If My Country Should Call 1916
A doctor is called to the home of a young man who wants to enlist in the Army.
A doctor is called to the home of a young man who wants to enlist in the Army.
Hartley, fascinated by the vampish Leonie, steals and serves a term in prison. Not satisfied with this downfall, Leonie again works her womanly charms upon Dr. Gerald, who is engaged to Johanna, the adopted daughter of Dr. McLean. Learning of the woman's designs on the young doctor, Hartley denounces her in Gerald's presence. In response, Gerald foolishly renounces Johanna and his friendship with Dr. McLean. However, when Leonie discovers that Johanna is her own daughter whom she had deserted as a child, she becomes conscience-stricken, gives up the young man and begs forgiveness.
In New York's Little Italy, Carlotta's life is run by Black Hand leaders who will not let her see her sweetheart Tom. The Black Handers also control the life of prominent Judge Andrews, because years before, after the death of Andrews' daughter, they kidnapped his granddaughter. Only now have they agreed to return her, at a charity ball, for a large ransom.
Upon hearing about a woman dubbed The Huntress because of her wild attention craving ways, Fleming Harcourt decides he can domesticate her and they marry. He takes her to settle down in a mining town, however she soon becomes bored and returns to the city and her lavish parties with plenty of adoring male admirers. Fleming decides to make her jealous by flirting with other women. When the Huntress hears the rumors of his affairs, she soon realizes her one true love is Fleming, and they are happily reunited.
Two cowboys, Jim and Johnny Little Bear, discover a rich mine and decide to spend some of their money traveling. Their travels lead them to the kingdom of Queen Sylvia, who is being warred upon by the neighboring monarch Ferdinand because she will not marry him. Sympathetic to the Queen's plight, the cowboys wire to America for the rest of the gang, who arrive just in time to rout Ferdinand's attack.
When penniless Westie Phillips briefly meets wealthy Martha Gorham, he falls in love, but Martha forgets the encounter. Harry Arnold, courting Martha, invites her out sailing and arranges to have the yacht wrecked near an uncharted island so that he can be alone with her until rescuers arrive. Meanwhile, without knowing Martha is on board, Westie secures a position on the yacht.
Story of a pretty girl whose ambitious mother wants to marry her off to an English nobleman. The girl, however, loves a plain American, the son of a wholesale fish dealer. The girl's ineffectual father likes the young American too, but his wife overrides him and the family heads for Honolulu, where the matriarch hopes her daughter will wed the nobleman.
J. Warren Kerrigan plays the standard Vance hero, a devil-may-care Irish mercenary named Terrence O'Rourke. While knocking about in India, O'Rourke comes into possession of the Pool of Flame, a valuable ruby stolen from a Hindu temple. Typically, whosoever possesses this gem is marked for death, but O'Rourke hopes to beat the odds by utilizing the Pool of Flame to insure, rather than impede, his good luck.
Jack Calvert bets four friends that he can travel from New York to Constantinople without a cent.
After watching her mother die gradually from a broken heart, Roberta, an illegitimate child, decides to seek vengeance from her father Bradley, who ran away before she was born. Bradley is wealthy now, and so Roberta secures a job as his secretary and schemes to ruin his financial empire.
John Oakhurst, a gentleman gambler, befriends Sandy Morton, who has dissipated his birthright through gambling and excessive drinking and dropped from his father's sight. Although Oakhurst soon takes Sandy's place in the affections of his father, he boards a train heading West and meets Pritchard, an alcoholic, and his wife, the Duchess. Pritchard is wanted by the law and Oakhurst helps him to escape detectives who are on his trail.
When New York playwright Richard Warrington returns to his home town, Republican bosses nominate him for mayor. The Democrats, alarmed at Richard's popularity, decide to unearth a scandal that will ruin his chances of winning and quickly discover that, months before, actress Katherine Challoner had spent the night in Richard's apartment. Although it simply had been the result of Katherine's fainting spell, the home-town Democratic newspaper turns the overnight visit into an illicit rendezvous between two lovers.
Disgusted with his son Harvey's attitude since his return from college, wealthy William Ogden turns the boy out to make his own way in the world. Harvey finally lands in the Canadian North Woods, where he goes into business with Joe Dubois, a hunter and trapper. One day while Harvey is trapping, his leg is caught in a steel trap. He is rescued by A-Che-Chee, the daughter of Black Lynx the Indian Chief. A-Che-Chee takes Harvey to her cabin, where she dresses his wound. When her father and brother discover Harvey there, they insist upon an immediate marriage. Harvey protests, but finally agrees in order to maintain the good will of the Indians.
During the days of the California missions, Jose Garcia becomes friends with Luis Lopez, a local Robin Hood determined to redistribute among the poor the loot of the rich. Inspired by Luis, Jose sets out to rob the home of wealthy landowner Don Ortega. On the way, however, Jose gets lost in the desert and is nearly dead when he is found by Don Ortega's aristocratic cousin, Castro Arrellanes, and Castro's daughter Carmen, who take him in and nurse him back to health. Jose quickly falls in love with Carmen, and as a result, renounces his plan of robbing the rich. Then, he learns that Luis has made plans to break into Don Ortega's house.
Carter Raymond is a New York playboy who squanders his inherited fortune. All he has left is an abandoned mine in California, so Carter goes West to work it. "Big Jim" Helton and his daughter Mary have been squatters on the mine for years, and "Placer" Murray, from an adjoining camp, has been trying to run them off. When Carter arrives, Mary shoots him, thinking he works for Murray. Mary soon realizes her mistake, and she and her father agree to nurse Carter back to health.
Jim Crosby, the product of a broken home, becomes a gangster and goes to prison. Meanwhile, Ann Payton, an heiress, converts a saloon into a mission. She is engaged to her father's secretary, Temple Vaughn, a gambler. Jim is released from prison and seeks shelter at the mission. Temple becomes indebted to gambler Phil Johnson and is forced to arrange a crooked poker game involving some of his wealthy friends. Jim overhears the plot and, realizing that Temple is Ann's fiancé, robs the poker game and puts a check Temple forged into Temple's own pocket.
To support her younger sisters, Polly Vance finds work as a live-in companion to the aging Johanna Webb. Johanna's nephew, Chester Creigg, quarrels with his aunt and severs relations with her, because of her cruel treatment of her new employee, after which Polly returns to her old home. Then, when a fire breaks out at Polly's house, Chester rushes over to save her sisters, but loses his eyesight during the rescue. Convalescing from his burns, Chester learns that Johanna has died and marvels at the similarity between her and the old housemaid who is now taking care of him.
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.