The Changeling (1914)
When old Dr. Rogers is called to a distant city on a special case and summons young Dr. Delmore to attend one of his patients, the wealthy Mrs. Saunders. Delmore hopes it will prove the beginning of better times for him; that he can gradually build up a practice among the people who can afford to pay large fees and abandon his ill-paying visits to poor patients. Then, too, he can marry Miss Price, the pretty trained nurse with whom he is in love. The wealthy Mrs. Saunders, whose husband is hastening home from a European trip, is about to become a mother. Delmore makes all arrangements for the event and Miss Price is engaged as nurse. Mrs. Saunders receives a cablegram from her husband saying he had missed the steamer and that his return will be delayed a week. When Mrs. Saunders' baby is born, Delmore is concerned to discover the infant is lacking in vitality but keeps this information from the mother, fearing that worry may interfere with her recovery. The same day, Delmore is called to the bedside of Mrs. Brown, a poor woman, who also gave birth to a son. The woman dies while her husband, whom Delmore has sent to a charitable society with a request for a nurse, is away. Delmore phones Miss Price and learns that the Saunders baby has died during his absence, but that its mother is as yet unaware of its death. Seeing his opportunity for rich patronage killed at the start, Delmore is crushed, but there comes to him the thought that by changing babies he can do a good thing for all concerned. So the substitution is made. The dead son of Mrs. Saunders is buried with the poor woman while the lusty infant of the dead woman is smuggled into the Saunders' home where Mrs. Saunders holds it fondly to her breast in blissful ignorance that it is not her own. Delmore's scheme, however, does not prove to be the blessing he anticipated, for it develops that Brown, the father of the changeling, is a hopeless maniac, afflicted with the kind of insanity that nearly always proves hereditary. Delmore discovers this after Mr. Saunders' return and fears to confess the substitution. No one knows but Miss Price, and even she is ignorant of the fact that the changeling's father is a maniac. Delmore proposes, marries Miss Price and they have a daughter. May. The Saunders rear their supposed son, Edwin, in luxury. May and Edwin meet at a co-ed college and fall in love. Delmore is horrified in discovering that the boy his daughter wishes to marry is "the changeling" and, unable to give a good reason for his objection to Edwin, can only sullenly refuse to sanction the match. His practiced eye detects in the young man unmistakable symptoms of his heritage. May and Edwin elope and Dr. Delmore's sin comes home to him at last. Unable to bear the thought of his girl in the arms of a tainted man, Delmore resolves to separate them at any cost. So that night he takes Edwin on an automobile ride. The auto is struck by an express train. Only two persons ever knew how the accident happened, Dr. Delmore and the "changeling" and their lips are sealed in death.
All Releases
Domestic
–
–
International
–
–
Worldwide
–
–
| Filmmakers | Role |
|---|---|
| George Terwilliger | Director |
| Lawrence McCloskey | Writer |
| Siegmund Lubin | Producer |
| Cast | Role |
|---|---|
| Kempton Greene | |
| Anna Luther | |
| Earl Metcalfe | |
| Lila Leslie |
