Acting
The original concept of the show was to allow the viewer to see the inner workings of a movie studio and featured interviews with MGM stars and explanations of how movies were made. Later, the format changed to show edited versions of MGM films.
When Alice Winton's brother embezzles funds belonging to his employer, Benjamin Graves, a promoter of worthless mining stock, she saves him from arrest by signing over to Graves a hefty promissory note. Later Graves deliberately wrecks the mining company in which Alice's invalid father has invested his money, and the shock from the resulting bankruptcy, kills him. Alice marries Robert Burton, a noted criminologist who believes in the theory, "once a thief, always a thief," and the couple takes up temporary residence with District Attorney Jeffrey Miller. In Miller's safe are incriminating documents concerning Graves's illegal activities, and Graves, knowing of their existence, blackmails Alice into stealing them by showing her some compromising love letters to which he has forged her name.
Marcellus Holloway, a rich widower, buries himself among his books and allows his only daughter, Penelope, to bring herself up.
Colonel Ferris, a wealthy farmer in northern California, is strongly opposed to hydraulic mining, a new method developed during the gold rush of the 1870's, which is flooding the area's prosperous farmlands. Despite Ferris' political stance, Jared Whitney, a mining engineer from the East, becomes friends with the colonel's son Lance and falls in love with his daughter Serena. Family tensions deepen when the colonel's brother Ralph gives up farming to go to San Francisco to work for his wife Rosanna's father, Harrison McCooey, a leader in the mining venture. When Lance follows Ralph, the colonel, focusing his anger on Jared, forbids him to see Serena.
Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
An infatuated debutante renews a Shakespearean actor's running feud with his leading lady.
Paul Bonard an artist, loses his memory when he receives a blow on the head from one of two apaches fighting over Wildcat, a sultry stepper in a cafe. He becomes an apache himself, falls in love with Wildcat and paints her portrait--his masterpiece. Wildcat learns Paul's identity and restores him to his family, though realizing that she will lose him. Surgery restores Paul's memory, but some subconscious force guides him back to the cafe and Wildcat's love.
Aviator Richard March, is shot down over France, though not badly hurt in the crash, he steals a kiss from Marion Weston, the Red Cross nurse whose ambulance comes to his aid. After the war, Richard resumes his professional life as an actor and meets Marion by chance at a skating party. At first she snubs him, but he soon charms her, and they become constant companions. Marion later believes that Richard is having an affair with Suzette, his leading lady, and she again turns the cold shoulder toward him. Richard writes a play based on his own experiences, and Marion comes to see she misjudged him. Connie, who is jealous of Richard's love for Marion, attempts to compromise him. Connie herself later confesses her scheme to discredit Richard, and Richard and Marion are reunited.
Mary Boyne, who made shirts at four dollars a week, had no place for love in her life - only despair and hate for the son of the man who had plunged her family into deepest distress. Peter Kenwitz loved Mary, but because he was a mathematician and a pessimist by trade, his love was as hopeless as her chance for happiness.
A tale set during the 1916 Irish Easter Rebellion against the British.
After Mary Allen drops a blood-stained knife, Judge Robert Craigin's dead body lies next to her. Mary secures a secretarial position with Judge Bruce Craigin, the dead man's younger brother. Professor Galt, a criminal psychologist, and Detective Hooker believe that Mary committed the crime. Craigin and Mary fall in love and are married. Galt persuades Craigin to let Mary furnish their new home because a clue to the solving of the murder is the artistic furnishings of the room in which the murder victim was found. The similarity between the decor of the house and the crime room convinces Craigin that Mary murdered his brother, but Thomas Gray confesses to the crime. He had been in the room waiting to avenge his wife's wrongs on Craigin. When Craigin attacked Mary, she lifted her paper-knife and fainted, and Gray killed Craigin, leaving the murder weapon in Mary's hand. Mary and Bruce find happiness together.
German Julius Reuter sends 19th-century news by carrier pigeon and then by wire, founding a news agency.
In a small Nova Scotia, Canada, fishing village, Charity Byfleet marries William Pennland, a romantic soldier of fortune, just before he leaves on a long voyage. The irrepressible William, however, soon initiates a flirtation with the captain's wife and is thrown overboard. He swims to shore, landing on a rough and isolated stretch of the Nova Scotia coast, where he is found half-dead and nursed back to health by Hagar Levanti.
To spite her domineering father, Eastern girl Lucy Fox pursues an unsuitable suitor to a small Western hamlet where she obtains a job as a manicurist. A local rancher (Buck Jones), who has fallen for the girl, does his best to persuade her not too marry the bounder.
A British doctor and his son's Austrian governess have an affair and are accused of killing his wife.
After the woman who raised him claims he's not her son, Richard searches for clues about his identity. Urged on by his mentor, Capt. Randolph Courtney, Richard focuses on Julia Trent Anders, a middle-aged actress who just might be his real mother. But soon, Richard begins to fall for Julia's stepdaughter. Amidst the upheaval, Richard schemes to return Julia to the stage -- but he's in for another big surprise.
Jacob Spraggins, veteran general of a breaker-boy-to-multi-millionaire campaign, is driven by a troublesome conscience into the ranks of the amateur Haroun al Raschids, who infest Bagdad-on-the-Subway.
After inheriting a fortune from an uncle they barely and carelessly cared for during his last years, the Welbys become social-climbing snobs to the point of ignoring old friends and breaking off marriage engagements. A lost film.
The Guilty One is a 1924 mystery film.
Lass and her six little puppies are lying near the kennel upon the suburban estate of Mr. Jameson, the wealthy New York broker. Mrs. Jameson, his wife, is walking about the estate accompanied by her six months' old baby and its nurse. She stops and speaks kindly to Lass and her little family. Picking up one of the little dogs, she playfully puts it in the carriage with the baby and petting the little animal, returns it to its mother. She continues upon her walk. This same little puppy strays away from its little brothers and sisters and reaching the railroad tracks, it wanders into the next village, where it is met by a crowd of youngsters that are gathered about the station. They playfully abuse the little animal.
