Shackled by Film

Champion college swimmer and summer lifeguard Ken Holmes saves Joan Stanton from drowning. They are sweethearts until a misunderstanding causes Joan to cast off Ken for his chief competitor, Herb Darrow. Joan promises Herb she will wear his fraternity pin if he wins the big swimming race at the hotel the next day. Despondent over his loss, Ken decides not to enter the race; later, he reconsiders when he learns that Joan is to wear Herb's pin if Herb wins. Ken wins the race and resolves his misunderstanding with Joan.

Holmes and Watson match wits with an opera star intent on blackmailing a king.

Layabout Al Beresford is in a position of responsible in the brokerage film he works in only because of his smart and self-sacrificing wife Mary. While he dawdles and wastes his time she works behind the scenes to complete his work in order to save his position. One day when Al is out wandering Mary delivers important documents she's completed to Wall Street broker Elihu Jasper. He in turn is charmed by her and offers Al a job, though he recognizes his worthlessness. Jasper offers him many tips and with Mary's support Al prospers. Foolishly not realizing it is due to the work of others Al leaves Mary and is soon ruined, taking desperate measures he frees Mary to enjoy a life with Elihu.

An American agent exchanges places in prison with a condemned British officer and brother of a woman he greatly admires and goes to the gallows.

When her husband dies and leaves her penniless, Mrs. Lawrence Evringham moves in with her wealthy but grim father-in-law and schemes to marry Eloise, her daughter, to the rich Dr. Ballard.

During his daily duties, Casey the Cop rescues a woman who's soon his sweetheart. Later, she learns from her banker uncle that her inheritance has been stolen, and he's accusing Casey's own cashier brother. Casey is on the case.

Betty falls in love with Samuel Hayden, who was washed ashore after having survived a shipwreck. The self-acclaimed most religious man in town accuses a kindly man, whom he calls "The Devil," of robbing Samuel. Soon becoming bored with this slander, he attempts to break up the romance between Betty and Samuel, contriving to have her turned out by her stern father. Samuel is later discovered to be an escaped convict. This disclosure results in a series of escapades during which the true character of the village hypocrite and "The Devil" are revealed, showing the former to be vicious and the latter to be generous and benevolent.

Even though he disapproves of the harshness with which his father, the Colonel, treats his employees, Wayne Craighill joins the old man's mining business. Adding to the strain between father and son, Wayne soon falls in love with Jean, the daughter of a small mine owner whom the Colonel wants to put out of business.

Making the best of her genteel poverty, our heroine prepares to attend the dance to which she has been invited, and, after surveying the general effect of her plain and somewhat passé attire, goes on her way with a painful self-consciousness to the home of her friend.

While visiting Alan, who works in Tokyo, she attends a festival with her Japanese maid while wearing a Japanese kimono. There she meets the wealthy Arai Takada, who is taken by the mysterious woman. Alan has dishonored and betrayed O'Mitsu, and her brother Arai plans a terrible revenge.

In the little Italian home the wife feels she is neglected and apparently it seems that her husband's love is growing cold, for he has become decidedly indifferent. She, therefore, plans with her cousin to arouse his love through jealousy. At an Italian picnic, after repeated vain efforts to draw her husband's attentions toward her, she starts off with her cousin, passing in view of her husband. His fiery nature is violently aroused with jealousy, and rushing home in a towering rage, would have wreaked disaster to the entire family, for his terrible suspicion poisons his mind even against his two little children. He learns the truth, however, and realizes now to what extreme the result of his neglect would have driven him.

It is hubby's birthday and the wife wishing to surprise him, surreptitiously interviews the jeweler's clerk to order a gold watch as a present. Her mysterious action arouses suspicion in the husband, who follows her at a distance and witnesses the meeting between her and the clerk. The hour arriving for the delivery of the watch, wifey goes to the door to meet it, and while standing outside, the door closes and locks on her skirt, holding her captive. Having no key, she induces the clerk to climb through the second story window and come down to unlock the door. All would have been well, but the clerk encounters the husband and it looked had for the clerk for a while.

Lelia Crofton, a Louisiana belle of the 1860s, loves Burleigh Mavor. By chance, she sees one of her father's black stablemen making love to a neighbor's maid, whom she supposed was white. The incident shocks Lelia and leaves a great impression upon her. When she rejects suitor Steve Daubeney, he threatens to expose a damaging secret about her mother, whom she has never met. Remembering the incident with the neighbor's maid, Lelia worries that her mother might be black, and when Daubeney learns of her fears, he leads her to believe that they are well-founded.

After a stirring performance, Cleo Martell, a renowned stage actress, is visited in her dressing room by Gordon Trent, a too ardent admirer. When Cleo's husband enters, a fight ensues, and Trent kills his rival in the struggle. Jack Stanley arrives on the scene to help but is accused of the murder by Cleo and is sent off to prison. The opportunistic Trent marries Jack's rich fiancée Helen Forde, who believes that her former lover is guilty of unfaithfulness. Jealous of the arrangement, Cleo eventually tells Helen the truth about the killing, causing Betty, Helen's daughter, to cry over her mother's unhappiness. Moved by the girl's tears, Cleo joins forces with Helen against Trent, and the two women go West where Jack, escaped from prison, works as a cowboy.

A widow's husband returns after her second marriage, and dies while assaulting her.

To assuage his grief over the death of his wife during childbirth, newspaper publisher John Briscoe resettles in Paris. Twenty-five years pass, during which time Briscoe's estranged son Jason has taken charge of his dad's newspaper. When Jason refuses to support crooked politician Stange in an upcoming election, he receives a cablegram from Briscoe Sr., who overrides his son's decision.

The quiet life style of Ruth Heck and her brother Lem, who belong to a religious sect called the Seekers, is disrupted when a judge imprisons Lem for a crime he did not commit.

Bessie Allen, a girl of the slums, dances in the streets of the Lower East Side of New York to the delight of the crowds. She becomes an orphan when her father, in a drunken stupor, kills her mother, and then himself. Bessie is knocked down by the car of Mrs. Latham, a society matron, who takes an interest in the girl and procures her a job as a dress model.

George Bell, a wild young man, lives with his rancher father, Thomas Bell, in Paradise Valley, California. When George sells his father's favorite horse, Mr. Bell turns him out, and George becomes a grain salesman in St. Louis. Meanwhile, Polly Martin lives with her father Bill, an ex-businessman who has sunk to day-labor because of his addiction to alcohol. Bill frequently abuses Polly, and when he falls to his death from a high girder, Polly becomes a nurse in the Salvation Army in St. Louis. George falls in love with Polly after he saves her from the advances of a drunk, but she will not marry him because of his wild past.

In 1869, enemies of railroad magnate Richard Strong attempt to ruin him. Richard thwarts them, largely through the help of Charles Dalton, but then Charles tries to seduce Elinor, Richard's wife. Although she rebuffs Charles, Richard accuses her of infidelity, so Elinor leaves him and goes to Paris. Richard follows her, but, caught in the middle of the 1870 riots, he cannot get near her. Charles, also in Paris, finally convinces Richard that nothing had come of his interest in Elinor, but Richard now believes that Elinor no longer loves him.