Thwarted by his despotic uncle from continuing his love affair, a young man's thoughts turn dark as he dwells on ways to deal with his uncle. Becoming convinced that murder is merely a natural part of life, he kills his uncle and hides the body. However, the man's conscience awakens; paranoia sets in and nightmarish visions begin to haunt him.
Nettie is beloved by all the boys in the mining camp. Magoon, a big, jovial miner, loves her most of all, however, and asks her to become his wife. Nettie is in love with Colter, a young Easterner, and though it pains her to do so, tells Magoon of the fact. Magoon leaves town to become sheriff of the adjoining county. A murder is committed in the mining camp, and Colter is unjustly accused. Nettie rescues him from jail and sends him to Magoon. The sheriff with admirable self-sacrifice hides his rival, and, when the posse arrives, points out what Nettie has done for the boys of the mining camp. Colter is released, and all the boys escort him back to Nettie.
May and Annie work in a fashionable millinery store, where the buyer, struck by May's beauty, advances her to a position among the models. She gets a little money, but finds that she is obliged to wear better clothes, which she has a hard time getting.
Before his niece and ward, Dosia Dale, comes of age, her uncle, who has spent her entire fortune, must think of a way to account for his actions. He proposes marriage, and when Dosia indignantly refuses him, he conspires with his evil friend, Dr. Protheroe, to do away with her. Declaring Dosia insane, the two men lock her up in the doctor's insane asylum, but she manages to drop a note from the window. Her plea for help is found by a reporter named Ford, who feigns insanity in order to gain admittance to the asylum. Dr. Protheroe becomes suspicious of Ford and locks him up with Dosia, whereupon Ford, knowing that his friend Cuthbert will notify the police if he and Dosia do not emerge safely by twelve, barricades the door and waits. In a furious battle with the police and the militia, Dosia's uncle and Dr. Protheroe are killed and the house set ablaze, but Ford and Dosia escape, leaping from the roof into a fire net below. All danger passed, Ford and Dosia become engaged.
Frank Andrews is a successful businessman. He has always found pride and joy in the company of his wife, son and daughter. He suddenly finds himself enthralled by the advances of a gay young woman siren, who lives in the same apartment house as he does. So marked an influence does she have over him as time progresses that at last he quite forgets his home ties, neglects his family, and goes the way of many other men who have forgotten the meaning of paternity and blood ties. The story is advanced through many scenes enacted with the accompanying notes of New York's night life, and the denouement comes when the faithful wife discovers her husband's infidelity. At this time the mother's mind nearly loses balance, while Jane, the beautiful daughter, crazed by the grief of her mother, determines to take part in the tragedy. With revolver in hand she steals up to the apartment of the woman, but her frail nature is overcome by the temperamental anger of the woman and her mission fails.
Seamen Enoch Arden returns home after a long absence marooned on a desert island. At home he finds his wife married to another, and though he loves her, he cannot bear to disrupt her current happiness.
Billy Milford, Harvard graduate, goes west to seek his fortune. In Addertown he secures a position as stationmaster of the L. & R. Railroad, but is forced out because of his drinking habits. He accidentally meets Gunhild, an emigrant Norwegian girl, as she arrives in Addertown to take up her home with Jan Hagsberg, the town's saloonkeeper. Seeking revenge on the railroad, Milford joins Jim Dorsey in a scheme to hold up the road's paymaster on his way to pay the employees of the company's mine.
ARCHIVE: George Eastman House
Molly Kite, the neglected child of a drunken father, rouses the sympathy of the minister, Mr. Shipton, who also teaches the school at Dead Tree. The minister-school-master persuades some of his parishioners to give the girl decent clothes, and he coaxes her into attending school. At first unruly and sullen, she gradually comes to feel that the minister is her best friend. One day she happens to see him meet a strange girl on the street. Apparently overjoyed, he kisses the stranger. Molly rushes into the house, tears off her new clothes, and vows she will never go to school again.
Mabel Mack's mother is deserted by her father and the mother dies. All that Mabel retains of her family history is a group photograph of her father, mother and herself, in a locket which she always wears.
Dorothy, the girl who presides over the notion counter of the Emporium, the general store in a country town, is the sole support of her aged grandparents, with whom she lives. Her sweetheart, Bob, is the boy-of-all-work in the same store. To the Emporium comes a flashy drummer from the city to sell the merchant a bill of goods.
A lost film. Mary has been invited by friends to officiate at a charity bazaar as the fortune teller. Her brother invites his artist friend Jack to pay them a visit. On the way home the auto breaks down and Mary in her gypsy costume decides to walk on. Jack arriving by train also decides to walk. On the way he spies a gypsy camp. Further on he encounters Mary, who has hurt her ankle. He is smitten by her beauty and asks her if she belongs to the gypsy camp he has just seen. She says no and escapes, dropping a side comb. He picks it up and decides to find her again. He comes to the house and meets the family, including Mary, but does not recognize her in her ordinary clothes.
Maximillo Corto, a Mexican crook, keeps a tavern on the Mexican border and has a daughter whom he abuses and who has to do all the hard work around the place. One day, Bob Jamison, really an American spy in the service, comes to the inn and stops overnight. He falls in love with the daughter of the innkeeper. She is infatuated with him, as he is the first human being who has ever been kind to her. He goes away but promises to return. While he is away a large reward is offered for his capture, dead or alive. The innkeeper tells the messenger of the news that if Bob ever comes back, he will put him into room seven and hold him. The daughter overhears this, and when Bob returns, unable to warn him, she changes the number on the door of room seven to that of six. When Bob is sent up to his room by Corto, he goes in what he thinks is seven but the daughter afterwards shifts the door numbers back to their original positions. Corto decides to kill Bob in his sleep and steals upstairs.
Helen Alving leads an outwardly contented life. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of her husband's death, she is about to open an orphanage as a memorial to him. To mark this occasion, her bohemian painter son Oswald has returned from Paris. Helen plans to take the opportunity to tell Oswald the truth about his father. But ghosts of the past erupt during an eventful evening, bringing the facade of civilised family life crashing down.
Society man Arthur Lee is in love with society belle Helen Robinson, who is also admired by James Holden, a wealthy mine owner from the West. At her father's country place, Lee is unhappy because of her popularity but is appeased when she finally accepts his proposal and ring. Holden interrupts and claims a moment's talk. Telling Lee to wait for her in a favorite nook of the veranda, she goes with Holden while Lee strolls in the garden to await her. After proposing, Holden leaves her and hastens to the nook, seating himself with his back to the French windows. Lee is nearby in the garden finishing his smoke. He sees Holden in his chair, by the light of the latter's cigarette, and then sees Helen come from the lighted ballroom, approach the chair and throw her arms about Holden, sit in his lap and kiss him. Lee turns away in despair and anger and leaves the grounds.
Alice, an old beachcomber's daughter, and Bob, a young fisherman living on an island remote from the mainland, discover a man tied to a rough raft floating in the wreckage of a yacht along the shore. The man thus cast up by the sea is taken to the cabin of the old beachcomber, where he recovers.
A dramatic comparison between the mating habits of animals and the way humans choose their own partners. The film is now considered to be a lost film.
In a primitive log cabin buried among the rugged pines deep in the California mountains lives the Mountain Girl with her grandfather, a man of hoary age.
A picture from the short story of Ellen Farley in "The Cavalier," and screened by John O'Brian. The story is of a girl who tries to be an author and has the usual fate of such. The new interest comes when she enters the home of the publisher because the policemen won't let her sit on the park benches and she wants to hide out of sight of them. She is starving and there is fruit on the table which she eats, but when the "burglar" comes she feels in duty bound to protect the place from him; it is the publisher, and from this meeting the two young people fall in, it always happens in fiction, why say it? But even with this ending the offering has much to commend it. Able direction and good acting give it atmosphere and it will go all right.
Three brothers: Bob, Will and Charlie, all are in love with Mae. Bob, the eldest, is sullen and revengeful, and Mae is afraid of him. Will, the middle brother, is a happy-go-lucky boy with whom she falls in love, and Charlie, the youngest, sacrifices his own feelings for Will, who loves Charlie devotedly. Will and Mae are engaged. During his absence in the city, where he is trying to get a hold in business, so that he and Mae can marry, Bob makes violent love to his brother's fiancée. Charlie comes to her rescue. Learning of the episode, Will later has word sent home that he is dead, and Mae marries Charlie. Some time after this, Will cannot resist coming home to see his mother and Charlie, though he intends that Mae shall not know of his return. Before he can slip away, however, an incident occurs in which he is called upon to save Charlie's life. His presence and his heroism become known to Mae. The inference is that she had a good deal of a struggle to overcome vain regrets.
