The brother of character actor Josef Swickard, Charles Swickard became a prolific director with Thomas H. Ince's New York Motion Picture Company, where he helmed the still extant 1916 version of The Three Musketeers. Swickard was the credited director on the seminal William S. Hart Western Hell's Hinges (1916), but it has long been assumed that the film was actually directed by Hart himself. Swickard's later problems at Fox seem to support this theory: In 1920, his footage for the initial Buck Jones Western, Square Shooter, had to be shelved and the released film was eventually credited to Paul Cazeneuve. Swickard, in the opinion of William Fox himself, counted for "the worst amateurish direction I have ever reviewed." Fox demanded Swickard's departure, instructing studio manager Sol M. Wurtzel to hire someone else to complete the picture. The director's career took an instantaneous nosedive from which it never recovered.
| Title | Year | Editors' Rating | User Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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An Arabian Knight
Director |
1920 | |||
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Li Ting Lang
Director |
1920 | |||
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The Devil's Claim
Director |
1920 | |||
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The Last Straw
Director, Screenwriter |
1920 | |||
|
Almost Married
Director |
1919 | |||
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Faith
Director |
1919 | |||
|
Spender
Director |
1919 | |||
|
Gates of Doom
Director |
1917 | |||
|
Lair of the Wolf
Director |
1917 | |||
|
Phantom's Secret
Director |
1917 | |||
|
Plow Woman
Director |
1917 | |||
|
Scarlet Crystal
Director |
1917 | |||
|
Hell's Hinges
Director |
1916 | |||
|
Mixed Blood
Director |
1916 | |||
|
Sign of the Poppy
Director |
1916 | |||
|
The Captive God
Director |
1916 | |||
|
The Raiders
Director |
1916 | |||
|
The Forbidden Adventure
Director |
1915 | |||
|
The Bargain
Actor |
1914 | |||
|
The Typhoon
Screenwriter |
1914 |

