Lost1913Thanhouser CompanyOne reelDrama

The Changeling

Name: The Changeling
Genre: Drama
Released: 1913-04-11

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

A millionaire’s little son, walking out with his nurse, slipped away and mysteriously disappeared. Detectives scoured the country far and wide, but without result. Finally the conclusion was regretfully reached that the little chap must be dead, for the handsome rewards offered for his recovery would have tempted anyone who knew of his whereabouts. An unscrupulous woman, who lived by her wits, read an account of the affair and was amazed by the startling resemblance the missing boy bore to her own son. She decided to take advantage of the likeness, and she presented herself at the wealthy widower’s home with her son. The child was at once accepted as the missing heir. The millionaire offered her employment as nurse to his ‘son,’ and the woman and her child seemed assured of comfort and luxury as long as they lived. The millionaire’s child did not die. When he ran away from his nurse he hid in a freight car, intending to frighten her, but the joke became serious when the train started and he was unable to get off. A surly brakeman put him off the train many miles from his home. Later the little fellow was injured in an accident and was cared for by a kindly farmer’s family. He was unconscious for weeks, and when he recovered he found that no one would credit his assertion that he was a millionaire’s son. His clothes were ragged and shabby now, and he looked like a beggar boy.

But the boy had a good deal of pluck, and he finally got home, although he had to walk a good part of the way. The scheming woman realized that he was the rightful heir and tried to bar him from his home, but he forced his way in and the puzzled father had to chose between two boys who were as like as two peas. But the youngster’s pet dog recognized his little master at once, and hurled himself upon him with yelps of joy, and the boy soon convinced his father that he had been the victim of a deception. ‘The Changeling’ was a very surly boy, quite different from the cheery temperament of his real son, and the father had often grieved over his boy’s changed disposition. The adventuress and her son left the house which they had grown to look upon as their own and were never heard from again.

Summary from The Moving Picture World · 12 April 1913

What the papers said

3 reviews · 1 article

Read in full · 1 min

It might be called a modern Prince and the Pauper, this story, which is delightfully interesting and superbly done in every respect. The Thanhouser Kid has an opportunity never before attempted, so far as the reviewer knows, of playing a dual role. That is, the first time a child has been seen in such a double impersonation. The camera work is fine, and the result obtained deserves marked praise. The story is of a little boy who runs away from home, hides in a freight car and is taken miles from where he started. He meets with an accident, and for a time loses his memory. Then folk refuse to believe he is a rich man’s son. So he makes his way home alone. In the meantime a woman who has a son who looks exactly like the lost boy, foists him upon the rich folk as their heir and offspring, and he is accepted, she being employed as a nurse. But the recognition of the real son’s dog proves his identity, and the impostors lose out. The whole deserves ‘featuring’ and might have been developed into a two-reel play.

The Morning Telegraph · 13 April 1913

In this picture the Thanhouser Kid plays a double role of the boy who was lost and the boy who was substituted by designing people. It makes an interesting, well-acted story of its kind.

The Moving Picture World · 19 April 1913

More reviews

16 April 1913The New York Dramatic Mirror1 min

In search of his ball, a youngster wanders away from his nurse into the railroad yard. He climbs into an empty freight car and is shipped off to a neighboring town, to be picked up by a workman and his wife. In the meantime the father of the child has been searching everywhere, offering a substantial reward for his return. This advertisement falls under the eye of an adventuress who has a child that corresponds to the description in the paper. She takes her own child to the distracted father and manages to pass it off as his own. For a time she is successful in duping him, but the return of the real boy unmasks her. As this story stands, it is unconvincing. With sufficient time elapsing between the loss of the child and the appearance of the adventuress, the father’s mistake in accepting her child as his own would not have appeared so impossible and absurd. And again, the return of the rightful son might have been improved upon. To make him run away from his guardians and travel the distance back to his home on foot is not exactly what the spectators look for. There is really little new in the idea, and the picture gives the impression of being hastily produced and written.

Article

12 April 1913The Moving Picture World1 min

THE KID AS A ‘REPEATER.’ It has long been the privilege of the moving picture actor to see himself as others see him. But he rarely enjoys the chance to see himself twice as others see him. Every now and then ‘dual personality’ effects have been gained in pictures, by trick photography, with some well-known grown-up as the star. But now for likely the first time a child artist is so featured. The child is the Thanhouser Kid, and in the release of Friday, April 11, The Changeling you see her as both the millionaire’s genuine son and his bogus one. The Kid, by the way, appears this week at Cleveland, Ohio, in a nationwide tour of Mutual theatres. It is said that she is receiving the largest salary ever paid a child of her years in any branch of theatrical work. Her sister assists her in the act, which is an enlargement of the turn she has been doing at benefits around New York City during the last year.

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Cast and crew

Cast: Harry Benham as millionaire father
: Marie Eline as in two roles—as the millionaire’s real son and as the millionaire’s impostor son
: Mrs. Lawrence Marston as the adventuress; mother of the impostor son

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