The Swell Head is a 1928 silent comedy short
A comedy of wrong assumptions, misunderstandings and martial mix ups because of jumping to conclusions.
Sonny Boy's parents are in the midst of a bitter divorce when the boy's mother talks her sister into kidnapping him because she is terrified that her husband will take the boy out of the country after the divorce.
When the painter Christopher Bean dies, some unscrupulous art dealers try to get several of his paintings cheaply from a family who have no idea of their value.
Major Starr is an ambitious newspaper reporter who has taken undercover employment as chauffeur to Lady Susan Loman in the hope of witnessing high-society goings-on which he can use in a feature article he is planning.
Peter Jones is a young man who arrives on Broadway from Chillicothe, Ohio, hoping to invest $20,000 in a play and turn a profit sufficient to buy a local hotel back home. He is conned by Joe Lehman and Jack McClure into backing their play with a 49-percent stake. The play opens out-of-town in Syracuse and bombs. Lehman and McClure want out, and Jones buys them out
Hoping to elope, farmer's daughter Myrtle Fairley and her beau Jack Holt are forced to return home after finding the minister not at home. Upon arrival they discover a pair of incompetent safe crackers trying to force Mr. Fairley to give up his money, leading to a tense resolution.
A group of stenographers decide to host a ball and invite their boss, Mr. Hadley, as the guest of honor. The plot revolves around a mix-up involving masquerade costumes.
Mr. Hadley shows Bill a photograph of his fiancée, Alice Mordaunt, and instructs Bill to admit her immediately should she arrive at the office. Bill leaves for lunch. Upon his return, he discovers his boss kissing Ethel, who is Mr. Hadley's sister, not his fiancée. Bill, unaware of their family relationship, is horrified, believing his boss is being unfaithful to Alice Mordaunt. Feeling a strong sense of loyalty to the absent fiancée, Bill decides to get even with his boss. He informs Mr. Hadley's real fiancée, Alice, about his boss's perceived "duplicity". The outcome is a comical situation as Bill's interference leads to misunderstandings and fallout, which is how Bill "squares it" with his boss.
A theatrical troupe from the west end of London loses its leading lady when she goes off to marry a rich young man from the other side of town. The rest of the play deals with the budding romance and trials and tribulations of their love, as well as the changing face of late-19th-century theatre.
A young man in love with a cabaret dancer is refused money by his father. He joins the dancer and her accomplices to rob his father's bank. The robbers are discovered and killed, except for one. The situation resolves, with the characters' lives sorting out.
Piecemeal, chaotic slapstick comedy revolving around honeymooners and various misunderstandings.
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.
Farmer Toby Watkinsm whose fanciful poetry does not impress his exasperated uncle, leaves the farm to become a subscription solicitor for the "Sawbert Weekly Clarion." In Sawbert, Toby meets Mayor Lot Morris' daughter Jean, and the shy young people fall in love. Crooked stock promoter Kendall Reeves arrives in town and unveils his plan to open a string-bean cannery.
A slick movie director tricks a hayseed horse into becoming a stunt double.
Adolph is a great pianist who prefers the simple pleasures such as frankfurters and sauerkraut but is so constantly pursued by society women that he gets no peace and comfort. After being chased everywhere in the end he escapes by donning a disguise and finally finding peace and quiet.
Sure-Fire Flint, an energetic chap just returned from wartime military service, meets June De Lanni, the girl of his dreams, while working as a cabdriver and busboy. Her father gives Flint a job in his factory, but Dipley Poole, who hoped to marry June, becomes jealous of Flint's success and attempts to rob the company safe. June is trapped in the safe, but after a series of adventures, Flint arrives in time to rescue her.
Philandering husband George Montfort purchases railroad tickets for a weekend tryst in the mountains with his latest paramour. When his wife Yvonne finds the tickets, George hastily explains that they were bought as an anniversary present for her. Yvonne doesn't believe George, but she decides to use her ticket anyway, while George remains behind in Paris on "business."
Framed for stealing some pearls while staying at the country home of her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Dennison, Delsie O'Dell is banished from their house. Delsie along with her bulldog, Violet, follows Oscar, the actual thief, to an old haunted house, which is the hideout for a gang of thieves. A series of humorous escapades follows as she first hides from the thieves, then pretends to be a ghost, terrorizing them. Eventually she retrieves the pearls, clears her name, and is safe once again in the arms of Bill, Dennison's secretary.
American newspaper reporter Jim Crocker's madcap escapades in London earn him notoriety and the nickname "Piccadilly Jim." When he overhears his American cousin by marriage, Ann Chester, giving her candid opinion of him, he decides to return to America to try to reform. He meets Ann on the boat, using another name. Unable to find work in New York, he goes to his step aunt Mrs. Peter Pett's home to be near Ann. Jim then helps Ann kidnap pampered cousin Ogden Pett whose overindulgence has created disruption in the household.