Chaney plays two roles: mad scientist Arthur Lamb and Lamb's "experiment", known only as the Ape Man. This hideous creature was the result of Lamb's attempts to transplant animal glands into human beings. A lost film.
A banker, after a prophetic meeting with a Gypsy fortune teller, becomes delusional as he searches for a trunk which the seer has told him holds the key to either his happiness or his death. This film is considered lost.
Steel mill owner Sarah Maitland has raised her two children, Blair and Nannie, to be honest and caring, however Blair disappoints her when he seduces the wife of his best friend and breaks up her marriage. No one is happy but it takes a near fatal accident to set things right.
Loyal slave of the aristocratic Dabney family, Dan is overjoyed when Raoul becomes engaged to Northerner Elsie Hammond and his sister Grace becomes engaged to Elsie's brother John. When the Civil War breaks out, the heartbroken Hammonds return North and John joins the Union army. Raoul joins the Confederacy, but his vindictive overseer, Jonas Watts, becomes a Union officer. Watts takes Grace prisoner, but before he can act on his desires, John rescues her.
A drunken Clark threatens a moneylender, blacks out, and wakes to find the man murdered. He flees from police who find his bloodied stick, then discovers the real killers and brings them to justice after a struggle.
Sir Joseph and Lady Webbing are the foster parents of Marie-Louise. The couple are also in league with Verrinder, a German spy. When their work against England is discovered, they commit suicide. Marie-Louise, who has been an unwitting part of their schemes, is allowed to go to the U.S. if she promises to keep everything a secret.
Presents Lincoln's difficulties with Gen. McClellan and Secretary of State Seward, over the selection of a commander of the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln asserts his leadership and appoints Gen. Grant.
An excerpt of the Shakespeare play presented in the Kinetophone sound system, in which the sound was provided by synchronized Edison cylinders.
Loose adaptation of Mary Shelley‘s “Frankenstein”.
During World War I, Jeanette Gontreau becomes a "godmother" to three Allied soldiers imprisoned in a German camp. Describing herself as an old woman, she sends them cheerful letters and baskets of small gifts until one of the soldiers, Harry Ledyard, informs her that he has been released and will visit her in New York. Panic-stricken, Jeanette dons a wig and spectacles, and although she convinces Harry that she is old and gray, she soon falls in love with him. Harry worships his "godmother," and when secret service agents discover coded messages on her letters, he shields her by assuming the blame.
Dancer Florence Maddis marries Ross Van Beekman, son of an aristocratic New York family, and despite her friends’ doubts manages to fit into the family. Her scheming mother-in-law disapproves of her however colluding with Ned Ormsby, who wants Flo for himself, to make her appear faithless. When Ross suspects Flo of harboring Ormsby, he fires a pistol at her closet. Later when Ormsby is found shot in his house, Ross confesses, believing himself guilty. Sick at heart, Flo returns to the stage of the Winter Palace. Ross is freed, however, when Ormsby’s enemy, Maddox, confesses to the crime, and Flo is happily reconciled with Ross.
Jack Banning is a motorcycle cop by day and undercover agent by night. Disguising himself as "Strongarm Samson," Banning infiltrates a gang of smugglers headed by Richard Courtney.
During World War I, the beautiful and patriotic Leslie Selden is courted by two ardent admirers: Jack Wynn, a young man not yet taken by the draft, and Dr. Wolff, a Danish scientist who, in reality, is a German agent. When Jack learns that Wolff is masterminding a plot to bomb several munitions factories and destroy the water system in New York City, he goes to the spy's home and confronts him.
Even though his widowed mother and sweetheart, Mary Putnam, disapprove, Worth Stuyvesant insists on going to West Point and becoming a soldier. Ultimately, Mary breaks off their engagement and Stuyvesant goes on a bender. His conduct is reported to the commander, who sends him to the sub post of Del Rio for 60 days of tour duty. There, Stuyvesant meets Lola Montez, an adventuress. With the help of a couple of her pals, Lola gets him drunk and marries him. But Stuyvesant lives up to his duties as a husband and surprisingly, Lola renounces her old ways and becomes a model wife.
Andrews, a former shipping clerk, has amassed a fortune in cocaine and therefore discourages his daughter May's romance with Joe, a policeman. Andrews prefers socialite Roger Hastings, whom May marries but soon discovers is a drug addict. While May is recovering from a nervous breakdown precipitated by the knowledge of Roger's addiction, he slips cocaine into her medication. Soon she also is addicted, a fact which Roger delightedly reports to Andrews. Andrews then commits May to a sanitarium and Roger becomes a procurer for a gang of white slavers. When the gang abducts his sister Julia and takes her to Roger's brothel, he turns against them. Julia is released, and after many complications, Roger returns to Andrews' house and, during a struggle, sets the house on fire, killing them both.
The wide-ranging storyline of The Melting Pot takes its characters from the Jewish ghettoes of Russia to the Lower East Side of New York.
Linda Catherton, a poor small town girl in search of a wealthy suitor, meets Roland Bland, a man of notorious reputation, at the wedding of her friend Teddy Beaudine. Although she does not love him, Linda accepts his marriage proposal, believing that alimony will compensate her eventually for the unhappy experiment; but following their honeymoon she acknowledges their mutual love and affection. Fontaine, Teddy's husband, who is in debt, discovers a letter from Linda indicating her real intentions in marriage and sends it to Roland, who then gives his wife grounds for a divorce but threatens to kill the informer. When Fontaine is killed, Linda and Roland suspect each other, but it develops that Ishtar Lane, who formerly loved Roland, committed the murder, hoping thus to assure his own happiness. Ishtar dies, and the couple are reconciled.
A series of six boxing dramas, each a complete story in its own right. The episode titles are: #1: Intrusion; #2: Hit Hard; #3: Soft Muscles; #4: The Return; #5: The Surprise Fight; #6: The Jazz Fight.
Having forced Jim Carson to leave town in order to avoid a trumped-up embezzling charge, now Albert Temple is rid of his only serious rival for Helen, whom he soon marries. Jim goes to Alaska, where he adopts Bob Adams, the son of a murdered friend, and then makes a fortune in a gold strike. After eighteen years in the Yukon, Jim returns to his hometown with Bob, who falls in love with Helen and Albert's daughter Dorothy. Because he so hates Albert, however, Jim refuses to consent to a marriage between Bob and Dorothy until Helen tells him that Albert is not the young woman's father. In reality, Dorothy is Jim's own daughter, and when he learns this, Jim quickly changes his mind about the marriage.
Socialite Ethel Wyndham turns down Jim Carew’s marriage proposal because of his working-class status causing him to go prospecting in the Yukon. He strikes it rich and begins a romance with Little Snowbird. Deciding to take one last look at life in the big city before settling down he heads to New York where he runs into Ethel. After telling her of his success he proposes again and while she’s tempted Ethel is tempted to accept him, she has involved her in an extortion operation unknowingly and Thomas Martin threatens to expose her if she marries Jim. Once again broken-hearted, Jim returns to Little Snowbird only to face heartache and a daughter he knew nothing about.