The Switchtower
About The Switchtower
A boy spends his play hours in the switch tower because his father is the switchman and he wants to be like him. When the father has to choose between love and the job, the boy is there and saves his father's record as a switchman. Later the parents are in the hands of counterfeiters. The boy brings help and the gang is caught.
Cast & crew
More about The Switchtower
Anthony O'Sullivan directed this Biograph short. General Film Company distributed it in 1913. Moving Picture World printed the synopsis of the boy, the switchman, and the counterfeiters. Henry B. Walthall, Lionel Barrymore, Harry Carey, Claire McDowell, Marion Emmons, Charles West, and John T. Dillon are billed. The film itself does not sort them into the roles.
Themes
Making
Biograph built the story around a working switch tower and a child who already knows the levers.
Preservation
A copy is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- The English Wikipedia files it as The Switch Tower, with Barrymore and Carey named in the introduction.
- The Moving Picture World synopsis is the plot that survives in print: the boy at the tower, the father's choice, then the counterfeiters.
Scenes
- The boy throws the switch when his father cannot.
- He gets help when counterfeiters have his parents.
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheSwitchtower)
