In the 1860s, Mary Marlowe defies her father's wishes to marry a British lord and runs away with clerk John Carlton as he heads West to make his fortune. Mary and John endure the difficult journey and settle into a small cabin, then face the hostilities of a cattle rustling gang, as well as the...
Eddie Kehoe is a young vaudeville hoofer who thinks his inability to hit the big time is the fault of stage managers, agents, musicians...everybody but himself. Eddie likes to tell others how good he is, but seldom shows them. Kitty Mayo, an old-time burlesque queen, who is with the McNary...
Mira Sacky (Bessie Barriscale) will inherit a fortune if she is able to come up with ten thousand dollars for lawyers' fees. Since she has no money of her own, the only way she can think of raising the funds is to marry someone wealthy. When she gets the attention of Michael Ordsay (Jack Holt), she...
Bessie Barriscale and Nigel Barrie play Ellen and Gibbs Josselyn, a young married couple who have spent several years in Europe while Gibbs, an artist, developed his talent. When they return to the States, they stay with Gibbs' father (Tom Guise) and stepmother (Kathleen Kirkham). Gibbs had never...
Aurora Lane (Bessie Barriscale) lives in a small town loaded with small-minded residents. She had an illegitimate child and with the earnings from her millinery shop, she has sent him away to be educated. When Don, her son (Arnold Gregg), returns from college, he finds he has to defend his mother...
Rachael (Bessie Barriscale) marries Clarence Breckenridge (Hershel Mayall) a widower much older than herself. Although she tries to be a good wife, he ignores her for the bottle. In addition, his daughter, Billy (Ella Hall), who is not much younger than Rachael, is spoiled. When Rachael meets the...
Sisters Helen and Ruth Fiske work in a department store and live in an East Side tenement. While Ruth is satisfied with her "regular fellow," a mechanic, Helen yearns for fine clothes, wealth, and attention. Ruth marries the mechanic and they struggle for a modest existence. Helen leaves her...
Bobby Burnit, a naïve young man, inherits $300,000 from his father, a hard-working entrepreneur. Because the will specifies that the money must be invested, Agnes Elliston, Bobby's sweetheart, suggests that he take over his father's chain of stores. Soon Bobby becomes the dupe of various swindlers...
Esra Kincaid takes land by force and, having taken the Espinoza land, his sights are set on the Castro rancho. Government agent Kearney holds him off till the cavalry shows up and he can declare his love for Juanita, called “the Rose of the Rancho.”
Bessie Wheaton returns from Europe to find her nouveau riche family has adopted and magnified the worst characteristics of the upper class. Her father spends all of his time at the club, her mother cultivates snobbishness, and her sister thinks only of marrying into royalty. To shake them out of...
A poor young boy falls for a chorus girl after he finds out that she is not like the "loose women" she works with. He determines to get her to leave the immoral show-business life and marry him.
Socially prominent but penniless Stephen De Koven marries Muriel Chester, a woman whose loveliness he admires but whose money he really desires. Discovering this on her wedding night, Mrs. De Koven, because of her love for her husband and her wounded pride, elects to live her life alone, seeing her...
Countess Olga and Prince Carl, although from two European countries that have been longtime enemies, are madly in love with each other. Olga's brother, Count Michael, convinces Olga to get Carl to come to their country, planning to imprison him. His plan succeeds, but it has unintended consequences.
Gordon Kingsley lives happily with his wife Dorothy and little daughter Mary Jane. On visiting the home of San Francisco architect Frank Mason, he is shocked to discover a portrait of his own wife and daughter. Suspecting the worst of Dorothy, he hires a private detective....
Kitty Kelly (Bessie Barriscale) has just graduated from medical school and she decides to set up business in a Western mining camp. Because she is pretty, all the miners come up with various ailments just so they have a chance to spend time with her. The one that wins her heart is ranch foreman Bob...
After building a financial empire, Frederick Mallery feels chained to his wife Winnie, who stood by him during the years of poverty. As a result, he offers Warren Woods, a down-and-out former playboy, $50,000 to seduce Winnie, so that he will have an excuse for a divorce.
