Captain Kate

William Selig makes use once more of the wild creatures from his zoo for this jungle potboiler starring Kathlyn Williams and, as a loyal native, cowboy star Tom Mix. The story is a little scrappy on this one, with little real flow to the narrative, and the action scenes featuring the animals are poor - presumably because no-one had yet figured out how to coax animals into performing for the camera.

Kathlyn Williams' father drops dead while they are scouring the jungle for animals to sell to zoos and circuses. Kate carries on. When one of her native bearers dies and all but Tom Mix skedaddle, that's another matter. Fortunately, she and Charles Clary, another big game hunter have exchanged cards, so she sends Mix to fetch him. Will rescue show up before the lions have eaten Kathlyn and her pet leopards?

Wiiliam Selig started building up his zoo as film production expanded; he used them for his own jungle epics and rented them out to other film companies. When he stopped producing film in the late 1910s, he tried to make the zoo a paying proposition, but failed.

Miss Williams' career continued in smaller roles through the sound era. While RESCUED BY A LION is a visually pleasing but very silly little film, she offers a great performance in William DeMille's CONRAD IN QUEST OF HIS YOUTH. Meanwhile, if you wish to look at this one, a copy has been posted to the Eye Institute site on Youtube.

The prediction of the Selig people that each of their pictures of African scenes showing wild animals in their native haunts as accessories of a strong, human story would surpass the one that preceded it has been amply fulfilled. Captain Kate is even more interesting and commendable in every way than either "Zululand" or "Back to the Primitive," good as both these were. It is a very remarkable picture. Live the other it is exciting and like them it gives the spectators a new experience, and one which is educational. The photography of all the scenes in "Captain Kate" is markedly superior to what we usually see. These pictures, with sunlit sand, giving an almost blinding highlight clear through the picture to the far background, save for a clump of palm trees, etc., yet with the detail so clear-cut all over the picture that faces can be seen, not merely in the near foreground but also in the middle and even in the distance, are worthy of the very highest praise; they are marvels of camera work. This art permits the acting, which in almost the whole cast is very praiseworthy, to carry the story to the audience very effectively, and it's a good story besides. - The Moving Picture World, July 29, 1911