Filial Love - Production & Contact Info

Filial Love (1912)
Short | 20 min | Drama, Short

Filial Love (1912)

Short | 20 min | Drama, Short

The foreman of the Ironton Steel Company department has been found murdered and near him lay a knife which belonged to one of his under-workmen. So upon this circumstantial evidence, Harvey Davis, the workman, was arrested and indicted for...See moreThe foreman of the Ironton Steel Company department has been found murdered and near him lay a knife which belonged to one of his under-workmen. So upon this circumstantial evidence, Harvey Davis, the workman, was arrested and indicted for murder. On the night of the murder, Davis' little son, Harvey, Jr., had come to the saloon where both his father and the foreman were together drinking, and begged his daddy to come home to supper. While there, the youngster had noticed a peculiar-visaged man borrow his papa's knife and not return it. The little tot tried to tell this detail to the coroner and the lawyers, but they somehow refused to listen as the stranger could not be found. The youngster's story was taken as just a bit of childish romancing. The little codger listens as the lawyer tells his mother that there is practically no hope of securing an acquittal. Again Harvey, Jr., intercedes with the story of the strange man with the awful face and the lawyer laughs and his mother tells him to keep quiet. Then be remembered bearing his "daddy" speak of Mr. President Taft and of Justice. He sneaked off to his little room and gathered those things together which he anticipated needing in his trip to Washington, D.C. On the kitchen table he left a note, ill-spelled, it is true, but it told that he was off to see Mr. Taft and get justice. He managed to get aboard the train and when discovered by the conductor, he told such an ingenious story that he was allowed to continue on to Washington, the place of his highest hopes. He arrives in the Capital and goes to the fountain which stands before the Congressional Library and washes up preparatory to his reception by "Mr. Taft." He makes quite the natural mistake of going first to the Capitol Building, hut he is soon set aright and directed to follow on up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, where he may see Mr. Taft. So up the avenue he trudges till the White House grounds are reached. He tells the doorman his desires and is laughingly told to return next day. Being refused an audience he decides to wait about till "Mr. Taft" may chance to come forth, without reward. Night comes and he goes to sleep on a bench. It is now next morning and a guard has discovered our little hero. A crowd collects around him and among them he sees the man who borrowed his father's knife and who he knows committed the murder for which his father is held and is about to pay the penalty. Jumping on the bench he accuses him and commands the policeman to arrest the man. Something in the child's dominant sincerity compels the officer to believe his accusation, and he takes the accused man in charge and to the station house. At the jail the man is questioned. Little discrepancies in his answers cause them to credit the youngster's story, and they ply him unrelentingly with a rapid fire of questions till the man breaks down under their inquisition and confesses. The jury is just returning from the jury room prepared to render a verdict in the case of the State vs. Harvey Davis, charged with murder. The verdict they are about to render is that of guilty in the first degree. A message arrives, the judge hears it, and orders their verdict withheld because of new and admissible evidence. The child has secured justice, not through Mr. Taft, but through his own efforts. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less

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Cast	+ Add Cast
3 cast members

Name	Known for
Lamar Johnstone The Accused Father The Accused Father See fewer	The Ne'er Do Well (1915)
Barbara Tennant The Mother The Mother See fewer	The Infidel (1922)
Clara Horton The Child The Child See fewer	The Girl from Outside (1919)