When Mary and Fannie Graham, daughters of a good mother but a father with criminal instincts, are left motherless, Mary flees from her unhappy surroundings while Fannie, inheriting her father's disposition, remains and is raised as a thief.
From a Montana mining camp, a young man progresses to the society heights of New York, making his mark publicly as a dancer, but secretly as a gentleman burglar.
Nancy Glenn is a pupil in Pop Hogland's school for crooks. When, attired as a boy named "Spider", Nancy fails at her lessons as a pickpocket, Pop decides to pair her with Pliny Drew, a graduate thief and swindler.
Millionaire Joshua Barker insists that his daughter, Faith, must marry Phil Langhorne, a man that neither likes, and Faith is in love with and eager to marry her childhood sweetheart, John Temple.
Thinking that he has lost both his money and his beloved Nora's in a bad investment young New Yorker Ted Ewing arranges for his own murder. Suddenly he discovers the money is safe and has in fact doubled and sets out to cancel the contract on his life. But will he be able to do so in time?
Humanitarian Roberta induces her father to hire former convict, Bill, as his gardener. When she leaves on vacation, Bill steals her jewelry and eventually sells a brooch to her boyfriend, Richard, who unknowingly gives it to her as a present.
Ranch foreman Kerry has boarded with Kitty Tynan and her mother for five years in western Canada, his past is a mystery to everyone. He is actually an English aristocrat who lost all his money gambling and left the country in search of work. Kerry and his friend Horan own an option on property which crooked lawyer Burlingame is trying to secure. Burlingame's cohort Logan murders Hogan, and is caught and arrested. In the trial, Burlingame forces Kerry to admit his past, and succeeds in preventing Kerry from receiving bank assistance. When Kerry is shot, Kitty opens a letter from Kerry's wife that he had been carrying for five years, and cables her. Kerry's wife arrives and informs him that his last bet in England had turned out to be a $20,000 winner. Kerry is able to use the money just in time to foil Burlingame and secure the property, thus winning prosperity and the affections of his wife.
A chorus girl breaks a deal with her boss by marrying the rich man she was supposed to ruin.
The saga of Alias Jimmy Valentine began with the O. Henry story "A Retrieved Reformation". This surprise-ending tale was adapted into a stage play by Paul Armstrong, which subsequently was adapted to film several times
Suspected of smuggling, Eileen Caverly boards the Connecticut Limited where she befriends Helen Raymond who is traveling with her new husband Bob Guerton. Helen confides they had recently married impulsively, the service performed by a justice of the peace. Shortly after their talk the train is wrecked, Helen is killed and Bob injured. Seizing the opportunity Eileen poses as Bob's wife to avoid capture. Bob’s mother visits him, learning that they were married by a Justice of the Peace, insists they be married by a minister. Bob becomes successful with Eileen’s support, and they have a son. All is well until Cromwel Crow, who knows of Eileen's past, is released from jail. Demanding $5000 for his silence they struggle, Bob enters and in the ensuing fight, Crow is killed. Eileen's secret dies with her adversary, freeing her to continue her life.
A man assists a woman to dispose of the body of her stepfather....
A baronet's son marries a barmaid in order to qualify under the inheritance terms of a will.
Stage comedian Patrick O'Brien is fired from his job because of his drinking celebration of his son, Jimmy, graduating from college. After the show he meets his son on a cabaret and there meets Abel Finklestein and his daughter, Miriam, and the two fathers form a business alliance, suspected of being bootlegging. They are arrested but are released after it is found they were importing molasses - but Miriam has to promise to marry Sam Berkowitz to secure the release. Jimmy and both fathers are unhappy with this turn of events. This film is lost.
A man breaks into a flat, startling the occupant. They argue about the new girlfriend of the 'burglar', who's come to get her stuff. Then a third man bursts out of the cupboard...
Skin Deep is a 1929 American talking drama film directed by Ray Enright and starring Monte Blue. It was produced and distributed by the Warner Brothers. It was also released in the U.S. in a silent version for theaters not equipped yet with sound. The film is a remake of a 1922 Associated First National silent film of the same name directed by Lambert Hillyer and starring Milton Sills. All copies of this film are now lost. However, the Vitaphone soundtrack, of music and effects, survive.
Richard Castleman, master of Winnecrest Hall in Louisiana, goes on a sea voyage recommended by his cousin and physician, Harry Chilton, who thereupon begins romancing Castleman's fiancée, Jeanne Lamont. When word arrives of Castleman's death, Chilton prepares to usurp the fortune and property of the dead man. Danny Rowland, who is found wounded by two wandering crooks, Dominie and The Squirrel, opportunely arrives at the estate seeking food and rest; and because of his resemblance to Castleman, he is welcomed as the master. Dominie is introduced as an English cleric and The Squirrel as an Italian count, while Danny falls in love with Jeanne, who believes him to be her fiancé. Chilton, however, suspects the trio and finally unmasks them. It then develops that Danny actually is Castleman, who had decided to reform the two men who befriended him and to expose the dishonesty of his cousin.
This was Theda Bara's third starring film, and the first which she carried all on her own, with no other name actors in the cast. Based on the Alexander Dumas story, The Clemenceau Case involves Iza, a vampire-wife (Bara), whose wicked ways scandalize her husband, Pierre (William E. Shay).
A disgraced former District Attorney plots his revenge on the members of a criminal gang who had him framed and sent to prison.
Slim Jim Carey, the leader of a criminal gang, is in reality a nobleman called Lord Talbois, and his daughter is the rightful heir to the family estate. When "Slim Jim"'s gang finds out about this, they conspire to cheat her out of her inheritance by passing off one of the gangster's girlfriends as the real daughter. Unbeknownst to the gang, however, their leader isn't dead and finds out what they're up to. Complications ensue.
Mary Lynde (Theda Bara) is an innocent girl who has grown up in New York's Greenwich Village. One of the artists there, Felix Benavente (Sidney Mason), uses her as model when he paints a portrait of the Madonna for a church. His friend Robert Sinclair (Hugh Thompson) corrupts Mary so that her father (Walter Law) casts her from his home. She goes to live with Sinclair in his mountain lodge, but after the birth of a child, he callously casts her aside. Subsequently, her baby dies and she sinks to the depths of despair.