Ottilie Van Zandt is forced to wed her cousin, despite her love for Richard Wayne, the gardener's son. Richard leaves, vowing to return a wealthy man and eligible suitor for her. He returns to find she has already married and, in turn, marries another girl on impulse. Two generations later, the...
A "scientific detective" story about the attempted murder of a wealthy New Yorker in his mountain lodge is framed with a satire of Hollywood as the writer of the story comically tries to get the script read and accepted by a studio.
Andy Fletcher is a blacksmith in a country village, but he dreams of racing automobiles. He gets his chance to enter a big race, but winning is complicated by a band of bank robbers.
Renée (Mae Murray) is the heiress of a Mexican ranch, granddaughter of a woman known for her recklessness and frivolity at night. This first "Mademoiselle Midnight" is banished in the opening scene by Napoleon III at Empress Eugenie's insistence to Mexico. Renee is kept locked at the hacienda at...
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.
Agnes Cuyler, a cabaret singer in New York who loathes her work, is fired for slapping Grant Haywood, a customer from the West who tries to kiss her. Haywood begs forgiveness and after glorifying the clean Western life, proposes. To escape her circumstances, Agnes accepts, but soon learns that...
Small town politician and banker Brent Warren is responsible for a murder, but only George Roan is sent to the gallows for it. Roan, however, is resuscitated after he is hung and proceeds to secretly haunt Warren's life. District attorney Cullen Grant is sure that Warren was behind the killing and...
Jules Ingram ( William Desmond ), the sole survivor of an old Puritan family, seeks solace and forgetfulness in drink. Unable to pay his debts, Jules is driven from his house when banker Rufus Moore ( Robert McKim ) forecloses on the mortgage. Offered shelter by Mercy Reed ( Margery Wilson ), a...
"Bowie" Blake is a gambler in a mining camp. One day, an artist, Van Dyke Tarleton comes to town with his wife, Naomi. He sees Bowie and decides he is perfect as a model for Lucifer in his latest painting. At first he refuses to pose, but Naomi talks him into it. Tarleton sees that Bowie is...
A young man with little ambition is given an opportunity to set himself up in business by means of financial support from his father. But the young man becomes involved in a shady railroad deal which threatens to destroy his own father.
Jim Morrison is an English army officer who comes from a very old and prominent family. He marries the ravishingly beautiful but unscrupulous Cleo, who has no qualms about using her sexual allure to get the luxuries her husband can't provide. When Jim is sent off to war, Cleo embarks on a series of...
Jack Harding, a wealthy ne'er-do-well, becomes involved with a Broadway vamp. When she is murdered, Jack is falsely accused of the crime and must turn for help to his lawyer--his wife.
Unhappy with her daughter's choice to marry a miner instead of her choice, a man of wealth, a mother tries to convince her daughter to get an abortion.
Buckskin Hamilton guides a wagon train across the wasteland, caring well for the pioneers he escorts, but hoping to solve the murder of his brother by one of the travellers.