IN THE SWITCH TOWER stars Walter Edwards (who also directed) as Bill Wharton, a middle-aged alcoholic who was once a leading engineer with a railroad. Wharton is estranged from his son Joel (Frank Borzage), who now works as an executive with the railroad, but Frank does send him money through Bill's longtime friend, Louis Hall (Robert Hall).
Tom Chatterton is called a coward because he will not enlist in the Home Guard during the Civil War -- his mother is dying and he does not wish to leave while she is still alive. When she dies and the Yankees attack, he seizes command of the Home Guard and leads them to victory, proving himself a hero and dying in the process.
A Western tale of revenge and redemption.
The setting is an early American village, where a young Quaker woman, Priscilla, is in love with the schoolmaster, John Hart. The local minister, Rev. Cole, who calls on her at her cabin with flowers, is an unwelcome suitor. In revenge, he has "blue laws" passed, among them is one requiring attendance at church on Sunday. Priscilla refuses to comply with the law and is arrested. After being plunged in and out of water and pilloried, she is banished from the colony. John goes with her. They are attacked by Indians and John is badly wounded. Priscilla manages to get back to the village in time to warn the Puritans of an impending attack. They defeat the Indians after a desperate battle. The Rev. Cole, who has been mortally wounded, begs Priscilla's forgiveness and the Puritans make amends for their harsh treatment of her.
When the Civil War begins, young Billy runs away from home to enlist in the Northern Army as a drummer; he's wounded in battle and taken prisoner. He manages to escape and deliver an important message to his commanding officer, but loses his life in the process. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.
An Easterner wins his battles in the West by using his fists.
Tom Carson, a southerner, with his daughter, Grace, is the keeper of the Grey Sentinel Lighthouse. John Adams, the sweetheart of Grace, returns from West Point and joins the southern cause; he, however, spying for the Union Army. A fierce battle takes place between the Confederate and Union forces in which the former are victorious. Hal Peters, a southern officer and an admirer of Grace, is surprised to find among his captives. John Adams.
"Bat" Peters, reformed gunfighter turned prospector, travels to Chicago to collect on a business deal with a mine promoter who turns out to be crooked.
A story of Puritan village life. The son of a minister wins a girl away from her devoted fisherman. Orphaned, she is adopted by the minister, and when her child is born refuses to reveal the father's name. She is cast out by the minister and scorned by the people. When her child is dying the fisherman comes back to her with unfaltering love, and the minister's son meets a tragic death at the hands of the Indians.
Rev. Horace Brightray, pastor of a New England village church, is ordered by his physician to seek another climate. He goes to Agua Caliente, where he attempts to hold services in the hotel dining room, but nobody attends excepting the hotel clerk and maid, and a dance hall girl, Bubbles. The proprietor of the Legal Tender saloon is very bitter toward Horace and commands them not to attend services. Horace is soon out of funds and is ejected from the hotel. Sick and hopeless, he goes to the Legal Tender and slaps Frosty across the face with his hat, feeling sure it will mean death to him.
Mildred is staying with her grandfather, Civil War veteran Jabez Burr, when she receives a letter from her father. Her father has re-married, and will be bringing his new wife home soon. But when Mildred's stepmother finds out that Jabez drinks, she takes a dislike to him, and begins to resent his closeness with Mildred...
A wife discovers her husband's double life and she herself plunges into the whirl of vice.
In The Struggle (Broncho, 1913) a prospector and his son Bob depart from home in the morning, while the wife, at home, offers food to a passing stranger. His shifting eyes reveal his nature; he assaults her, and although her husband and son return in time to save her, the father is killed in the ensuing fight. The stranger gets away, but five years later Bob, now a government scout, recognizes the stranger just as he is accused of cheating at cards.
The sheriff lives with his sister, and is engaged in running down an unknown bandit who has been quite active in the district. It develops that Jim Brown, a poor miner, who has lost his wife and is in straitened circumstances, has become embittered at the world and is the bandit, living alone with his little boy, Tom.
Dakota Dan, who runs the saloon and gambling hall, is refusing to take another drink with the boys, who commence to kid him, saying he's been scared to drink ever since he heard the new parson's daughter was going to convert him. Dakota flushes and replies half angrily that he has never seen the parson's girl and don't ever want to. However that afternoon Daisy goes to the saloon and invites Dakota to attend church. Dakota refuses her invitation. Daisy tells him she will make a bargain with him to tend his bar for five minutes if he will go to church the next day. Dakota is slightly startled, but he admires her grit and accepts the challenge. Daisy goes behind the bar. The men line up and she is about to serve a fresh guy when he suddenly reaches over and kisses her. Dakota immediately knocks him "cold," and, ashamed of his bargain with Daisy, grimly escorts her to the door. The next day he tells the men that if they don't accompany him to church he will close.
Bill Evers, a gambling house keeper, is in reality the "Desert Scourge," an outlaw.
Annie Crum, a country girl, dissatisfied with country life and anxious to go to the city, runs away from her uncle guardian and country lover and goes to the city. She loves John Harding, her country lover, but has told him that she could never be contented with the drudgery of the farm.
Jim Owens, a sergeant in the Union army, finds the body of a dead Confederate, whose resemblance to himself is so great that he is startled. He makes an examination of the man's clothes and finds a letter addressed to John Calhoun, 7th Regiment, Virginia Volunteers. The letter is from the man's mother, telling him that her world is very narrow now that she has lost her eyesight. Never having known a mother's love, Owens decides to impersonate Calhoun, feeling that the mother will not recognize that he is not her son, now that she is blind.
Jim Black, learning that his rival, David Durard, son of Colonel Durard, wealthy Southern wholesale grocers, has won the heart of Marion, plans to separate the lovers before war breaks out.
Johnny Firth is a young prize fighter who, because of wine, woman and song, is knocked out. He leaves for the west with his manager, who is broke, because of Johnny's defeat. They arrive in Arizona and Johnny beats up a big bully there named Mason, because he has stolen from an old character called Nutty Ike, his bag of nuggets. Nutty Ike introduces the two men to his daughter and makes them his partners in a gold mine he has discovered in the desert. Mason trails them and there is a big fight at the mine, also in the interior.
