Acting
A beautiful and ambitious young woman leaves her boyfriend for a famous sculptor, and later--after she models for his statue "Miss Ambition"--marries an old but wealthy art collector. However, things don't turn out quite the way she planned.
When a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.
The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.
The opening picture finds Edith in prison where she has been for the last three years. She is a widow and her baby has been placed in an institution. She is paroled, finds her child and steals him from the asylum. After wandering around she finally obtains a position in a department store, where Jim Roberts, superintendent, falls in love with her. They are married, but she fails to tell him of her past. Mabel, also freed from prison, demands that Edith join with her and her side partner in a crime, under threat of exposing her past to Jim.
Nora Dakon, bored with the dullness of her life in a small New Jersey town, leaves her husband and small daughter to run off with Larry Brundage, a wealthy New York City sportsman. Nora's husband kills himself, and, to avoid scandal, Brundage walks out on Nora. She returns to her child and later she becomes a noted singer. Nora moves to Paris, France, and at a party to celebrate the Armistice, she again meets Brundage, who falls madly in love with her daughter, Ruth. To break up their engagement, Nora is forced to tell Ruth of her tragic relationship with Brundage years earlier. Ruth leaves Brundage and soon finds consolation in the love of Tom Cautley, a young art student.
Young Irish physician Peter Blood is exiled as a slave to Barbados, where he and his friend Jeremy are purchased by Colonel Bishop at the behest of his niece Arabella. With other slaves he captures a Spanish galleon and becomes the terror of the Caribbean privateers until offered a commission in the English Navy. He defeats the French at Port Royal, and as a reward he is named governor of Jamaica and marries Arabella.
To avoid marrying the elderly suitor her aunt has chosen for her, young socialite Ivis Van Astor decides to hire Horatio Worthington to pose as her husband. She hopes that as a "married woman" she will pique the romantic interest of Norman Kent, who perceives her as a sweet young thing. Ivis and her hired husband go to Newport, where she begins to flirt with Norman, who discovers her ruse and decides to teach her a lesson. He stages a duel over Ivis with Horatio and pretends to die. Once Ivis is properly chagrined, Norman "recovers," Ivis' aunt falls in love with Horatio, and all ends happily.
Robert Kincairn, the dissolute son of a British colonel, is gallant enough to take the blame for a robbery perpetrated by his fiancee Enid. Thrown out of his home, he changes his name and joins the army.
Bobbie Walters, a cab driver in a Midwest city who is trying to save enough money to marry his sweetheart, Dorothy Wright, an attendant at the cigar and newspaper counter of a large hotel, is able to amass $15,000. He acts like a millionaire and soon is fleeced of the money by two Wall Street swindlers. Broke, Bobbie is forced to work as a bellboy at Dorothy's hotel. After a series of struggles and adventures, Bobby wins a fortune in the oil fields of Louisiana, despite the efforts of his rivals, who dynamite his oil derricks.
Kate Claybourne is too busy with her literary career to notice that her husband, Bartley, is providing the finery for her flapper sister, Peggy Kendricks. When she does find out, she seeks a divorce, with the understanding that Bartley will marry Peggy. But Peggy, who toys with many men's hearts, marries Ralph Demarest, thereby cutting off Ralph from his disapproving father's fortune. Peggy accepts money from Horace Demarest to leave Ralph but then flings it in Ralph's face and urges him to make a man of himself. Peggy stands by Ralph, wins Horace's affection, and reunites the Claybournes.
George Bryan Brummel, a British military officer, loves Lady Margery, the betrothed of Lord Alvanley. Despite her own desperate love for Brummel, she submits to family pressure and marries Lord Alvanley. Brummel, broken-hearted, embarks upon a life of revelry.
Mrs. Drew is so enamored with children that Mr. Drew decides to regress into infantilism so she'll pay more attention to him.
Carrying on with the antique business of her deceased father, Jacqueline Nevers is asked to catalog James Desboro's collection. When they fall in love, it induces the jealousy of Elena Clydesdale, a married woman who is also in love with James.
Young Tony, unable to make a living in crowded and fast-paced London, goes to South America in search of his fortune. He soon becomes the owner of a saloon and dance hall. One of the dancers in his place, Maxine, falls in love with him, but Tony is still in love with his childhood sweetheart Una, although Una is now a "party girl" back in London and has forgotten about Tony. However, Tony comes into an unexpected inheritance, along with a title, and returns to London for Una. Although disappointed with Una's current lifestyle, he asks her to marry him despite her "indiscretions". However, the night before they are to be married Una confesses a deep, dark secret to Tony that could change their lives forever.
John Burkett Ryder, "the richest man in the world," determines to discredit a judicial decision which works against the interest of his millions by discrediting its author, Judge Rossmore, and causes impeachment charges to be laid against him in Congress. The judge's daughter Shirley Rossmore, learns of his trouble and returns home from Paris, where she has won success as a writer. She is loved by Jefferson Ryder, son of the magnate who is slowly killing her father.
Social-climbing Arnold St. Clair abandons his pregnant lover Myra to marry wealthy Adeline Stratton. Myra, looking to protect her child, marries Hugh Roland. Adeline's uncle Mark discovers Arnold's secret, and to keep him quiet, Arnold kills him.
Cyma Roget, a beautiful young woman, has fallen under the influence of the evil Hindu scientist Chandra Dak, who can cast her at will into a hypnotic state resembling death. Chandra Dak's power over Cyma wanes as his love for her grows, however, and one night she escapes and takes refuge in the atelier of three young and struggling Bohemian artists. During her stay at the atelier, she becomes an artist's model and forms an attachment to one of the artists, Paul Bridere, but soon Chandra Dak falls out of love with Cyma and sends her into a hypnotic coma.
While traveling to meet her sweetheart, Richard Carr, in the capital of the Grand Duchy of Bonaluria, Peggy Dare's train compartment door is thrust open and a little boy is thrown at her feet. Peggy is so taken with the child, who tells her that his name is Manouche, that she looks after him. She foils an attempt to kill Manouche, before arriving in Bonaluria where she learns from Richard that the boy is really the Grand Duke.
Alcoholic playboy Wallace MacDonald (as Bruce Armstrong) would like to sober up and become more responsible, after a drinking accident causes him to cripple little brother Pat Moore (as Jimmy Armstrong). Still, the lure of liquor makes him to sneak drinks at home, and go out partying with carefree showgirl Clara Bow (as Marilyn Merrill). He's promised Ms. Bow he'll quit drinking and gambling. Further complicating Mr. MacDonald's life are the bad checks he's been accumulating. Nasty Stuart Holmes (as Tom Canfield) and Tom Santschi (as "Big Joe" Snead) force MacDonald to join their diamond smuggling racket, in lieu of payment.
A nobleman studying for the priesthood abandons his vocation in 18th Century France when he falls in love with a beautiful, but reluctant, courtesan.
