Wade Hildreth is sent to New York from London to receive a diamond necklace for Lady Gwendolyn from the jeweler Arabin. A gang of crooks led by Pete Fielding, known as "The Shadow," plans to keep Hildreth from going to Arabin's until they have robbed the store. Actress Morn Light, whom the Shadow loves, agrees to entice Hildreth to her apartment to be imprisoned. When she warns Hildreth because she wants to avenge her father's death, which was caused by the Shadow, the Shadow overhears and captures them both.
Young thief “The Bat” to distract an old bookseller, while his partner, “The Fly,” robs the till, purchases a book at random. Later, after a chase and escape to the Devil's Roost, Old Meg's refuge for thieves, he takes the book from his pocket and is about to throw it aside when the title attracts him, "Electricity Made Simple." Intrigued, the volume opens a new life to him and in time enables him to rescue the bookseller’s daughter Bess when she falls into trouble.
A young man's journey into adulthood, love, and ambition, inspired by a serial by George Randolph Chester exploring themes of love, ambition, and self-discovery, set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties.
Having misused funds held in his trust by investing them with his friend, Henry Lowe, Robert Reardon appeals to his future son-in-law, James Calvin, a candidate for the position of district attorney, for help. When Calvin threatens to indict Lowe for fraud if he is elected, Reardon's anger becomes so great that the engagement between Calvin and Reardon's daughter Helen is broken, resulting in Reardon's suicide. After Lowe comes into possession of a check forged by Helen's brother Jack, he uses the document to force a marriage with Helen. Treated brutally by her husband, Helen seeks Calvin's aid, but Lowe frames Calvin, now the district attorney, in a compromising situation with his ex-fiancée. Calvin is about to resign when Helen traps her husband with some marked money, causing his suicide through disgrace. Thus freed, Helen and Calvin find happiness together.
A DA's son gets involved in a drug-related murder, and it's up to his father and sister to get him out.
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.
Allen Bancroft of Lancashire is framed by criminals leading to his imprisonment and subsequent struggle to clear his name and find work, all while facing coercion from the same criminals.
A man tries to burgle his own safe on the same night that a professional criminal attempts it.
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...
16 episode adventure serial. 1. The Grey Seal 2. The Stolen Rubies 3. The Counterfeit Five 4. The Metzer Murder Mystery 5. A Fight for Honor 6. Below the Deadline 7. The Devil's Work 8. The Underdog 9. The Alibi 10. Two Crooks and a Knave 11. A Rogue's Defeat 12. The Man Higher Up 13. Good for Evil 14. A Sheep Among Wolves 15. The Tapped Wires 16. The Victory.
Wanting to escape from the drab life of the country, Helen Wayne moves to the big city and becomes a secretary for the Calder family. Just before beginning her new job, however, Helen meets a man who promises to take the hungry girl to dinner. When she goes to the prearranged meeting place, she is arrested and her name is put on the police record. Some time later, Helen and young Rand Calder fall in love. As they are about to announce their engagement, Martin Ingleton, the man who earlier had caused Helen's arrest, attempts to ruin Rand's business ventures. When all of the principals go to court to fight the issue, Ingleton recognizes Helen and tries to label her a woman of unworthy character. Instead of causing Rand to admonish her, however, Ingleton instigates Helen to tell the judge her story and she is exonerated.
Lebenswogen
Adventuress Leonie Sobatsky falls in love with a young man named Nevil Trask, and he with her. Trask doesn't know that Leonie is actually the head of an international smuggling ring--and Leonie doesn't know that Trask is an undercover Secret Service agent assigned to break up the ring and capture its head.
A chorus girl breaks a deal with her boss by marrying the rich man she was supposed to ruin.
Four wealthy young men, Larry Van Cortlandt, Castleton, "Fatty" Harriman and Payne, become intoxicated in a cabaret where munitions maker Stanhope Shelton is giving a party for his daughter Natalie. Larry is attracted to Natalie, but he is ejected with his friends before he can secure an introduction. Plainclothes detective Hogan vows to capture Larry, who seeks asylum on his yacht with his friends. After the crew quits, Larry and his friends handle the boat. The next morning Castleton and Payne place a "for hire" sign on the boat and the Sheltons engage it. Larry teaches Natalie to steer and runs into several boats in the process. Four people in the Shelton party turn out to be burglars and rob the other guests. Meanwhile two other crooks rob the Shelton mansion. Larry manages to capture all the crooks at the Shelton home, and he wins over both Natalie and her father.
Denounced for preaching socialism Reverend Frank Gordon founds his own "Temple of Man." financed by Kate Ransom, the woman Gordon has fallen in with love and entered into a common-law agreement with after divorcing his wife. With the outbreak of World War I, however, the members of his new congregation oppose conscription while he wholeheartedly supports the Allied cause. Driven from his own church, he returns home to find Kate in banker Mark Overman's arms, enraged he strangles the banker. Sentenced to life imprisonment, his ex-wife Ruth pleads with Governor Morrison to pardon the errant clergyman. Gordon is allowed to return to his family.
Vera Souroff, a young Russian girl, is kidnapped off the street and raped by one of three officers of the Czar's guard. The crime is brought to the attention of the Czar, but Vera cannot tell which of the three officers is the guilty man. The Czar orders Count Nicho, the eldest of the three, to marry the girl, turns over the trio’s fortunes to her and imprisons the men. When the revolution breaks out, at the risk of her own life, Vera saves her husband knowing he holds the key to the identity of her attacker.
When Arthur Gilpin, a black night watchman, finds young Myrtle Gunsaulus mysteriously murdered in the basement of a factory, he is charged with the crime. The film is now believed to be lost.
On the American frontier in the last decades of the 19th century, Billie is a female cowboy who fights a series of bad men in this film serial.
"Matches Mary" has sold matches on the streets of New York for many years and nobody knows her real identity. The truth is that Mary's young son had been kidnapped many years ago and she donned ragged attire while searching for the man, whom she knew, who did it. Years later day she meets him on the street and demands to know about her son, now grown to manhood. The man, now calling himself Foster, escapes but Mary track him to his home. Foster's nephew comes in and announces that he has gotten married while in college. Foster is furious and threatens violence. That night he is found murdered and Peter is accused of the crime, and is put on trial. Mary testifies she was the one who murdered Foster. She is about to be sentenced when a detective brings in a confession from two burglars who admit killing Foster. Peter asks Mary who she is and she replies she is just "somebody's mother." Later, an old friend and a lawyer bring evidence that reunites Mary with her lost son, Peter.