Lost1914PrincessOne reelRomance

A Telephone Strategy

Name: A Telephone Strategy
Genre: Romance
Released: 1914-05-29

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“Ralph Parker is the son of the richest man in town and cashier of the local bank. He falls in love with Ruth Alden, operator of the telephone exchange. Colonel Parker bitterly opposes the match, and the girl proudly refuses to marry Ralph without his father’s consent. At her request, she is transferred to night duty, which makes it possible for her to avoid meeting her lover. One evening when Ralph is alone after hours in the bank, robbers break in. He is seized and bound. They plan to imprison him in the vaults, but the young man, by a clever ruse, manages to get into communication with Ruth at the telephone exchange. She arrives with help in time to release Ralph from the vaults and to save his life. Col. Parker hears the whole story from his son. ‘I guess you need someone to take care of you,’ he says. ‘You ought to know what to do now.’”

Summary from Reel Life · 30 May 1914

What the papers said

2 reviews

Read in full · 1 min

“Colonel Parker will not allow his son to marry Ruth Alden, the pretty telephone operator, whom he loves, and the girl proudly refuses to run counter to father’s wishes. One night robbers enter the bank where Ralph works as cashier and, locking him in a vault, prepare to loot the safe. By a ruse he gets into communication with Ruth and she saves his life. When his father hears the whole story he remarks that the boy ‘needs some one to take care of him’ and withdraws his objection.”

The Morning Telegraph · 24 May 1914

Read in full · 1 min

“A pleasing little melodrama, lively, exciting and free from anything objectionable. The affection between telephone girl and his son displeases a rich man, the town banker. Burglars are looting the safe in the bank and have got the young man tied up. He cleverly fixes a telephone so that the operator will hear what is going on. She rouses the neighborhood and, herself, saves her sweetheart from death in the safe. It is romance that makes such pictures go and they are popular just now. Well photographed, it has good scenes.”

The Moving Picture World · 13 June 1914

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Cast and crew

Cast: Boyd Marshall as Ralph Parker
: Carey L. Hastings
: Charles T. Horan as Ralph’s father
: J.S. Murray as another robber
: James Dunne as another robber
: John Reinhard as a robber
: Mrs. Arthur Ellery
: Muriel Ostriche as Ruth Alden
Writer: Philip Lonergan

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More about this film

Bowers’ notes: One published scenario states the first name of Alden as Beth, rather than Ruth.
Posters and media

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1914 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “A Telephone Strategy”. thanhouser.org/films/a-telephone-strategy/

Where a print is held

Held by: No print known