The Secret of the Swamp (1916)

• 74%
• 1916
• Drama
• Lynn Reynolds
• George Hernandez
• Myrtle Gonzalez
• Fred Church

Chet Wells, with his invalid mother, rents a piece of property from Deacon Todd for the purpose of demonstrating Chet's ideas of "scientific farming." Major Burke and his daughter, Emily, are near neighbors. Emily is engaged to marry a wealthy young man of the neighborhood. The girl's neighborly kindness to the invalid, Mrs. Wells, brings her into frequent association with Chet, with the result that the young people become fond of each other without openly expressing their mutual regard. Chet is unable to make the farm pay, and when Deacon Todd demands his rent the young man cannot pay. During the argument Mrs. Wells arises from her bed and the excited conversation between Todd, the sheriff and Chet gives her such a shock that she falls to the floor, fatally stricken. Chet swears vengeance upon Deacon Todd whom he blames for hastening his mother's death. Finally compelled to vacate, Chet sells his chattels and goes away to seek his fortune. Deacon Todd moves into the house Chet has vacated and there soon arises an enmity between Major Burke and the miserly old deacon. Trouble climaxes when the major sends a charge of shot in the direction of Todd, because he has discovered the deacon letting his cows into the major's corn. Todd disappears the night that Chet returns. Suspicion is directed toward Chet because threats he had made to "get even" with the deacon. Major Burke is conscience-stricken when he sees a flock of buzzards hovering over a nearby swamp and fancies that the dead body of his "victim" is the attraction for the vultures. Taking assiduously to drinking for the purpose of quieting his conscience the major is overcome by the stuff and sleeps. Chet enters the major's house to call upon Emily and hears the major talking in his maudlin slumber, revealing the facts in the shooting of Todd. By the same method of transmission Emily has also learned from her own father's lips that truth of "the deacon's demise." When officers come to Burke's house and accuse Chet of the crime the young man admits that he is guilty, and tells the officers to search the swamp for Todd's remains. Chet's heroism in submitting himself as a victim to her own father's action greatly stirs Emily's latent admiration, and forgetful of her obligation to marry another, the girl easily surrenders her heart to Chet and proceeds to assist him from his dilemma. Chet is locked in the rickety neighborhood jail and Emily releases him, giving him opportunity to decamp and begging him to take her along to be married. Thus matters arrive at the conclusion of the film, but the exact manner in which the story ends is not revealed. Suffice it to say that the "surprise finish" changes the whole nature of the story from tense melodrama to boisterous farce, ending in the "biggest laugh" ever produced by a moving picture.