Vesta Wheatley is the daughter of a Virginia physician; John Randolph is a New Yorker who buys a tract of land from her father. Vesta and John fall in love, get married, and move to New York. They are followed, however, by a persistent old flame of Vesta's, Dick Mortimer. He tracks her down to a mountain cabin, where she is alone. A burglar breaks in on the two, and Dick is killed trying to protect Vesta. The burglar blackmails Vesta until she finally becomes desperate and shoots him in her own home.
Pretty Patience Thompson, a "girl with a singing soul," lives with her cold-hearted and avaricious father, Jeff Thompson, on their Indiana farm. Her life of drudgery is brightened by John, the hired hand, but when he asks for her hand in marriage, the old man flies into a rage and discharges him. Soon an aged but wealthy widower courts Patience, and although she still loves John, "Old Jeff" orders her to marry the widower, claiming that a father's will is the law.
Infamous Singapore smuggler Bully Brand possess a beautiful pearl necklace that is desired by Chinese merchant Chan Chang for his daughter Pain, a young white girl he had adopted. Warren Bradford, Brand's ward, returns from college and falls in love with Chang's daughter.
Author David Marshall is sandbagged by holdup men and loses his memory. He finds his way to a bookshop run by his friend Ladd, who takes him in with the hope of helping him to regain his memory. David there meets Hope Masterson and falls in love with her. Bill Dorgan, a gangster in love with Hope, kidnaps her, and David comes to her rescue. David is hit again on the head, and this time he regains his memory. He still recognizes Hope, however, and they look forward to a long and happy life together.
Margaret has given up her stage career to marry inventor Jerry Benson. Jerry fails to impress oil executive William Graves with his idea, but Margaret has better luck when she catches Graves' attention and she both makes the sale and becomes the object of Graves' obsession. Profits from the invention make the Bensons wealthy; however Graves schemes to steal Margaret from Jerry by swindling them out of their money and getting Broadway floozy Gloria to break up their marriage.
The Unwritten Law is a 1916 drama
Alan Trent (Ronald Colman), his cousin Gerald Shannon (Wyndham Standing) and neighbor Kitty Vane (Vilma Bánky) have grown up together, as close playmates When World War I starts, both Alan and Gerald enlist in the British Army as officiers, and Kitty sees them off to war. Many months later, Alan and Gerald come back to Kitty, on a short furlow. Alan and Kitty reveal their love for each other. Gerald (who's in love with Kitty, too) congratulates his friends. But before Kitty and Alan can arrange to be married the next day, the furlow is cut short and both men head back to the front lines. Weeks later, Gerald will not give Alan leave to marry Kitty. Still arguing, both men volunteer for a reconiscience raid into enemy lines, where a grenade goes off near Alan and appears to kill him. Gerald and Kitty mourn Alan's death. After the war ends, Gerald and Kitty become engaged to be married.
Jan Bokak is a self-educated steelworker who finds himself in the middle of a romantic triangle. Two different girls -- wealthy socialite Claire Pitt and blue-collar worker Mary Berwick -- simultaneously fall for Bokak. It later develops that Claire and Mary are actually sisters, the first of a series of surprising plot twists leading to Bokak being accused of a murder he didn't commit.
Pierre, the maitre d' at the swanky Ritz Hotel in Paris, discovers that he has a son from his former marriage, which was broken up by his wealthy wife's upper-class relatives. His son, now a young man and unaware that Pierre is is father, is in danger of becoming the victim of blackmailer Mae Morin. Pierre sets out to save him from the notorious Mae.
A stage-actress mother and her daughter in a battle-of-wills in a "don't do this, daughter" and "don't do that, daughter" story of youthful folly and over-zealous parental devotion.
A 1928 silent film crime drama produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Josef von Sternberg from an original screen story and starring George Bancroft and Evelyn Brent.
A man drowns himself in lake. As he is dying, he recalls the crucial moments of his life and the incidents that led to his final, fatal decision.
Young Nowheres is a 1929 American drama film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Richard Barthelmess, Marian Nixon and Bert Roach.
Informed by her doctor that she is going blind, Carol Trent tearfully breaks off her engagement with Don Manning, hoping to spare him the stigma of a sightless bride. When Hughes catches up with her and demands an explanation, Astor pretends to have fallen out of love with him and further convinces him that she has turned into a shameless hussy.
Katie Abbott, despairing of being a wallflower, is about to attempt suicide in the village pond when she is rescued by a young stranger.
East Side gangster Buck Leslie attempts to stop a fight between chemist Gregory and a tough and is pursued by detective Phil Hoyt to a tenement roof where he takes refuge. On the roof he meets crippled Hilda Shea, who shelters him, and they eventually fall in love, the appeal of her innocence causing him to reform. Buck antagonizes the gang, however, and they try to frame him. Hoyt finds Buck on the roof, and during the ensuing fight the tenement catches on fire. Buck rescues Hilda, and she miraculously regains use of her limbs. The detective abandons his pursuit, leaving the lovers happy.
Elspeth Marner is a seventeen-year-old premiere danseuse. Frank Masterson is the most hated as well as the most respected critic of dramatic art in New York. When the story opens, Elspeth, flushed with applause, enters her dressing room where her mother and the maid rush to do her bidding. The next morning, in bed, Elspeth reads Masterson's scathing criticism: that her real name is doubtless Lizzie Schmitt; that she is spoiled and petulant and not at all a lady, etc. Elspeth is furious, hysterical, angry and her mother, after telephoning Masterson to tell him her opinion of him, calls in the doctor.
Agnes Vernon is the daughter of an old prospector whose hard luck leads him to turn holdup. The father is hanged and the girl, unknowing the real truth, becomes the ward of two young and successful miners.
The wife of sculptor Roger Heath is killed by a maniac because of Roger's madly jealous admirer Olivia Larkin. To care for his home and son Peter, Roger hires Irish immigrant Nora O'Hallahan as a nursemaid whom he realizes is possessed by the soul of his departed wife.
King Charles flees and hides in a huge oak tree when the troops loyal to Oliver Cromwell close in. The royal entourage is disguised, and the king's sweetheart masquerades as Charles. Only when she is brought before Cromwell is it discovered the switch has been made.