecaps (1900)
