In the mountains of West Virginia, Alderson Cree is mortally wounded in an ambush by Kip Ryerson, after Kip's wife, Martha, seeks refuge at the Crees's home for herself and her stepdaughter, Eileen. Cree makes his young son, David, promise to avenge his death once he has grown into manhood. As David Cree runs for help, Alderson recants and instructs Martha Ryerson to release his son from his promise. However, to eliminate her brutal spouse, Martha Ryerson remains silent, and George Hedrick, the local storekeeper, leads a crowd to drive Kip out of town. Hedrick later announces Kip's death, relieving David of his obligation to his father. Years pass, and David, now an adult, is engaged to Mary Reddin. When Kip Ryerson returns to town, David's mother demands that he keep his promise to avenge his father.
Calvert's Valley
Henry Potter is the irresponsible playboy son of a New York millionaire. Fearing he will disgrace the family name if he stays in New York, the father sends him to San Francisco to work in the family shipyards and, to make a man out of him, he is told he will have to start at the bottom and work his way up. Henry decides this is not a good idea and resents it to the point he will indeed start at the bottom but will work his way down from there, and disgrace the family name in San Francisco.
Lost film critical of the poor treatment that Maya peons received on the haciendas.
Gerrit Ammidon, despairing of any chance to marry his love, Nettie Vollar, because of a bitter feud between his father and her grandfather, sails to China to "get away from it all". While in Shanghai he rescues a beautiful young woman being attacked by a gang of street toughs. She turns out to be Taou Yuen, a Manchu princess. Gerrit discovers that, unless she finds a husband, she will be put to death, and he agrees to marry her. They return to Java Head, the Ammidon family home in Salem, Massachusetts, but Gerrit's "homecoming" has some unexpected consequences.
Lost short film about the death of the last Aztec Emperor.
Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa was one of the most popular leading men in American silent films-this despite the fact that orientals were traditionally (and stereotypically) cast as villains at the time. In The Bravest Way, Hayakawa carries self-sacrifice to the nth degree. He is so devoted-in a perfectly platonic manner-to the widow of his best friend (Tsuri Aoki) that he loses the love of his American fiancee (Florence Vidor). Lost film.
Mark is the captain of a whaling ship and he looks down on brother Joel, who has never gone to sea. But when Mark's ship arrives in port sans its captain, Joel takes over the command. His new bride, Priscilla, insists on coming along and they head for the South Seas, where Mark was last seen.
When Dorothy's Southern, aristocratic father Colonel Raleigh refuses to let her marry Forbes Stewart, a Northern gambler, the couple elopes. When Dorothy soon thereafter becomes pregnant, Forbes vows to reform, but authorities arrest him on a gambling charge, and he serves a year in prison. During that time, and just before the birth of the baby, a woman comes to Dorothy and claims to be Forbes' wife. Stunned, Dorothy returns to her father, but the colonel throws her out, and so, on her own, she has her baby, whom the community believes to be illegitimate. Convinced that she has sinned, Dorothy is about to kill herself when Forbes, just out of jail, finds her and explains that the other woman simply had been an ex-sweetheart trying to win him back.
Evelyn Dare is a butterfly of fashion. David Westebrooke, her fiancé, is an altruist interested in sociology. He has made his home in the factory town of Oreville, where he works as factory manager. He takes her to their home in the factory town and there orders his housekeeper to take away her useless clothes and to supply those befitting the wife of a factory manager. Trouble lies ahead.....
When Ellen Linden comes back home from finishing school, she finds out that her wealthy father has lost all his money. She must get a job to help support the family, and goes to work as a secretary in the brokerage firm of Phillips and Rand. Both partners find themselves attracted to her, but each has a different approach: Phillipls takes the rough, aggressive route and Rand does the opposite, complimenting and flattering her at every opportunity. However, she falls in love with Tom Galloway, a young inventor who has come up with a new type of soft drink, "Here's How". in which Ellen attempts to interest the brokers. Phillips, however, doesn't take rejection lightly and schemes to break up Ellen and Galloway using his unwitting partner.
Perryam is going through a round of bad luck; he is thrown out of school and loses at love. In search of a change, he heads for London, where he meets Audrey Nye, a former jazz baby who has gotten a responsible job on a newspaper. She helps Perryam get hired as a reporter.
Richard Castleman, master of Winnecrest Hall in Louisiana, goes on a sea voyage recommended by his cousin and physician, Harry Chilton, who thereupon begins romancing Castleman's fiancée, Jeanne Lamont. When word arrives of Castleman's death, Chilton prepares to usurp the fortune and property of the dead man. Danny Rowland, who is found wounded by two wandering crooks, Dominie and The Squirrel, opportunely arrives at the estate seeking food and rest; and because of his resemblance to Castleman, he is welcomed as the master. Dominie is introduced as an English cleric and The Squirrel as an Italian count, while Danny falls in love with Jeanne, who believes him to be her fiancé. Chilton, however, suspects the trio and finally unmasks them. It then develops that Danny actually is Castleman, who had decided to reform the two men who befriended him and to expose the dishonesty of his cousin.
Olympe is a cabaret dancer who offers her services to France when her country goes to war. She becomes a spy and provides valuable intelligence information during World War I by winning the confidence of a German officer. Hugh Warren is the American soldier who falls for Olympe. She allows him to believe she is a simple peasant and reveals nothing of her career as a spy. The two fall in love and are married, but the villainous German agent De Montinrich reveals to her husband's family that she is a tawdry club dancer. Unable to reveal her role in espionage, Olympe is ostracized by her friends and family. When the French government honors Olympe for her wartime bravery, her family no longer considers her a blemish on their sterling reputation.
Mary marries Claude, a rich playboy, to please her invalid mother who becomes ill before they leave for a South American honeymoon.
Seventeen year old William Sylvanus Baxter has fallen madly in love with young coquette, Lola Pratt. After spending all of his money on the fickle girl, she runs off with an older man. William now heartbroken, contemplates suicide, until a friend from childhood, May Parcher, pays a visit and William decides to fall in love with her.
After his beloved daughter leaves for the city to pay off his debt, an old farmer goes mad when her letters become less frequent and it is suspected she may be using her body to get the money.
Diebe
A doctor's wife is arrested for educating impoverished women about birth control.
In this film, African-American Leroy Collins struggles with the onus placed on him by Society when he falls in love with a white woman.