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- A burglar, in order to have free rein in robbing the apartment of Wayne Chisholm, a newspaper reporter, sends him an anonymous note directing him to be at a certain corner at midnight, if he seeks adventure. Through this medium Chisholm meets with the adventure of his life. Hilda Norwood, daughter of a millionaire, has been kidnapped the day previous. As Chisholm arrives at the designated corner, a girl's side-comb falls at his feet. It bears a note from Miss Norwood announcing that she is a prisoner in the building above him, and pleading for aid. After a series of experiences, including a desperate battle with Hilda's captors, Wayne succeeds in rescuing her and registering not only a scoop for his paper, out of her own gratitude. This more than compensated the reporter for what the burglar got.
- Is love blind? Henry Neville, a handsome youth, seeks to impress his fiancée, Eleanor Cadman, with his own good looks by introducing her to David Lee, an exceedingly homely man. Love has not blinded Eleanor's eyes, however. She sees Henry as a parasite while David as a man who does something worthwhile. Her affection begins to waver. Her father informs Neville he must have $10,000 in the bank before he can marry Eleanor. David sells an invention for just that amount and loyally lends it to his friend, Henry. But Eleanor detects the little plot and rejects Henry. She summons David and, despite his homeliness, marries him.
- From a small seat of learning where even the consumption of water was regulated by the curators there was cast forth on the turbulent sea of worldly strife a youth, Elmer, by baptism. Teeming with big ideas was an accomplishment which had rendered Elmer immune from any contamination by the curriculum. No sooner had the flow of family welcome been staunched than he gave vent to his pent-up emotions, exposing to the fire of criticism his yearning for a wider pasture to gambol in. In spite of the mater's apprehensive visions of vampires, cabarets and improper comrades, his telling arguments and debating society gestures had their effect. With a promise to spurn temptation's flirtatious advances he parlor-carred to the wider scope. Lured by three ukulele thrummers from the old Alma Mater, he succumbs to their invitation to spend an evening. A meeting of the Civic Improvement League proves to be the main bout, and nothing more exciting occurs than making the acquaintances of an heiress. With her as his inspiration, he eventually becomes the dominating factor in a struggle against social obnoxities. Nuptials naturally follow, since Elmer is now wearing a frock coat and a thoughtful and detached air. Imagine, then, his utter horror upon returning to the birthplace, to find it in the last stages of a virulent attack of speed. Haste in all its most compromising forms had superseded all other activities. The most indisputable evidence being father's position as president of the Country Club, while mother whiles her afternoons at bridge. Though Elmer's "What-are-we-coming-to" pose makes him the butt of many gentle jests, he persists until an exclusive soiree is given by mother for the benefit of those appreciating terpsichore unhindered by convention. He then wends his way back to wife and the sane life of the city, convinced that "sobriety is a sister to solitude and speed no respecter of persons."
- In a Town where "Flivs" are still called Automobiles enjoying the Comforts of Hard Labor, were Pa and Ma Basker. Ma's pride in her Geraniums was only equaled by his interest in the factory on the Riverbank. They split Fifty-Fifty on their Affection for their Progeny, which totaled One of Each. Though they were bursting with Rube Health, when Son succeeded in Hooking a contract which converted the Shop into a War-Baby it was hardly a Task to persuade the Old Folks to Knock Off and Live Up to the dignity of their Sudden Accumulations. Seeing America first to them meant taking a Limited and stopping off where the Lights Dazzled the most. Cabarets, Dansants, A la Cartes and Golluf took the place of Church Socials, Spelling Bees, Chicken Suppers and Raising Vegetables in their Round of Pleasure. For an excuse to Settle back in the old Grind, Pa Basker would have Split a large hunk of that Contract, but as it was he had to live up to his Income Tax.
- Once upon a time there was a Male Vampire named Ferdinand, who was in love with Adele, a sweet Thing fresh from an Eastern Reform School. When he spoke those three words winch hold all records for Monosyllabic Trouble-Makers and was accepted, Ferdinand had a Hunch that somebody was about to drop Cyanide into his Cup of Joy, because, although Adele had no positive Proof Ferd had carried on with an Oriental Brunette working in a Musical Comedy, it was common talk that his Uncle had been a Regular at a Retreat where the Doc shoots a Precious Metal into the Arm. Ferdinand beat it to his Club to Spring the Glad News. A He-Hen named Herbert called aside and planted a few Thistles in the Garden of Love. Adele and Ferd suffered Miles apart, through many Dinners Decreed by Custom. Then came the Big Day. They propped Ferd up, told him his Name and begged him not to Weaken. He saw a Haggard Creature advancing toward him. They did not hear any of the service, but were afterward told it was a very Pretty Wedding. Moral: Married men are not sent to war. They have suffered enough already.
- Possessed of millions but little brain power, Vernon is creating a sensation along the primrose paths of the Gay White Way. He is in love with Hazel of the chorus, who regards him rather disdainfully. She marries him, however, at the conclusion of a wild night, then she separates from him and tells him he must earn a living before she will live with him. The trustees of Vernon's vast heritage learn of the marriage and, by virtue of the will, cut off his allowance. It is the girl's rejection of him, more than the loss of the money, that wakes Vernon up to a proper estimation of himself. He staggers his old-time friends by going to work in partnership with a fashionable tailor. His reputation draws the moneyed crowds and before long he is enabled to tell the trustees to "keep their money." Hazel comes back to him.
- "There's many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip," the adage has it, and so it proves with young Bobby Hopper. His father wants him to marry the daughter of his business competitor in order to consolidate the businesses. Bobby refuses, and his father employs Jim Dykeman, an ex-convict, to force the marriage. Dykeman plans to kidnap the two and force them into marriage. He gets Bobby but mistakes the girl for her maid, Yvonne. Bobby and Yvonne effect a thrilling escape, fall in love with each other and are married. Just how it turns out for the best is told in the next chapter. Sure the whole thing is just the picturization of a newspaper story a hobo is reading.
- In one of the doubtful states was a city with more area than population, where lived the Wiggamores. The main provider for the domestic plant was one Adolphus Wiggamore. Randolph, the first born, was employed in a bank. The daughter, Maidie, was undecided whether to be a barefoot dancer or a trained nurse. Then there was a kid brother. The Wiggamores saw no use in going to the theater, but kid brother went against the movies every time he could dig up a jit. Then daughter slipped when she saw a poster with the name of her favorite star. About this time Mama Wiggamore was put on a club committee to investigate the movies. Then papa decided to do a little investigating himself. After a taste of the movies the Wiggamores found excuses to go often. Finally the cook got the habit, and the Wiggamore bill for electric lights took a sudden slump, for the entire family sidles out to the nearest movie theater every night. Moral: The principal ingredient in real entertainment is the absence of talk.
- Robert Gray and Richard Waldron are rivals for the hand of Ethel Dixon. She favors Waldron and accepts his proposal. Knowing Waldron's one weakness, Gray gets him intoxicated, then calls Ethel to gaze upon the man she is about to marry. She breaks the engagement. Waldron realizes he has stepped into a trap and confronts Gray. A fierce battle follows, in which Waldron stuns Gray with a blow on the head. Thinking he has killed Gray, Waldron tells his father all. His father advises him to give up his law practice and the girl and leave the country. He departs. Years later he has fallen into the depths. He is rescued by one of his former clients, whom he had saved from the gallows. The old fellow, realizing his debt of gratitude, brings about a reconciliation between Waldron and his father, which results in the renewal of the engagement with Ethel. Richard Waldron prospers, and sometime later finds him happily married to Ethel, with a high position at the bar. He finally becomes judge of the Supreme Court.
- On a visit to the dentist, Kingsley, an attorney, is confronted by a well-known criminal, who asks him to defend "Goldie" Harper, a girl accused of killing a man whose body has not been found. The attorney agrees to take the case, and Goldie is released. Eventually, police detectives discover the dead man's body in Kingsley's back yard. This eventuality causes the attorney to awaken: he finds himself in the dentist's office--and realizes it was all a dream.
- Loretta, a well-conditioned elfin of the young, unmarried set, was a bit old-fashioned but could ring more iron men than any other village belle. This uncrowned princess was a she-progressive assaying 98 percent pure ginger. Herbert was a village lad just like the pictures in the magazine clothing ads. One evening Loretta prepared for four throbbing Roscoes, including Herbert, to curl up among the sofa pillows in the family parlor. Jealous, the love-mad village Romeo, Herbert, conceived a diabolical plot. Giving the three simpering rivals the go-by, he seized the apple of his eye and rolled out to his chug-chug wagon. Straight into the river, a la Annette Kellerman, drove our hero, refusing to back out until his proposal was accepted. Loretta then confessed that she always had been stuck on that cave-man stuff, and extended her finger for the sparkler. Moral: Rapid performers do not always get credit for their speed.
- John Bentley hates New York City, because of an unhappy romance as a young man, but his son, Ronald, tired of living in Iowa, is determined to take up residence in Manhattan. The elder Bentley therefore conspires with his New York manager, William Workman, to involve Ronald in so much trouble that he will gladly return to the sedate life of an Iowa burgher. Arriving in Manhattan, Ronald strikes up an acquaintance with Meg, a telephone operator, whose brother, Jimmy, has come under the evil influence of Jerry. Jerry and Jimmy rob a wealthy woman, and Ronald is charged with the crime on circumstantial evidence, keeping quiet in order to protect Jimmy. Meg comes forward with evidence to clear him, however, and they are married, going to live in town. Ronald's father, who has come to New York, decides to remain in the city and make up for lost time.
- Once there was a farm dwelling on a knoll that served as the home for a foundling who was getting his board and keep. Being a relation, he only had to crowd fourteen hours of labor into each day. He slept in an apartment just under the rafters, with the seed corn and medicinal herbs, and was up at four a.m. without leaving a call. The county seat was a boob settlement, but to the adopted waif it looked like four European capitals welded together until he got a book of travel views, and then he was taken with a sudden yearn to zip away in a day coach, with his head out of the window. The call could not be downed, and soon the sturdy specimen was on his way for the incandescent pitfalls determined to take up some vocation that could be practiced while seated in a rocking chair. He started in a livery stable, but in three years we find him employed in a department store in the very heart of the city, and twenty years later was a perfectly good floorwalker, with nearly $80 piled up awaiting investment. He decided to backtrack it to the jungle and let the poor flatheads look at his Palm Beach suit while they were washing up for dinner. But times have changed, and instead of finding the muscle bound yeomen tilling the soil he is informed that the family is just going to the links, and is rebuked with, "You should have brought your clubs along." Moral: It must be dull for the people away out in the country without any fire engines passing in front of the house.
- J. Smith, a millionaire, hates his name. It is so common, he thinks. He devises a scheme whereby he will exterminate the patronymic by offering $2,000 each to all bachelor Smiths who will agree not to marry, and to all maiden Smiths who will marry and change their name. Eddie Jones, who is "down and out," decides to pose as a Smith and reap the reward. He makes a hit with the old man and is retained as his secretary. While in this work he meets Isobel Smith, the daughter. Mutual love grows. The great scheme fails, of course. There are not enough millions in the world to pay off all the Smiths. And Eddie's plan to marry Isobel almost fails, for Smith avows his daughter shall never wed one of his name. But Eddie confesses his pseudonym and all ends happily.
- Once there was a Lit'ry Guy. Ever since his stuff had been shot back by a Mere Editor he had billed himself as an Author. His wife was a Gumpf. At every Tea and Cookie Carnival the Lit'ry Guy was hailed as a Hero. One day he dashed off an operetta. Then came a day when the great work was ready to be launched with a loud splash. But a cruel theater manager suggested that he sell the manuscript to the rag man. The Lit'ry Guy decided to have the play done by Local Amateurs rather than see it lost to the World. After the Home Talent bunch pulled the Affair, the trusty Liars boosted it something scandalous. There was no holding the Lit'ry Guy now. He finally found a Manager who had a lot of courage in risking other people's money. The Opening Night the House was mostly paper. Next day the Critics classified the show as a Persimmon. Then the Manager got busy with the Manuscript and Blue Pencil. He hired a bunch of Chorus Kickers to Kick Pep into the piece. The Lit'ry Guy protested in vain that his Art was being degraded. After the Manager got through jazzing the play the Lit'ry Guy recognized nothing but the scenery. The next Box Office report showed the Gate was jumping at the rate of $80 a night. Still weeping over the ruination of his Play but with Dough lining his pockets, the Lit'ry Guy returned to Hickville to await more royalties. Moral: In Elevating drama be sure to get it High Enough, even if you have to make it a trifle Gamy.
- Lord Dawlish is made the heir of an eccentric English millionaire, who cuts off a nephew and niece, living in America. Dawlish is engaged to Claire Edmont, an actress. Dawlish offers half his inheritance to the niece, and when she refuses to accept he goes to America to persuade her. Claire follows, but not having received the letter regarding the inheritance she marries a man she meets on the boat. Dawlish meets Elizabeth as Bill Chalmers, his family name, and as Bill she learns to love him, but she discovers his identity, and things work to a rapid conclusion.
- A young lady designs a wonderfully received bathing suit and saves her employer from financial disaster. In the course of this, she falls in love with her employer's son, who is in danger of ruin from a romantic scandal.
- Carol Blair, a clerk in a modiste's shop, dreams of someday possessing the latter. Accidentally she meets Wesley Jamison, who appears to be wealthy. Fearing he would spurn a mere modiste's clerk, Carol poses as a millionaire's daughter. She grows to love him too much, however, to continue to deceive him, so confesses her pseudonym. In turn he confesses deception also, admitting that he is in reality only a bookkeeper. The parting of their ways seems to have arrived, but Carol decides that after all true love beats all the wealth in the world.
- Faced with deciding between two suitors, James Brunton and Bob Standing, Grace chooses James. Aristocratic Mr. Brunton gives his son James a sumptuous wedding at home, which is interrupted when the father is suddenly shot through a window. Before he dies, Mr. Brunton speaks with James, making him promise not to apprehend the murderer. Later, the marriage is troubled when Grace is led to believe that James is involved with another woman, Helen, and is giving her money. Crushed, Grace leaves home and has a miscarriage after settling in another town. Meanwhile, James believes that she has run off with Bob. One day, James has a car accident and is taken to Grace's house nearby, where she cares for him. The mystery is solved with the arrivals of Helen and Bob, when it is revealed that Helen is actually James's sister, and that Mr. Brunton had abandoned Helen's mother Alice years before. Mr. Brunton knew that it was Alice who had shot him, and he wanted James to try to make up for his neglect of the mother and daughter. Bob then becomes interested in Helen, and James and Grace are reconciled.
- James Brunton's wife, Molly, believing she has found her husband to be unfaithful, leaves him without asking an explanation. The 'other woman,' however, is Brunton's sister-in-law, whom he is supporting. In his search for his wife Brunton is hurt and temporarily blinded in an automobile accident. He is carried to the very house in which his wife has secreted herself. She nurses him back to health without his recognizing her until, when his sight is restored, the sister-in-law appears on the scene, an explanation is made, and Brunton and his wife are reconciled.
- Young Bill Reid is given a position at the bank of William Stuyvesant, whose daughter Ruth he loves. The banker's son Ralph Stuyvesant is in love with vamp Grace Andrews and supporting her in luxury. To meet Grace's extravagant demands, Ralph forges his father's name to a check, but suspicion for the crime is thrown on Reid by Tom Burnett, who wants to marry Ruth for her money. At a ball thrown by Stuyvesant, the banker is murdered by Burnett when the former accuses him of theft. Burnett and Ralph again contrive to throw the blame on Reid, who is convicted of the murder on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to death. Through Ruth's tireless efforts and the assistance of the chief of detectives, Reid escapes and the real criminals are brought to justice.
- Alan Beckwith, down and out and behind in his rent, goes to the home of North, a notorious bootlegger and underworld figure, and proposes that for $300 he will insure his life in North's favor for $100,000. He tosses two red dice, one showing two and the other four, and they agree that on December 24 Alan must die. To allay suspicion, Alan must marry a woman of North's choosing. Vane and Conroy, two of North's subordinates who have double-crossed him, are marked to die. Vane's sister, Beverly, begs North to relent, and he consents on the condition that she marry Alan. After their marriage, under the guard of Squint, their distrust develops into love and Alan tries to buy off North. Alan and Vane attempt to hijack North's rum cargo, but Beverly arrives with revenue agents. Squint proves to be an undercover man, and the gang is overcome.
- The principal industry of Plumville is the Plumville Iron Works, of which Ezra Plum is president. Sallie Plum, his daughter, is the sugar plum of Plumville. Frank Hazard, foreman of the works, realizes this. Two strangers arrive in Plumville. It is apparent to both that Ezra is some plum; further apparent to Dalziel that Sallie is an exceptional plum as plums go, and also apparent to Sargent that Amanda, the aunt, isn't such a bad plum at that. The strangers pose as foreign buyers with a war contract and Ezra falls hard. Frank, who is sweet on Sallie, and Judge Pendlehurst, who has more than a platonic affection for Amanda, suspect the newcomers, but they have Ezra trimmed for $25,000 before the city detectives reach Plumville. Ezra Plum collapses. Sallie Plum takes back Frank's ring and Amanda Plum starts a quarrel with the Judge, proving that the old affection has returned. And now there's a joy in Plumville, and the Plumville Iron Works hum merrily manufacturing cast iron hitching posts.
- Hoping to improve her baby daughter Helen's chances in life, Mary Dorsey, an impoverished hotel maid who supports a drunken husband, substitutes her daughter for that of George Stevens, a traveling salesman, whose invalid wife and baby die soon after they arrive at the hotel. Hannah Shay, another maid, sees Mary do this and blackmails her to keep quiet until Mary dies five years later. Meanwhile, Stevens is taken in the firm, makes a fortune, and retires so that he and his sister can rear Helen. Years later, artist Walter Pemberton, one of Helen's two suitors, has old Hannah Shay pose as a gypsy. When Shay discovers Helen's identity, she blackmails her with the assistance of Helen's real father. After Shay and Dorsey are caught with jewels which Helen gave to them, Helen's identity is revealed. When Grant Murdock, her wealthy suitor, jilts her, Helen marries Walter, while Stevens says that she will always be his daughter.
- "The Hellion," as Dick Farragut is known to his friends, looks mild enough, but he has an awful punch. It is the unfortunate experience of "The Rat," a cabaret viper, to learn this fact when he attempts to insult a girl before Dick's eyes in the Moline café. Dick's fist lands so hard on "The Rat" as to knock him senseless. Young Farragut is panic-stricken as he sees his victim fall, apparently lifeless, and escapes from the cabaret. He catches the first train out of the city and lands in Fairview on a Sunday. Here Dick seeks to hide, but meets Ruth Small, daughter of the village pastor. She takes him to church and by his marvelous execution on the pipe organ makes a decided hit. Thus it is, when friends finally discover him and inform him that "The Rat" was not really injured, that Dick refuses to return to the city, but marries Ruth and remains many more Sundays in Fairview.
- Martin Ross and his East Indian servant Sima poison Mrs. Dean, whose money and pearls are left to her little daughter Elsie. Ross, the executor of the estate, spends all of the money with the willing assistance of seductress Fanette, but manages to retain the priceless pearls. When Elsie reaches the age of 18, she learns that she is penniless and formulates a plan to retrieve the jewels with the aid of her boyfriend William Gavin, Jr. Posing as seer "Madame Rama," Elsie sets Ross against Fanette, who has taken the pearls from their hiding place. When he confronts Fanette, she kills him and frames William for the crime. William is arrested, but "Madame Rama" tricks Fanette into confessing her guilt in the presence of several detectives. With Fanette and Sima behind bars, the pearls are restored to Elsie, who starts a new life with William.
- This story is a sequel to "The Edge of Things." Betty Marsh fells Malcolm Jarvis with a blow on the bead when he tries to make love to her while intoxicated. Betty is arrested, but Jarvis orders the case dropped and, calling Betty to the hospital apologizes. Later they are married. Chandler Waldron, Betty's employer, who had tried to force his affections upon her one day, and was knocked down by Jarvis, learns of their marriage and plans his revenge. By humble apologies he comes into the good graces of both Jarvis and his wife. He becomes a caller at their home. One night Jarvis and Betty quarrel. Jarvis goes to his club, telling Betty to phone him when she is more reasonable. In a rash impulse she phones Waldron. He tries to make love to her. As she fights him off, a burglar steps out and confronts Waldron with a gun. He proves to be a man whose downfall was caused by Waldron. After urging Betty to phone her husband and make up, he takes Waldron outside and gives him a good thrashing.
- The Sardou play begins with this girl's life as the young wife of a man nearing forty, kind enough to his bride, but more or less absorbed in his serious work. She has dreamed of romantic love, intoxicating adventure, and tumultuous passions only to find none of these things in retirement with a good husband. She decided that her existence has been wrecked and ruined, and gets it into her foolish head that the only remedy is a divorce. There is a lover handy, her husband's cousin Adhemar, French in his ambition to have an "affair" with some charming married woman, and equally French in his thrift; he is a poor young man in no situation to marry any such extravagant young lady. The clear-headed husband enters into a little conspiracy with some friends to let his bored young wife have her own way, ostensibly yielding to her wishes, and he even makes things as easy and comfortable as possible for the unsuspecting lover, inviting him to the house, and announcing that he has even provided for his wife's future by settling a large sum of money upon her. She sees that this settlement has weight with the lover, and begins to falter, but she goes on determinedly with what gradually loses all the charm of forbidden fruit. Her relations with Adhemar become more and more commonplace at a time when she begins to realize her husband's magnanimity. He has denied her nothing, and he gives Adhemar full permission to marry her as soon as the divorce is granted. Meanwhile she begins to be distressed by the fact that her husband seems to be enjoying himself, staying out late at night, and suspects that he has an "affair" with some woman "not worthy" of him. She revolts when he announces he has a dinner engagement, urges him to break it and have a little celebration with her and Adhemar, finally deciding to leave Adhemar out altogether. It would be such a lark to steal away from him and have dinner in a private room with her husband, so compromising. Adhemar learns of the infidelity of his wife-to-be, and goes in search of her in a rainstorm. He is drenched when he finds the restaurant where she is dining alone with her husband in a private room contrary to what he conceives to be the rights of a husband-to-be, and he is so indignant that he seeks the protection of a Commissary of police as a safeguard for his future marital rights. The situation now becomes ludicrous in the extreme, and it ends with restored sanity for the young wife, and a complete reconciliation with her husband.
- A cracked-brain chemist, appropriately named A. Knutt, in a big toy factory, claims the discovery of an elixir which will bring dolls to life. Ruby, the beautiful daughter of the toy king, overcome by the fumes of the fluid while the chemist is out summoning others to witness the work of his discovery. A doll the chemist has given life to seizes the elixir and pours it on Ruby. She is changed into a doll. Together the two leave the shop. The chemist, the toy king and Ruby's fiancé rush into the place and are horrified to find Ruby missing. They summon the police and a search is instituted. Meanwhile, the dolls journey to the display room of the factory, and with more elixir, bring a doll justice of the peace to life. He marries them and they speed off in a miniature automobile. After the honeymoon trip they select the kennel of Sherlock, the watchdog, as their home. The dog likes the dolls and keeps them supplied with food. Then, one evening, while strolling through the plant, they discover a bomb set by striking workingmen to destroy the building. The dolls realize their peril but it is too late to escape. The bomb explodes and Ruby comes to life. She is puzzled, then realizes that all was simply a dream, inspired by the ravings of the cracked-brain chemist.
- A letter from the penitentiary informs Helen Terrane that Conway Royle, her first sweetheart, has been drowned while escaping. Hardly does she finish reading it than through her mirror she sees his face as he peers in a window. She mentions it to her husband, who sneers at her. Angered, she tells him she believes it was his treachery that sent Royle to prison, and declares that she married him only because of a letter from Royle urging such. Gail Harvey phones Terrane as he is about to leave his home and by threats of revealing how the two committed the bank theft for which Royle was sentenced, demands money. He goes to the Terrane home that evening. Royle, who was believed drowned because he left his prison clothes near a swamp, has secreted himself in the house. He overheard how the two plotters had him, their follow bank clerk, accused of the crime. Helen, too, overhears, and compels Harvey to telephone a confession to the newspapers. The police arrive, but Terrane picks up the pistol his wife had laid down, and ends his life. Royle and Helen begin anew.
- Finding himself broke and out of a job in Paris, American William Ruggles joins the Turkish army and is sent to fight in its war in the Balkans. During a particularly hard-fought battle, he rescues a wounded Turkish soldier. Before he dies the Turk, out of gratitude, leaves William his fortune--but with the proviso that he take care of the Turk's three beautiful young wards. After he leaves the army, William and the three young girls--Roxana, Rosa and Bulbul--move to Paris, where William meets up with young Ruth Downing, the daughter of his former employer. They fall in love, but Roxana--who is also in love with William--is determined that nothing will stand in the way of her getting him and she will do whatever it takes to achieve that end.
- Percy Ashfield is to marry Mary Bowman but her father objects. He objects because while the Bowmans and Percy and others with vested interest are all assembled in Ashfield's castle admiring the pearls that are to be Mary's wedding present, a girl rushes in carrying a baby and claiming the Percy is the baby's father, and her claims are supported by a doctor who follows her in adding that the girl is mentally deranged over Percy's faithfulness. Or lack of. All present, among the original who gathered are surprised, shocked and a tad dismayed, especially Percy who has never seen the girl before. While they are all discussing the events of the past few moments, Percy notices that the girl, the doctor and Mary's pearls are no longer in attendance. Odd, thinks he.
- Mr. Brunelli, a roomer at a boarding house, has caught the eye of Kate, the daughter of the woman who owns the house. Kate knows her mother, who doesn't want her daughter to have anything to do with her tenants, will disapprove of Mr. Brunelli, but she soon discovers that Mr. Brunelli isn't quite who she thinks he is.
- In one of the countless Honeycombs of an Office Building sat a General Manager. The Prosperous Piute should have been content with his lot, but he was not. He had a Past. He had come from a Tank Town via the Shorthand College. Elmer had an aching desire to be a Regular fellow. He wanted membership in a Club. He observed that the one chance for a Gink of the Floozey Species was to keep on doing the Correct Thing. But it was a hard job. He took an apartment in a highly refrigerated hotel, peopled by X-Ray Notables, so-called because they could look through Mr. Floozey at something beyond. After twenty years of hard work he had acquired the poise that would qualify him to sit among the Hoopstares. He had a nodding acquaintance with at least eight Touch-Me-Nots whose undergarments were supposed to be Royal Purple, and was cheerfully figuring progress among the Elite when a Boyhood Friend, named Orlando, blew in. Mr. Floozey thought he was a Bounder, but did not like to pass up old and tried friends, so it came about that Orlando, who was in the Railway Supply Business, worked his drag on the Board of Governors and asked them to admit Mr. Floozey because he was so correct. Inasmuch as Orlando was the life of the cardroom, the Governors stretched a point and admitted the Unknown. Moral: A cultivated Gentleman may get Anywhere if he knows the right kind of a Roughneck.
- Wall Street financier Frederick Searles goes bankrupt, prompting his mercenary wife to marry their eldest daughter Needa to the wealthy, disreputable John Davis Warren, despite Needa's love for Hugh Stanton. Needa and Warren leave on their honeymoon cruise at the same time that Stanton departs on a mission to salvage torpedoed ships. Adrift for days after his ship goes down, Stanton is picked up by Warren's yacht and hears Needa's tales of her husband's brutality and drunkenness. Back in New York, Warren's mistress hints to him that the baby Needa is expecting may be Stanton's instead of his; enraged, he strikes Needa, causing her baby to be stillborn. Needa leaves her husband and takes a job. Then Warren, unable to persuade Needa to return to him, blames his mistress for poisoning his mind against Needa and threatens to break off with her. The woman shoots and kills Warren, and Needa and Stanton are free to marry.
- Dorothy Evans, a chemistry teacher at her aunt's girls school, hopes to satisfy her yearning for adventure when she vacations with her aunt, who desires to wear men's clothes, at a secluded island in the Chesapeake Bay. On the boat, they witness officers shooting an escaping prisoner diving overboard. On the island, a gang of crooks vacate the cottage belonging to Dorothy and her aunt, but leave behind a bottle of nitroglycerin. Dorothy recognizes it, and after dumping the contents into the bay, she fills it with her aunt's heart medicine. After the prisoner is taken in by the crooks and volunteers to get the "soup," Dorothy surprises him with a revolver and binds him to a chair. They fall in love, and when the gang tries to rescue him, he fights them. Dorothy's threat to drop the nitro bottle leads to the gang's capture. After the officers identify their "prisoner" as a famous detective Harold Vance, Dorothy and Harold plan to marry.
- With death at hand the Rev. John Stiles, missionary in the slums, phones the fashionable church of the city to have a minister at his bedside. Young Richard Lennox, new to the clergy, responds and hears from the dying brother how the work in the mission must go on. As the mission is part of Christ church, Rev. Lennox resigns his rich pastorate and goes to the slums. He finds the territory over which he is to work is dominated by "Bull" Grogan, a vicious saloon keeper and agent for the wealthy owners of the tenements. Grogan rules by his fists, and when he sets out to get Rose Cahill, a slum girl who by miracle has escaped pollution in her environment, he starts in a characteristic way, violence. Rose, with ambitions and ideals above her surroundings, soon finds herself in love with the young rector. They meet and Lennox is interested. Peter Sewell, capitalist and head vestryman of the big church, is irritated by the minister's activity in cleaning up the district. Sewell owns several of the tenements. He has the vestryman discharge Lennox. Richard declares he will carry on the work unattached. He phones the papers and they expand with the story of the young minister who lost his place for being over-zealous. In the meantime, Kid Donovan, a good natured little prize fighter, down and out, is found and cared for by Lennox. Donovan wins back his health and teaches boxing to the aristocratic young rector. "The only way to clean up this neighborhood is with your fists," advises the fighter, and Richard agrees. He whips Grogan, who once vanquished him ingloriously before Rose. Grogan is compelled to close his rough saloon and leave the district. When Richard, the drawing room pastor, forgets his poise and wades in to reform the neighborhood with his fists, he succeeds and with Rose a complete metamorphosis is affected.
- When Martin Wells tires of his wife Esther, he boards a train with her and then deserts her. When Esther discovers that she has been "discarded," she leaves the train and comes upon the cabin of Samuel Radburn, who soon returns home drunk and attacks her. After he falls asleep, Esther escapes. Later Radburn goes to New York, searching for Martin Wells's wife to deed her half the gold mine that he held jointly with the now-deceased Wells. Radburn meets the pregnant Esther there, and believing that she is carrying his child and unaware of her true identity, he marries her. They are content until the Graeber gang, in an attempt to secure control of the Wells's mine, blackmails Esther with the threat of exposing her true identity. Esther finally confesses to Radburn, who forgives her, and all ends happily.
- Barbara Hastings, a hostess in an Adirondacks resort, settles the rivalry between artist Stanley Roberts and banker Ralph Westley by choosing Roberts to be her husband. Westley's jealousy will not let him accept the situation, however, and he throws temptation into Roberts' path by anonymously buying the artist's work. Roberts becomes extravagant, and his attention wanders to an attractive widow, but Barbara remains faithful, even when Westley offers her her old job. Finally realizing the futility of his efforts, Westley helps to reunite Roberts with his wife.
- Once upon a time there was a girl whose principal ambition in life was to stand ace high with all the nice men of her set. She was so foxy that at times she got in front of herself and blocked her own plays. She was informed, in taking notes of what man most desired in woman, that man wanted a dame that will play up to his loftiest ambitions and supply his home with an atmosphere of culture, which is the ozone of married life. So the girl put it down that it was her cue to chop out all the twaddle and be a sort of Lady Emerson. But when she had a chance to try out her new method of landing in the matrimonial game she found that the flashy young woman who deals out slang, moves up to the cocktails freely and does a Gertrude Hoffman on the table is the one the men lose sleep about. So the next time she went to a blow-out the wise girl added a dash of red to her costume, and cut loose and got along first rate, even though she did a lot of the things that none of the men approve, but somehow love to put up with. Moral: He can always pick out the right kind for the other fellow.
- Little six-year-old Sadie O'Malley, a child of the tenement district, has a vision of heaven awakened within her by the teaching of a settlement worker, so when she sees a handsome limousine in front of the settlement laundry near her home she thinks it is a heavenly chariot, climbs into a clothes hamper in the interior of the car and is whisked away to the home of Mrs. Welland Riche. The latter has left earlier in the day on a trip, so when Sadie and. her dog, George Washington Square, who has been her companion in the hamper trip, are dumped down the clothes chute of the Riche home while concealed in the basket, they find easy access to the upper regions of the mansion and then, indeed, Sadie thinks she is in heaven. Sadie soon is discovered by the servants, but they believe she is just another of Mrs. Riche's fads when she tells them she is there to stay. Believing Mrs. Riche as desiring that the best of care be given the child, Sadie is dressed in rich garments and is much at home until Mrs. Riche returns. While the servants' explanations have been made, Mrs. Riche, in the meantime having been won over by the child's beauty and sweet manners, decides Sadie may remain. But the tenement child's happiness is short-lived when George Washington Square appears upon the scene. Mrs. Riche orders that the pup be removed and tells Sadie that, instead, she can play with the Riche collection of Poms. Not so for Sadie. She informs the wealthy matron that she wouldn't give up George Washington Square for all the heavens and that if G.W.S. cannot remain she will go. So hugging her doggie close to her she returns to her worried mother with the explanation, "I have been to heaven, but they sent me home because they didn't like my dog."
- Felicia Day is brought up in seclusion by her affectionate but narrow-minded grandfather, Major Trenton. One day, Dudley Hamilt, a choirboy, throws his ball across the fence which separates the rectory from the Trenton yard and meets Felicia, from whom he steals a kiss. Trenton sees the children smooching and, shocked, sends Felicia to Canada. Years pass and Felicia, now an adult, decides to go to New York and make her living as a seamstress. She still yearns for Dudley but decides against seeing him because of her old-fashioned wardrobe. Possessing a natural talent for dancing, Felicia is offered a job by lecherous theatrical manager Allen Graemer, and she accepts. Dudley, attending one of her performances, recognizes his long-lost love and follows her home where he rescues her from Graemer's advances and admits his enduring love for the girl from whom he stole a kiss.
- Louise Parke runs away to Paris with her lover Stephen Underwood, but because her mother, Mrs. Treadway Parke, misses her so deeply, she sends a wire announcing her return home. When the boat on which she is scheduled to sail is torpedoed, Mrs. Parke's physician, Dr. Granville, becomes concerned for her sanity and asks Peggy Murray, a newsstand girl who bears a remarkable likeness to Louise, to pose as the missing girl. At first the masquerade is successful: Mrs. Parke is happy and Peggy falls in love with George Landis. Soon, however, Louise returns unharmed, and Peggy slips away quietly. George finds Peggy working in the department store owned by his father and proposes. On their honeymoon cruise, the couple is surprised to encounter two more newly married couples: Stephen has married Louise; and Mrs. Parke has become Mrs. Dr. Granville.
- Rod La Roque is a subway ticket taker who believes beautiful Jeanette Loff is involved in a robbery but he still falls in love with her and tries to stop her wedding.
- Pigeon Deering, a girl of the tenements, while watching a society ball through a window, witnesses a murder and is arrested. Because she craves notoriety, Pigeon confesses to the crime. During her trial, attorney Arthur Beal exposes the murderer and urges her not to accept any offer from theatrical producers hoping to cash in on her "fame." When Pigeon rejects his advice, Arthur fakes an offer, which she accepts, and has her brought to his country farm for "rehearsals." An attack by a hired man, who assumes from her publicity that she is susceptible, finally convinces Pigeon of her mistake, and she accepts Arthur's proposal of marriage.
- Prima donna Rita Coventry charms Richard Parrish from his fiancée, Alice Meldrum. Tiring of Parrish, Miss Coventry casts him aside and begins a flirtation with Patrick Delaney, a piano tuner of some musical talent. Parrish attempts to return to Alice, who, on the advice of a girl friend, rebuffs him; later she agrees to become his wife.
- Once there was a heavy draft employee named Joe, who lived in a cold storage dispensary called a hash house, His bread pudding was dropped in front of him by the landlady's daughter, Effie. Joe's fellow-toilers regarded him as a mush-head because he stuck around over time. Joe got his promotion just when the wise Jimmies got the sidewalk. Effie looked to Joe like a million dollars' worth of woman. Joe looked to her like a bushel of oats, until he began to pull down at the works, then she and her maw suddenly fell to that fact that they were harboring a live one. Joe and Effie were married. Then one day the boss got the pip and Joe took the reins. Effie, now in for highbrow stuff, regarded Joe as a handicap to her career. She could not help compare him with a literary gink she worshiped, who advised her to unhitch from Joe and marry him. While such a sympathy party was being staged one night Joe trotted in on them. Effie erupted all. Joe told the literary guy to stop trembling and there would be no scandal. He induced him to get his locks shorn next day, then took him before Effie. She took one look at her hero minus his Sampsons, then snuggled up to Joe. Moral: Many an aviator would look foolish sawing wood.
- In trying to conceal evidence of her father's forgery, society girl Naomi Warren agrees to marry wealthy promoter Edward Langden, who holds the damning notes; but he dies on the eve of the wedding, and his estate falls to his nephew, Richard. Naomi next makes the acquaintance of a crook who is attempting to steal her jewels, and she persuades him to help her rob Richard's safe. Richard catches Naomi red-handed, but--rather than turn her in--he decides to reform her. Instead, they fall in love, Richard learns Naomi's true purpose in her attempted robbery, and Mr. Warren's forgery is forever secreted with the marriage of Naomi and Richard.
- A schoolteacher in the Yukon promises to marry a rich prospector, but instead she marries his no-good brother. After her husband disappears and is reported dead, she marries a rich New York stockbroker but doesn't tell him about her first marriage. Soon she is contacted by someone who threatens to tell her new husband all about her past if she doesn't pay up.
- Aware that his sons, Joseph and Dickie, possess no business sense, Henry Hyman, on his deathbed, tells his economy-minded private secretary, Nora Blake, to take charge of his jewelry store. After the old man dies, however, his manager, Travers, insists that he has been made the boss. He then uses the status that goes with the position, as well as a necklace that he has stolen from the store, to woo Lucile Hudson away from her fiance Dickie. While Dickie then becomes engaged to Edna, Nora's best friend, Nora begins a romance with Joseph, who knows just enough about assets and deficits to complain that Travers is bankrupting the store. Nora then learns that Travers stole the necklace and has the police arrest him, after which she assumes control of the business and marries Joseph.
- The exploits of Brigadier Gerard who helps expose Foreign Minister Talleyrand as a traitor to Napoleon.
- Miss Cornelia Alster, a wealthy spinster, secretly makes George Swan, a poor lawyer's clerk, executor of her estate. That night, she goes to a theatre and returns home unexpectedly, discovers her two wards, Beatrice and Linda, in what she thinks is an affair with two men. As a matter of fact, Linda is fighting Keith, the butler, who is using some knowledge of her to force her to give him money. Beatrice is entertaining her sweetheart, Allen Longstreet, a young inventor. Miss Alster waits in her room, determined to see who the men are. The next day she is found murdered. Trask, a noted detective, is put on the trail. He runs down five clues, the last leading to the criminal. It is a baffling story and an unexpected denouement. The criminal is in the cast. Which one do you think committed the crime?
- A runaway schoolgirl is taken in by a wealthy woman who instructs her how to attract men.
- The will states that the tin factory goes to his wastrel son King if he'll settle down, or else to his son by another marriage, factory manager William. Both sons want factory forewoman Ann.
- Wealthy New York girl, Susan Van Dusen, in search of thrills and laughter, leaves home and finds work with a private detective agency. She meets Tod Waterbury, who, under another name, is working as a cab driver (in search of story material for a novel), and the two fall in love. Tod offers the detective agency a reward to find himself and arranges for Susan to be assigned to the case; since they are constantly together, Susan hasn't a chance in the world of finding him. Susan is assigned to another case and follows a gang of crooks to a dark and deserted house. After a series of harrowing adventures in the house, she comes to realize that the whole affair has been fabricated by Tod and her family to cure her of her lust for adventure. Susan marries Tod, greatly to her own and her father's delight.
- Mabel waits on the residents of a local boardinghouse, but her fondness for pranks finally leads to her dismissal. By a strange turn of fortune, Mabel finds herself in the possession of a traveling corset saleswoman's suitcase, whereupon she adopts the profession herself. While passing through a small town, Mabel decides to take a swim in the ocean, but as she frolics, her suitcase, which contains all of her clothing, is stolen. Forced to wear only her bathing suit, Mabel sets off in search of her clothing and learns that the police, having identified the suitcase as belonging to a jewel thief, are in search of her. Following several adventures, she discovers that the jewel robbery, which involved her friend Lena, was only a publicity stunt.
- Hugh Drummond goes broke living too high and turns to crime in order to pay his bills.
- Men try to understand the women in their lives.
- A burlesque dancer overcomes the puritanism of a repressed small town.
- Harry Leon Wilson has written nothing more diverting than this story of the irreproachable English valet who is lost in a poker game to a rough-and-ready westerner and taken to Red Gap ultimately to become its social mentor and chief caterer, and there is sheer delight in the story of how the Earl, brought over to save his younger brother from the vampirish clutches of Klondike Kate, makes the lady his Countess and once more stands Red Gap upon its somewhat dizzy head.
- After 20 years of married life, Densie Plummer feels unappreciated by her family and decides to open her own business. Her newfound independence causes strife with her husband and children.
- While traveling on her honeymoon, newlywed Milly Morehouse overhears her husband Bob boast to his friend Dick Elliot that she was "easy to get," so Milly decides to get even. Slipping off the train, she wends her way to their nuptial country hotel and registers under a false name. There she meets Dick, who is wooing the indifferent Pauline Reid, and enlists him and a gang of ruffians in a kidnap scheme. Milly sends word to Bob through Dick that she has been kidnapped and is being held for a $5,000 ransom. When Dick returns with the news, Pauline idolizes him as a hero, and Bob raises the money to pay the ransom. The kidnappers turn out to be deadly serious and keep the money, but the lesson that Bob and Milly learned was worth the price.
- Kerry falls in love with Amy and saves her life in a surfboard race though his foot is bitten by a shark. Dr. Lansell tells him to keep off his foot for a year. He weds Amy, but Dr. Lansell's wife Bertha wants him too.
- Georgine Mazulier, the daughter of a French furniture dealer, is exploited by her father and Snyder, an American hustler, to sell fake antiques to millionaires. Concerned by Georgine's fascination with Pedro Carrova, a gigolo, the Mazuliers take Georgine to the U.S., where they target "Kippered Kod" tycoon Wellington Wick as her prospective husband. Wellington falls in love with Georgine, but she remains loyal to Pedro. While visiting Palm Beach, Florida, she is outraged at the sight of Pedro with his lover, the wife of an elderly millionaire. The millionaire is equally outraged and attempts to shoot his faithless wife, but accidentally wounds Georgine. She then realizes that Wellington is a worthy suitor and consents to marry him.
- Vaudeville dancer Rosalie Ray, disgusted by the advances of her admirers, quits the stage and retires to the anonymity of a small town. At her rooming house she meets young minister Arthur Lyle who proposes to her. Soon after, Rosalie learns of a mysterious woman in Lyle's past and decides to investigate. Learning that Lyle keeps a cherished memento of this femme fatale in his room, Rosalie determines to unearth it. Locating the box, she opens it, only to discover her own garter inside. Rosalie is so repulsed at the revelation that when her former manager, Brad Mortimer, appears to offer her his hand in marriage and a professional engagement, she accepts both and returns to the stage.
- An Australian sheep rancher fulfills his promise to his dying mother by visiting his uncle on the French Riviera. He meets and falls in love with a Russian princess who was forced into a bad marriage to save her family from the Communists.
- Hounded by a passel of bounty hunters, smooth-talking bandit Montero and his deaf-mute sidekick Colosso, arrive in town intent on robbing a bank belonging to the smarmy Lucius Perkins. Montero becomes distracted, however, with the plight of lovely music teacher Helen Wardell, who is pining away for the poor, but handsome, dirt-farmer Bill Howard. Things heat up when Perkins, himself enamored of Helen, offers Montero $1250 to kill Howard.
- As California gubernatorial candidate Burton is about to cast his vote a truck crashes into the polling booth, critically injuring him and his opponent. A flashback traces his career from unemployed veteran to dockworker to lawyer. A side thread traces his tortured relationship with his wife
- Lastro (Rod La Rocque), a rogue pirate sails to Tapit where he encounters Nydra (Rita La Roy), an Americana singer in a waterfront dive, who is the object of of the jealous affections on Harry Beall (Charles Byer). The latter soon finds himself in the clutches of Lastro and, in order to win his release, she must spend the night in oily Lastr's cabin. Nothing occurs but conversation but Beall has a green-eyed frenzy hissy-fit, and the disgusted Nydra sets sail with Lastra.
- A great compilation of the greatest chase/stunt/falls and dangerous sequences from the early years of cinema, long before stuntman become a real profession with more and more thrilling feats to be conquered. The documentary includes amazing stunts by the likes of Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, Lillian Gish and many others.
- Jerry Cleggett, the descendant of a seafaring buccaneer, is seeking a wife he must marry before noon on his 21st birthday or lose his inheritance.
- A young man from Argentina goes to Yale where he plays football and falls in love with a professor's beautiful daughter.
- Queen Ninon of the Balkan country Jazzmania refuses to marry Prince Otto, who starts a revolution in retaliation. Persuaded by American newspaperman Sonny Daimler to abdicate and leave the country, she flies to Monte Carlo, where she meets Jerry Langdon, and then on to the United States. Ninon's love for jazz occupies her for a time, but she returns to her troubled country, quiets the revolution, establishes a republic, and marries Jerry Langdon.
- The heir to a family business travels to Paris to try to stop his youth-obsessed mother from squandering the family fortune with her new husband, who married her for her money. After he returns from service in World War I, he finds his mother broke and abandoned by her gigolo husband. In an ironic turn of events, he winds up squiring rich old women around Paris' nightlife, becoming the kind of gigolo from which he tried to save his mother. Things take a turn for the worse when some family friends from back home turn up in Paris and see what has become of him.
- Graustark needs thirty million dollars to satisfy a Russian loan. The Prince of Dawsbergen, ruler of the adjoining principality, will advance the money if the young Prince of Graustark marries his daughter. Prince Robin, however, inherits an independent spirit, his father having been an American. He refuses absolutely to marry a Princess whom he has never seen. His councilors plead in vain. With the ruin of his country imminent, the boy ruler hastily sails for America to negotiate the loan, hoping at the same time to meet the girl of his dreams. The money is readily advanced by William W. Blithers, a self-made millionaire anxious to have his daughter marry into royalty. The daughter, however, avoids the Prince and he does not see her. He rescues a girl from drowning and falls in love with her. He believes her to be Blithers' daughter, but she does not reveal her identity. Simultaneous with the Prince's departure for home comes a note to Blithers from his daughter that she has sailed for Europe to escape the Prince. Blithers is elated. He is certain they will meet on shipboard. The Prince does meet the girl he loves. In Paris he makes a tryst with her and they are arrested for speeding. Before any sentence can be passed upon her, however, a diplomatic document reaches the court and they are freed. The Prince believes the power of Blithers to be world-wide. The night of his return to Graustark with the welcome news of the loan, the Prince of Dawsbergen is a guest at the palace. A mysterious note calls the younger man to the terrace. There he meets the girl. He tells her that even though she is Blithers' daughter, he wants to marry her. Taking her into the palace he announces her to the councilors as his future bride. He cannot account for their approving smile. "There is your father," he tells the girl as Blithers, who followed them across the ocean, enters the room. She laughs. "No, my father is over there," she exclaims, pointing to the Prince of Dawsbergen. The energetic Blithers explodes when he learns the news. He recovers himself, however, and says: "Congratulations. Prince. I can be a good loser."
- Jewel smugglers in Cairo try to pin their crimes on a kidnapped baron.
- A "professor" hits Dr. Christian's town, promising the local women dramatic weight loss in a very short time if they follow his regimen of strict diet and a particular type of diet pill.
- Bruce McDow, son of a skipper, believes he has inherited the cowardice of his father and loses the respect of his associates. Jenny, who loves and believes in him, gets him a job as mate of the lightship, and during an ensuing storm he proves his courage by saving her life and averting disaster to an endangered ship.
- The setting is Argentina. When an outlaw band holds up a stage, their leader finds an old man from Spain who has just arrived to marry into a very rich family. So he assumes his identity while his men detain the old man. Although the prospective bride loves another man, her mother insists that she marry the supposed Spaniard.
- Host Gene Kelly takes a nostalgic look at silent films from their earliest beginnings to the introduction of sound with "The Jazz Singer."
- Larry and Barbara, both the products of rich but broken homes, plan a marriage of convenience. He really loves Marcia, a dancer, and Barbara vamps Keith, an architect. Keith's good sense prevails, and he marries Marcia and helps Larry make a man of himself. Barbara, after an unsuccessful attempt at an acting career, returns and asks forgiveness.
- In August 1914 London, Austrian star Elsa Duranyi (Gertrude Michael) and English matinee idol Alan Barclay (Herbert Marshall) are in love and plan to marry immediately. But the War comes and Elsa mysteriously disappears. Alan's ease in speaking German results in his appointment to the British Intelligence and, to aid his use as a spy, they announce he was killed in action. He takes the name and personality of "shell-shocked" German prisoner Hans Teller and is sent into Germany on an exchange of prisoners. Elsa, now a spy in the service of the Fatherland, is in Monte Carlo, where Allied officers on leave can be tempted into revealing war secrets. In Germany, Alan, posing as Teller, is listed as unfit for service, contacts Carl Schrottle (Rod LaRocque), another British agent. They are to locate the German "Big Bertha," the long-range gun bombarding Paris. They are successful and the gun is destroyed. Elsa is recalled and given the assignment of locating the British spy organization and its members. Through her surveillance of Carl, she meets Hans Teller and recognizes him as Alan, but doesn't let on. Alone, she agrees to flee to Holland with him but her superior officer, Ludwig (Lionel Atwill), is not fooled and is in pursuit.
- Bored with peacetime lack of action, a Great War veteran dashes off to the Greek army to hunt down a marauding bandit. His hatred for women is tested by a saucy young lady he rescues there.
- Femme fatale Flora marries a titled European to save the family plantation. Her husband and a rival fall to their deaths in a glacier. Next Flora weds her sister Margaret's love Admah and bleeds him dry. While he's in prison she goes back to the decaying plantation to die.
- A playboy takes a job as an assistant district attorney, finds himself up against a tough crime boss and his gang.
- Relentlessly pursued by gold digger Viola Hatfield (Gwen Lee), millionaire Michel Towne (Rod La Rocque) decides to put her off through a marriage of convenience. Based on a story by Elinor Glyn.
- June Bolton (Maxine Doyle) is strong-willed, beautiful, reckless girl,blessed with money and a fond mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Bolton (Zella Russell), who knows not the first principle of maternal rule. Emerging from a reckless, on her part, automobile wreck and escaping the police, she is sought by police detectives as she escapes to Los Angeles. Her mother, a passenger aboard the incoming steamship Melolo, learns of June's latest escapade by cable and she wires the family legal adviser, Dick Clayton (Rod LaRocque), to find June and guard her until she arrives home. Clayon catches up with June in a downtown hotel but, already, Jimmy Taylor, a tabloid newspaper reporter, has also located her and headline again threaten the family name. In front of the hotel, June escapes Clayton by jumping into a limousine and rides away with Bret Graham, a charming but vicious racketeer. Clayton follows her to Graham's notorious inn, the Red Mill, where June has instantly acquired the friendship of Hazel White (Barbara Pepper), a dancer. Clayton arrives and he and Graham have a fistfight and,in the confusion, June and Hazel are arrested. Steve McDonald, a Graham henchman, who is in love with Hazel, bails both girls out of jail. The enraged Graham orders Steve to "take Clayton for a one-way ride" but allows Clayton to escape. This enrages Graham to the point that he murders Steve. June now finds herself caught in the midst of Los Angeles crime but more than ever determined to have her fill of adventure. She bitterly resents Clayton's attempts to get her out of the wild-side life, slaps him and dismisses him as her attorney. The resigned and hopeless Clayton does so. Riding with Graham and Hazel, June is a witness as Graham's gangster enemy, Red Hogan (Vincent Dennis) fires a hail of lead into the car, striking the racketeer down, Graham recuperates at a hospital and Junes finds her name in the news again. Hogan determines to silence June and goes to her hotel room. Clayton breaks in as Hogan is overpowering June with brutal strength. Clayton put the gangster down as the police arrive, June laughs. "The man doesn't live who can tame me," she taunts Clayton. Clayton seizes her and takes a hair brush from the dressing table. He then delivers a a sound spanking to June and it has a sobering effect. June calls him back as he is leaving and hands him the spanking brush. "Perhaps,"she tells him, "you'll need it again."
- Hector Colbert sues his wife Marjorie for a divorce after Peters, an admirer of Marjorie, deliberately compromises her. Colbert's lawyer, Daniel Farr, believing that Marjorie's behavior was wrong, gets the divorce, but he ruins the reputation of a fun-loving woman who was simply bored with her husband. Later, she and Farr meet; she plots a revenge against the lawyer but confesses her fabrication when she realizes that she loves him.
- In a departure from the trademark Alpine settings of Arnold Fanck's Bergfilme ("Mountain Films"), S.O.S. ICEBERG (S.O.S. EISBERG) takes place off the coast of Greenland, where an explorer, Karl Lorenz (Gustav Diessl), is stranded on a steadily-eroding iceberg. A rescue crew, led by the heroic Johannes Krafft (Sepp Rist), reaches Prof. Lorenz, but also becomes stranded, as does Mrs. Lorenz (Leni Riefenstahl), who crashes her plane while trying to land in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Surrounded by polar bears on their shrinking iceberg, the explorer and his would-be rescuers battle the elements, and each other, while waiting for a miracle.
- A French military officer is convicted of treason and sent to Devil's Island. His wife takes it upon herself to obtain the stolen document and prove his innocence.
- Paramount Pictures marked its 20th year in the business with this feature presentation of film clips, profiles of its then-current stars, and coming attractions.
- Efficiency wins success in business; why not in love? Edgar Bumpus, a rising young man, applies this reasoning to his courtship of Mary Pierce. He first eliminates Wimple, his closest competitor, who plays a guitar, by learning to play a saxophone, which makes louder noise, and by sending Mary flowers and candy each time Wimple calls on her. The plan works O.K., until the saxophone disturbs Mr. Pierce's slumbers. He and Edgar clash and the latter is forbidden to visit Mary any more. Edgar employs a clipping bureau to send news items to Mr. Pierce which tells of the troubles young girls get into when their fathers refuse to let them have beaux. One eloped with a milkman; another disappeared. This has no effect upon Mr. Pierce, however, except to make him hate Edgar more. However, the youth's persistence finally wins Mary's love. Then Edgar plays his trump card. He gets Mary to sign a legal agreement to forfeit $10,000 to him, unless she marries him. The two then confront Mr. Pierce with this document. Rather than lose the money, he consents to lose his daughter, the only stipulation being that Edgar will throw away his saxophone. Thus efficiency triumphs.
- Chief Standing Rock's tribe has a treaty protecting their fishing grounds, but a canning corporation is violating the treaty through intimidation and force. The tribe is divided as to how to handle the threat. Standing Rock's son, Braveheart, is sent to college to study law so that he can protect their rights, but others in the tribe, led by the hot-tempered Ki-Yote, want to provoke a more violent confrontation.
- Lamont Cranston assumes his secret identity as "The Shadow", to break up an attempted robbery at an attorney's office. When the police search the scene, Cranston must assume the identity of the attorney.
- Lamont Cranston (Rod La Rocque), amateur criminologist and detective, with a daily radio program, sponsored by the Daily Classic newspaper, has developed a friendly feud that sometimes passes the friendly stage with Police Commissioner Weston (Thomas E. Jackson). He complains to his managing editor, Edward Heath (Oscar O'Shea), over the problems that have developed in his department since Phoebe Lane (Astrid Allwyn) has been hired as his assistant. He is advised to forget it since she is the publisher's niece. During his broadcast about Honest John (William Pawley), a famous safe cracker who has served his time, Phoebe gives him a note that the Metropolitan Theatre is to be robbed at eight o'clock and she is so insistent that he adds it as his closing note. Off the air, he learns she got the information from a man she met in a café who had an honest face. Cranston goes to the theatre where Weston and his men have gathered and, of course, nothing happens but, across town, a safe is blown at the home of international banker Gerald Morton (John St. Polis) and the banker is killed. Cranston arrives there ahead of the police and discovers enough evidence to show him that it wasn't just a simple robbery with the banker accidentally killed. The irate Weston has him jailed as a material witness, but Phoebe comes through with a habeas corpus in time for him to make his broadcast. Honest John crashes into the studio with a gun and demands that Cranston exonerates him over the air from the police suspicion that he committed the robbery. Weston rushes to the studio but Honest John has escaped. Cranston takes Phoebe on a tour of night clubs hoping she will spot the man who gave her the robbery message. She does and Cranston poses as a new arrival from Europe and learns that the man is Flotow (Wilhelm von Brincken) and his companion is Starkov (Tenen Holtz'). They make a date for lunch the next day. While they are waiting for him to join them for lunch, Cranston breaks into Flathow's apartment where he meets Phoebe who also has had the same idea. A phone call is answered and Morton's butler says there is a meeting at the Morton home that afternoon.
- A flapper charms a diplomat to procure her fiancé a career opportunity, while the fiancé starts a relationship with her best friend.
- Prince Dimitri comes from St. Petersburg to spend the summer in a rural district and falls in love with Katusha, an orphaned peasant girl who works for his relatives. Later, en route to the Turkish-Russian front, Dimitri's regiment bivouacs near the village, and Katusha secretly yields to his passion. Her condition soon arouses the suspicions of her aunt, and she is sent from the home in disgrace. Bereft by the death of her infant, Katusha is eventually reduced to surviving as a prostitute, and finds herself imprisoned on a charge of poisoning and robbing a merchant. Dimitri, summoned to the jury at her trial, feels his responsibility and agrees to marry her. Although innocent of the crime, Katusha is banished to Siberia. Their old love is rekindled, but she refuses to become his wife and bears her exile alone.