Eight years before the release of Erich Von Stroheim's Greed, Frank Norris's 1899 novel McTeague was adapted to the screen by World Film. The basic story pretty much follows the book: McTeague (Holbrook Blinn) is a coarse young man who becomes a dentist, after a fashion. He is rivals for the hand of Trina Sieppe (Fania Marinoff) with his pal Marcus Schuller (Walter Green). McTeague weds her and she wins the lottery. But she refuses to let go of the money, and her miserly attitude destroys the marriage.
The famous pianist Tenorini has moved into the neighbourhood. He plays a song (a spring waltz from "Alexander's Ragtime Band") on the piano; it is such a joyful tune that everyone in the neighborhood starts to dance. When he finally stops everyone is exhausted.
The picture starts with Robert Warwick walking into the office of director Albert Capellani (the film's actual director). Capellani offers him the role of a heavy and hands him the script. The next four reels show Warwick playing a Raffles-like character, an ingenious crook who moves through society, committing robberies and even murder.
A young woman tells her parents and fiance (in flashback) about the recent sinking of the Titanic and her experiences as a passenger during the disaster. Her intended marriage now faces a new hazard because her fiance is a sailor and her parents have just been reminded of the dangers of the sea. Premiering in the United States just 29 days after the event, it is the earliest dramatization about the tragedy.
A nurse ignores her other patients in order to concentrate on her favorite one, a fascinating bachelor.
A widow threatens her rebellious daughter that she will remarry if the girl does not behave at school.
A maid loves her employer, sacrificing her own happiness in order to insure his.
A jealous mother is envious of the affection shown toward her future daughter-in-law by her husband.
A girl chooses between two boys by testing how each one would help the poor.
Aerial dancer La Syrena, whose jealous husband kills her while she performs in midair. Her daughter, Jennie Raeburn, soon orphaned, grows up unaware of her mother's occupation, but nonetheless feels the urge to dance.
Maurice is a streetwise ginger cat who comes up with a money-making scam by befriending a group of self-taught talking rats. When Maurice and the rodents meet a bookworm called Malicia, their little con soon goes down the drain.
