The Lonedale Operator

Name: The Lonedale Operator
Director: D.W. Griffith
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Western
Released: 1911
Duration: 17 min
Cast: Blanche Sweet, George Nichols, Francis J. Grandon, Wilfred Lucas, Edward Dillon

1911 Thriller Drama 17 minutes Directed by D.W. Griffith

About The Lonedale Operator

The daughter of the Lonedale telegraph operator takes the key when her father leaves with a headache, and her engineer sweetheart pulls out on the run to town. She receives the mining company's payroll bag. Two tramps who saw the delivery try the barred windows, then the back door. She wires for help, darkens the room, and holds them off with a wrench they take for a pistol until the engineer and fireman arrive.

Cast & crew

More about The Lonedale Operator

D. W. Griffith directed and produced for Biograph. Mack Sennett wrote it. G. W. Bitzer photographed. Blanche Sweet plays the operator. Released 23 March 1911 at about 17 minutes, timed at 16 frames a second.

Themes

a daughter holding a station alone
a payroll robbery
a last-minute train rescue
telegraph
railroad
payroll
wrench
Blanche Sweet
cross-cutting
Biograph

Making

Biograph released it as a one-reel drama on 23 March 1911. Griffith cuts among three spaces instead of staying in one set.

Look

G. W. Bitzer photographed. The climax is a close-up of the wrench the operator has held out in the dark as if it were a gun.

Technique

Cross-cutting among the telegraph office, the tramps outside, and the rescue engine, with a close-up of the wrench.

Preservation

A complete copy circulates, including the Wikimedia Commons file The Lonedale Operator.webm.

Notes

The father takes his revolver with him because it is out of order, so the daughter has no gun.
The payroll arrives on the first of the month for the Lonedale Mining Company.
Wikipedia notes more than 100 shots, cutting among the office, the men outside, and the rescue train.
The telegraph message is what lets a 1911 audience follow that cutting.
Cast also includes Verner Clarges, Francis J. Grandon, Wilfred Lucas, Edward Dillon, Dell Henderson, Jeanie MacPherson, and Guy Hedlund.
A full copy runs about 16 minutes 49 seconds on the Wikipedia file.

Scenes

The daughter locks the back door after the tramps fail at the barred windows.
In the darkened office she holds them with a nickel-plated monkey wrench they take for a pistol.
The engineer and fireman break in and find the wrench.