James Gordon, Sr., owner of the Gordon syndicate, dispatches his roughneck son Jimmy to investigate why production has fallen off in his opal mine on an island off the coast of lower California. After an argument with his fiancée, socialite Lucy Andrews, Jimmy leaves for the island where he is met...
Penniless aristocrat Yvonne Dupré ekes out a living selling her paintings to a crooked dealer, Leon Naisson, who passes them off as other more famous artists. Leon confides to his unscrupulous model Romildo, that he is attracted to Yvonne. Romildo drugs his lover, fiery Apache dancer Juliette who...
At the death of Count de Beaulieu, his daughter Jeanne learns that her father had been the arch-criminal known as The Phantom. The only other person who knew her father's identity was his lieutenant, Franz Leroux, who now demands that Jeanne marry him in return for his silence.
Billy Porter sells his ranch and travels to San Francisco to try his hand in the business world. But he's barely off the ferryboat before he gets waylaid by a little newsboy and the boy's pugilist father, "Knockout" McClusky.
Kenneth Reynolds tells Nelly’s daughter the story of his love for Nelly. Kenneth was in love with Nelly, but the arrival of a stranger drove Nelly and Kenneth apart. Nelly and her lover absconded, and Nelly's father then died of grief. After some time, Nelly returned with a child, and took her...
Gerry Sands dreams of being an editor but is forced by his employer, locksmith Nick Barket, to crack safes. During a robbery he experiences an epiphany and stops. His sweetheart Polly Ann Kerry is thrilled and gets him work at the hotel where she works, but Red Devlin, the brains behind the...
Retired gem merchant Peter J. Martin hires detective Dan McRae to guard a large diamond which he plans to present to his daughter Ruth on her twenty-first birthday. Notorious jewel thief Gentleman Joe overpowers McRae, however, and takes his place at Ruth's party.
In order to be admitted to his school fraternity, David Bruce is told to impersonate a Balkan prince. In that guise, Bruce leaves for the prince's tiny municipality. En route, he becomes involved with a gang of anarchists who order him to kill the prince he is supposed to be impersonating.
Falsely accused of the theft of a million dollars in securities from the safe of his wealthy employer, an honest young private secretary finds himself powerless to prove his innocence because of the perjury of an unprincipled butler who has been bribed to testify against him. For 23...
In pre-Civil War days, a woman dies in childbirth. Her sister, believing the child to be illegitimate, leaves the baby in the care of one of her sister's slaves.
William Newman, a notorious shyster lawyer, in return for a cut of the jewels, agrees to take the case of Morris, a man convicted of stealing diamonds. After gaining possession of the gems, Newman appropriates all of them and then refuses to carry out his share of the deal. Subsequently, Newman,...
Living up to a reputation for disregarding rules, author Sebastian Maure, having fallen in love with Ghirlaine Bellamy, kidnaps her to get her away from her fiancé, Vincent Pamfort. Sebastian takes Ghirlaine to a small island where, because of the force of his personality, he is treated almost as...
An actor in action that is not all acting is rather a remarkable sight, and when he loves both on the stage and off simultaneously, and when he is observed making love to the make-believe sweetheart on the stage, by the real, sure enough sweetheart who does not understand that love making in a play...
