Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's...
Stella Maris is a beautiful, crippled girl, who is cared for by a rich family. They shield her from the harsh realities of the world, so that she has no idea of the cruel things that some people do. Unity Blake is a poor orphan all too familiar with the harsh realities of the real world. These two...
Gwynplaine, son of Lord Clancharlie, has a permanent smile carved on his face by the King, in revenge for Gwynplaine's father's treachery. Gwynplaine is adopted by a travelling showman and becomes a popular idol. He falls in love with the blind Dea. The king dies, and his evil jester tries to...
Speedy loses his job as a soda jerk, then spends the day with his girl at Coney Island. He then becomes a cab driver and delivers Babe Ruth to Yankee Stadium, where he stays to see the game. When the railroad tries to run the last horse-drawn trolley (operated by his girl's grandfather) out of...
Thwarted by his despotic uncle from continuing his love affair, a young man's thoughts turn dark as he dwells on ways to deal with his uncle. Becoming convinced that murder is merely a natural part of life, he kills his uncle and hides the body. However, the man's conscience awakens; paranoia sets...
John Howard Payne leaves home and begins a career in the theater. Despite encouragement from his mother and his sweetheart, Payne begins to lead a life of dissolute habits, and this soon leads to ruin and misery. In deep despair, he thinks of better days, and writes a song that later provides...
Lloyd's look at married life and the issues of the in-law. Adventures include a ride on a crowded trolley with a live turkey; A wild spin in a new auto with the in-laws in tow. Finally, a sequence in which Hubby accidentally chloroforms his mother-in-law and becomes convinced that he's killed her!
A group of youngsters grow up and love in a peaceful French village. But war intrudes and peace is shattered. The German army invades and occupies village, bringing both destruction and torture. The young people of the village resist, some successfully, others tragically, until French troops retake...
When Prince Danilo falls in love with American dancer Sally O'Hara, his uncle, King Nikita I of Monteblanco, forbids him to marry her because Sally is a commoner. Thinking she has been jilted by her prince, Sally marries wealthy Baron Sadoja. When the elderly man dies suddenly, Sally must be wooed...
Behind in the mortgage on Sunnybrook Farm and barely managing to feed seven hungry mouths, mother sends young Rebecca off to Riverboro to be raised by her wealthy Aunt Miranda. The little girl is treated like a prisoner by her strict Aunt, yet she gamely does her best to get an education. When...
A parody of D. W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation", "I Am Not a Racist" rearranges the scenes of the classic movie and recreates its dialogues to criticize the racism in it and also in the world today. Freemenville is a little city somewhere in the USA. A city ashamed because of its past of...
Young Nellie Jarvis, daughter of a wandering couple, witnesses the murder of a woman by a man and his wife. Years later, "Little Miss Yes'm", as Nellie is known, returns to the area as an orphan. Locals Mr. and Mrs. Hilton, though poverty stricken, take her into their family. Fully integrated with...
Mamie, an orphan girl who was abused in the orphanage, is taken in by Mrs. Caldwell, a kindly woman with a young son named Alexander. Mamie hits it off with the lad, and nicknames him "Zander". When Mrs. Caldwell dies, the authorities decree that the boy must be placed in the same orphanage where...
Sunbeam's father is sent to prison, and on his release promises to remain honest. He secures a job as a night watchman, but his prison record being discovered, he is fired, and finds it impossible to secure work. Sunbeam gets a job in a a family as a "slavey" in order to support the father and...
Nora, the waif, is forced to attend school. She warms to her teacher for the way that he defends her against the taunts of some of the students, but when she's made to wear a dunce cap, she flees the schoolhouse in shame. Unsupervised by her alcoholic father, Nora becomes a determined truant,...
Betsy Harlow is a hard-working maid in a boarding house. Her dream. however, is to be a detective, a dream she shares with her boyfriend Oscar, a delivery boy for a local grocer. One day a mysterious character named Harry Brent takes a room at the boarding house. Harry, seeing that Betsy is falling...
This historical piece, set in the Huguenot days of France, is Norma Talmadge's 37th feature film and the longest to date at two hours. The plot involves a man forced into servitude who falls in love with the sister of his persecutor. It was Ms. Talmadge's fourth involvement with director, Frank...