The Spiked Switch

Film 103 in the Hazards of Helen series

Film 102 in the Hazards of Helen series.

Jud Hendricks, foreman of the construction camp, is being blackmailed by Gypsy Joe, who knows of a dark page in the Hendricks' past. Hendricks and Tom Rasom are rivals for the favor of Helen, with Tom in the lead. The latter, an engineer, is about to take his train out when he finds Gypsy Joe hiding in a boxcar.

Helen, discharged by the superintendent without justification, comes to the rescue when a flat car, loaded with dynamite, is tearing to certain destruction down the grade, bearing the mischievous son of the superintendent.

Stallings' plot to spoil the demonstration of Dick Benton's newly invented safety stop for trains seems certain of success when the locomotive is sent running wild down the tracks. Helen saves the day by climbing out on a wire stretching across the tracks and dropping to the speeding engine.

Sharky, a rival road agent, plots to spoil a trial run to be made on Helen's road that will win a mail contract. He opens a waste valve on the tank of the engine, and, when nearing Lone Point, the water tank runs dry. Helen comes to the rescue by mounting the new gasoline speeder and starting off with the mail for the end of the run.

Jim, determined to ruin a box car brake test, hides inside, removes the flooring, and ruins the brake apparatus. As a result, the box car runs wild, trapping him inside. Before Helen can sidetrack the runaway, it shoots off the track at Elbow curve, overturning as it topples down the embankment. Helen smashes a hole through the side, braves the flames, crawls into the car, rescues Jim and drags him to safety. But her heroism is too late; Jim dies in her arms.

The film is about a woman who experiences frightening visions after visiting an insane asylum where one of the inmates claims to be Count Dracula (here following the Hungarian spelling Drakula). She has trouble determining whether the inmate's visions are real or merely nightmares.

After accidentally killing an opponent in the ring, a professional wrestler takes a job at a group home for youth offenders. But when a psychopath wearing a wrestling mask begins butchering the teenage residents, their rehabilitation will become a no-holds-barred battle for survival. Originally filmed in 1994 but completed in 2019.

Under the influence of liquor, Griffin foolishly displays a roll of bills. Wheeler and Walter, yeggmen, see the money and trail the traveler to the station. The men learn the berth he is to occupy. Hastening to a bridge under which the train must pass, they drop to the roof of one of the cars when it appears. Helen, transferred to Burnett, is a passenger on the train. By mistake, Griffin gets into her berth. Because of the man's condition, Helen consents to allow him to keep her berth. The girl takes the one which Griffin's ticket calls for. An hour later, Helen is awakened by a peculiar noise outside the car. Hastily dressing, she sees the window being raised. Wheeler's face appears at the window. The man foils Helen's attempt to shoot him, disarms her and then climbs back to the roof of the car.

Tony, a half-breed Mexican is kicked from pillar to post, but he grasps a chance for revenge on society when he peers through the station window and sees Helen, the operator at Lone Point, opening the express company bag containing a valuable shipment to a local rancher.