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The Strike at Coaldale
Also known as {The Strike of Coaldale}
(1914) United States of America
B&W : Two reels
Directed by Webster Cullison
Cast: Stanley Walpole [Joe Gregory], Mildred Bright [Edith Harland], Fred Sumner [Harland, Edith’s father]
Eclair Film Company of America production; distributed by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Incorporated. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Joe Gregory, a young engineer on the Coaldale Railroad, is the recognized leader among his fellow employees and a power in the local labor union. Conditions on the road become bad; a strike is imminent. Edith Harland, daughter of the president of the line, notes how things are going, and pleads with Gregory to use his influence to avert the impending strike. Harland a proud and autocratic man, refuses to grant the demands of the trainmen and, despite Edith’s pleading, the strike is declared. Fights among the strikers and strikebreakers which Harland has hired occur. The situation becomes dangerous. While matters are progressing thus, Harland’s daughter becomes seriously ill with concussion of the brain. She must be taken to a hospital at once and not a train on the line is running. The now-frantic president pleads with the strikers to drive a train to the nearest hospital, fifty miles away. At this point Gregory interferes and points out to the men that a human life is at stake and they must not be branded as murderers. In the face of opposition, Gregory takes a train out. The strikers set fire to a trestle which they must cross, and in the face of almost certain death Gregory drives the trail through the flames. Harland and his daughter Edith feel strongly grateful to the young engineer, but through his act of human kindness he is repudiated by the union and is placed in the position of being on neither one side or the other. The strike is kept and the men manage to capture Harland. The president’s life is in danger of being forfeited. Gregory, in a masterful appeal, gains his former standing among the strikers and saves the president from violence. Together with Edith the young fellow pleads the men’s cause, and Harland, his eyes at last being open, grants the demand of the men. In gratitude to Gregory, he is promoted to superintendent of the Coaldale Railroad, while we are led to believe that the friendship of Edith and Gregory has ripened into a happy romance.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: (unknown)
Listing updated: 8 April 2020.
References: Sloan-Loud pp. 54, 151 : Website-IMDb.
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