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.
Amos Kerran and his wife live a traditional, old-fashioned life on a Connecticut farm, while their son and daughter, Arthur and Maybelle, are successes in New York society. The children want to invite their parents to the city at Christmastime but are ashamed of their unrefined appearance.
The Misleading Widow is a 1919 silent film comedy starring Billie Burke as Betty Taradine. It was based on the 1917 stage play Billeted by F. Tennyson Jesse and H.M. Harwood. The film was produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. It appears to be a lost film.
According to Richard Standhope's will, both his daughter Laura and her long-lost twin brother Larry must be reunited by a certain date, or the estate will revert to her avaricious guardian, Andrew Brean. Following Standhope's death, Laura and her sweetheart, Jim Watson, read in her deceased mother's diary that Andrew had broken up the Standhopes' marriage soon after the twins' birth by unjustly accusing Mrs. Standhope of infidelity. Laura was then sent to boarding school, while little Larry, placed in his father's care, was neglected and later became a thief. As Laura and Jim ponder Larry's whereabouts, the house is robbed by none other than Larry, now called "the Kid," and his cohort, "the Snail."
Roma Wycliffe, a high-spirited girl bored with the lavender-and-old-lace atmosphere of her Aunt Henrietta's estate, discovers that her grandmother was a gypsy and decides to become one herself.
Muggsy Mulane, a waif who wears boy's clothing, jumps a freight train to the country after Jimmy "the Eel," the leader of the gang of crooks with whom she works, is arrested. In the village of Cottonville, Muggsy befriends Aunt Sarah, whom she later discovers is Jimmy's mother. When Muggsy learns that the greedy Judge Cotton, who holds the mortgage on Aunt Sarah's property, is planning to foreclose, she threatens to blackmail him, and he relents.
A couple of French noblemen-types constantly argue (Sterling and Sennett). They're rivals for a lovely Mabel's attentions. While attending a picnic near the Hudson River (on a rather cold-looking day), She apparently favors Mack over Ford, so, obsessed with revenge as he usually is in Keystone comedies, he sets her little dog out on a raft and dares chicken- hearted Mack to rescue it.
Brown and Smith are friends, but their wives have never met. Brown flirts with Mrs. Smith, and in revenge, Mrs. Brown flirts with Mr. Smith. Many amusing scenes are shown, coming to a climax when both couples go to a summer garden. The two men meet and tell each other what fine girls each are out with. Finally the four are brought together and the wives soothe the angry husbands and convince them that it does not pay to flirt.
Jim Smith and Sallie Rice are very much in love with each other, but her father vehemently shows his disapproval of Jim. An elopement is planned, and at midnight Jim has the country magistrate waiting for him at the cross roads. He goes to tap on Sallie's window, but makes a mistake and awakens old man Rice, who, clad in his pajamas, pursues him with a shot-gun, and as Jim joins the magistrate, takes a pot shot at them, which finds lodgement in the judge's back. When Rice finds out what he has done, he is in fear of the law, but Jim pays the judge to settle the matter on condition that Rice gives his consent to his daughter's marriage.
Irene and Helen are worshipers at the shrine of Frangiapani, the tenor of the hour. When he sings at a concert, they meet in Irene's room, take the printed program of the concert, and one of them plays the accompaniment of the song he is actually singing. Irene sees an advertisement for a maid and waitress at Madame Frangiapani's home. The wild thought enters her brain that if she applies and gets the position, she will be nearer her adored. She puts the plan into execution, gets the position, and is waiting for the signor to appear. He does appear in a towering rage, at an adverse criticism in a paper which he is holding in his hand. His wife tries to soothe him and treats him like a little, unreasonable, bad-tempered child.
In the college play, Tom and his room-mate, "Bunch," take prominent and successful parts, Tom as the hero and "Bunch" as the heroine, in which he is an excellent female impersonator. The day after the performance, "Bunch" makes an engagement to take a real chorus girl to dinner. Unexpectedly his mother comes to college to visit him and he makes Tom take the girl.
Unattractive and poor Polly Gordon, is taken to the college dance by eligible Vincent DePuyster only as part of a fraternity initiation. Suitors flock to her, however, when she inherits half a million dollars from her aunt, but she grows cynical and dismisses them.
In this comedy-drama, May Allison plays Teddy Hayden, a very independent society miss. When her childhood sweetheart, Gerry West (Wallace MacDonald) takes her to a Greenwich Village cafe, she thinks she's found where she belongs. So she spends all her time there and gets herself in a load of trouble.
Patricia Parker, on the advice of her father, leaves her life as a chorus girl for the bucolic surroundings of Silas Wainwright, an old friend of her father's.
Teddy Harmon, a society girl preoccupied with pleasure, is persuaded by her father's serious-minded secretary that she is in love with him, but meeting his family, she becomes bored and seeks the society of Gary McVeigh, a wealthy neighbor. At a gambling house, she finds her father with a dashing young widow, and later, the proprietor, though ostensibly a friend, tries to force his attentions on her and she is taken to jail in a raid. She is rescued by Gary, and the secretary, learning of her father's financial difficulties, breaks the engagement.
Molly, a glamorous clothing model in New York, though yearning for a life of luxury, spurns the advances of her boss's son in favor of a shipping clerk, late of the backwoods.
Working as a wardrobe girl in a cheap traveling stock company, Mamie Judd secretly loves Jenks, the leading man, who scarcely notices the young girl. She saves Neal Selden, son of a small-town banker, from being accused of robbery and murder, acts committed by the company's manager and leading lady.
Stranded in the small town of Buckeye Junction young actress Madge Joy crawls upon a load of hay and falls asleep. Knocked unconscious when young farmer Robert Deep hitches up the wagon not realizing she’s inside she awakes in the Deep living room. "Ma" Deep takes to her at once, but old “Pa” Deep looks at her sternly. Claiming to be a runaway orphan rather than an actress she becomes a member of the family. Falling for Madge Robert confesses he dreams of being a playwright, that night his sister Susan, who has run away to be an actress, reappears. Pa Deep is furious when he finds out his daughter has been on the stage, but Madge reveals that she is herself an actress threatening to go away with Robert unless he makes up with his daughter. Eventually Madge finds fame in New York with Robert following with a play he knows is right.
Two young men are aspirants for the hand of Mabel, Henry and Ned, Ned, walking through the park, accidentally bumps into a gouty old gentleman who furiously resents the shock, and Ned amuses himself by tapping the gouty foot with his cane and keeping out of reach of the lunges of the old man. When he calls at Mabel's home he finds to his consternation that the old gentleman is Mabel's father.
An Italian makes love to a girl and is repulsed. She favors another man, and the Italian uses drastic measures to rid himself of his rival. He finally becomes angered at the girl and kidnaps her. He ties her to a post and arranges an infernal machine, attached to a clock, which will shoot off a revolver at 12 o'clock. The weapon is pointed at the girl, who makes frantic efforts to escape as the hands creep toward the fatal hour.