Sidney Olcott
Directing
Biography
John Sidney Olcott was a Canadian-born film producer, director, actor and screenwriter. After making a number of very successful films for the Kalem studio, including "Ben Hur" (1907) with its dramatic chariot race scene, Olcott became the company's president and was rewarded with one share of its stock.
Born: September 20, 1873
Place of Birth: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Known For
The Colleen Bawn
A young Irish boy has fallen in love with a poor girl and wants to marry her, but his mother will stop at nothing, including murder, to see that he marries his rich cousin.
From the Manger to the Cross
The life of Jesus is played out in tableaux shot in the Holy Land.
The Lad from Old Ireland
A young man leaves Ireland for America, but doesn't forget home.
Railroad Raiders of '62
Union raiders infiltrate Confederate territory by train. Early film version of the Civil War incident on which Buster Keaton's The General and Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase was based.
For Ireland's Sake
Set in the late 1790s, a depiction of Irish villagers rebelling against British occupation (Red Coats) over the right to bear arms.
Bold Emmett, Ireland's Martyr
This play is enacted during the stormy days when Robert Emmett tried vainly to free Ireland. Con Daly loves Nora Doyle, who lives with her mother in a little cottage amid the hills and dales of old Erin. In a cave nearby the men who would free Ireland are making arms and ammunition. Robert Emmett visits them, and then goes into the enemy's camp disguised as a flute player, and returns safely. The constabulary visits a family and a riot starts, and as a result Major Kirk is shot. Desperately wounded, he is taken to the home of Mrs. Doyle. Nora and Con nurse him back to health.
2 A.M. in the Subway
A constable and a subway attendant are working late at night in an underground station when a well-dressed man with a cigar in his teeth enters with his arms around two women dressed in long skirts and jackets, gloves, and fancy hats. The trio laugh and stumble on the platform as if having a hilarious time, getting the attention of the policeman who attempts to stop their bawdy behavior.
The Little Gluers
The Kerry Gow is a 1912 short
Ireland, the Oppressed
The story of the Emerald Isle years ago. Showing the struggle against poverty, evictions by hard-hearted landlords, hill fighting and the final triumph of the downtrodden.
The Railroad Raiders of '62
Lockwood, the old, one-armed flagman at Lone Point, tells Helen and a young soldier of his experiences during the Civil War, and how he lost his arm. The Civil War flashback sequences consist of archive footage from Kalem's Railroad Raiders of '62 (1911), rather than newly filmed footage.
Filmography
as Con Daly
as Captain Andrews (archive footage) (uncredited)
as Father Flanagan
as Father Falvey
as Capt. Sidney Keirnan
as Blind Man (uncredited)
as Danny Mann
as Capt. Andrews
as Hans - Frieda's Peasant Sweetheart
as Terry O'Connor
as Drunk Man