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1916MutualOne reelComedy

The Swiss Sea Dog

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

“The girl was the only support of her widowed mother. At this point the villain made his appearance. He learned of her wealth and called in the guise of an admiral of the Swiss Navy. She and her fiancé quarreled about the Swiss Sea Dog. The girl had a chair, presented to her late father by his grateful shipmates, and the villain decides to surprise her with a picture of it. While the girl was out horseback riding the villain slipped into her home and took a snapshot of the famous chair. Unfortunately, the fiancée arrived and there was a fight. The girl’s mother helped the trouble along by sending the camera and its contents to be developed. The messenger took the same car as the villain. A few blocks later on, two pretty girls got aboard. The car gave a jolt. One girl sat in the villain’s lap; the other sat on the bulb of the camera. The picture showed the Swiss Sea Dog seated in father’s chair, the handsome young woman on his lap. The villain tried to explain but the girl drove him from her.”

Summary from The Moving Picture World · 16 September 1916

What the papers said

1 review

“A burlesque comedy number in which a girl stenographer inherits a fortune. Rivalry for her hand furnishes the principal action. The riding scenes are best, though the humor only becomes fairly strong.” …

Read in full · 1 min

“A burlesque comedy number in which a girl stenographer inherits a fortune. Rivalry for her hand furnishes the principal action. The riding scenes are best, though the humor only becomes fairly strong.”

Note: “Only fairly strong,” a term used repeatedly in reviews published in The Moving Picture World, seems to be a roundabout way of stating that a given aspect of a film is below average!

The Moving Picture World · 2 September 1916

Have you seen this film, or a print of it?

Prints of films thought lost still turn up in attics, private collections and archives. A record like this one is how the next one gets found.

Tell us about a print

Cast and crew

No cast or crew is credited in the surviving sources for this film. Bowers records the title and the release; the names did not come with them.

Watch instead

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More about this film

Bowers’ notes
  1. This was a left-over film, released on the Mutual Program, and made before Thanhouser was affiliated with the Pathé Exchange, Inc. 2. The title appeared as A Swiss Sea Dog in some notices.

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1916 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “The Swiss Sea Dog”. thanhouser.org/films/the-swiss-sea-dog/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known