''The Block Signal'' is 1926 American silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Frank O'Connor and starring Ralph Lewis,

Jean Arthur Jean Arthur (born Gladys Georgianna Greene; October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American Broadway and film actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s. Arthur had feature roles in three F ...

, and

Hugh Allan Sir Hugh Allan (September 29, 1810 – December 9, 1882) was a Scottish-Canadian shipping magnate, financier and capitalist. By the time of his death, the Allan Shipping Line had become the largest privately owned shipping empire in the wor ...

. It was produced by the

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

company

Gotham Pictures Gotham Pictures Company was an American movie production business established in San Antonio in 1916 during the silent film era. Marshall W. Taggart was the company's president. Property in Hot Wells, Texas near San Antonio was planned as an area ...

Synopsis

A veteran

railroad engineer A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a pers ...

discovers that his eyesight is failing and he is becoming

colorblind Color blindness or color vision deficiency (CVD) is the decreased ability to see color or differences in color. It can impair tasks such as selecting ripe fruit, choosing clothing, and reading traffic lights. Color blindness may make some aca ...

. Bert Steele his

fireman A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

who craves promotion deliberately misleads him about a

signal In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...

leading him to be demoted. Jealous and frustrated by his unrequited love for the engineer's daughter Grace, Steele considers a more direct form of sabotage.

Cast

* Ralph Lewis as 'Jovial Joe' Ryan *

as Grace Ryan *

as Jack Milford *

George Chesebro George Newell Chesebro (July 29, 1888 – May 28, 1959) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 400 films between 1915 and 1954. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and died in Los Angeles, California. Partial filmography * '' M ...

as Bert Steele * Sidney Franklin as 'Roadhouse' Rosen *Leon Holmes as 'Unhandy' Andy *Missouri Royer as Jim Brennan

Preservation

Prints of ''The Block Signal'' are preserved at the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the ar ...

and

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

.The Library of Congress / FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''The Block Signal''
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References

Bibliography

* Connelly, Robert B. ''The Silents: Silent Feature Films, 1910-36, Volume 40, Issue 2''. December Press, 1998. * Munden, Kenneth White. ''The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1''. University of California Press, 1997.

External links

* * * 1926 films American silent feature films Films based on short fiction Rail transport films 1926 drama films American black-and-white films Silent American drama films Gotham Pictures films Films directed by Frank O'Connor 1920s American films {{1920s-silent-drama-film-stub