Acting
Paris, France, 1482. Frollo, Chief Justice of benevolent King Louis XI, gets infatuated by the beauty of Esmeralda, a young Romani girl. The hunchback Quasimodo, Frollo's protege and bell-ringer of Notre Dame, lives in peace among the bells in the heights of the immense cathedral until he is involved by the twisted magistrate in his malicious plans to free himself from Esmeralda's alleged spell, which he believes to be the devil's work.
In the tiny Latin American country of Altamura, American architect, sculptor, and adventurer Larry Donovan is executing a magnificent palace for the vain, diminutive Governor Romero, who is angered by Larry's lack of respect. After leading his co-workers in a riotous Fourth of July celebration, Larry responds to the insults of Generalissimo Pedro Mendez by knocking him out.
Marcia Grey is wrongly convicted on trumped-up evidence of a German. After serving her term, she rebuilds her life and marries well.
Coming upon a burning cabin, David Brent discovers the body of Jim Drew, who had been killed in a fight with a drunken Indian. Brent finds in Drew's pocket a letter announcing the impending arrival of Drew's daughter Lorelei. Feeling an obligation to Drew, who once saved his life, Brent journeys to San Francisco to meet Lorelei, who mistakes him for her father. Brent cannot bring himself to break the bad news to her and does not correct her false assumption.
"King Spruce" is personified in John Barrett, lumber magnate of the North woods. His domineering character is shown when his daughter Elva falls in love with a school teacher, Dwight Wade. Barrett conspires with his foreman, McLeod, to entice Wade away to the lumber camps, and finally decides to accompany the gang of men himself. He starts in to eject and burn out all "skeeters" who have settled on the land without domiciliary rights. Wade has shown his fighting blood by thrashing McLeod for an act of cruelty, and he now vainly opposes Barrett from motives of humanity. From the first shack burned emerges a wild girl, Kate Arden, who sets the forest afire in revenge.
A wayward wife abandons her husband but finds redemption by preventing a railway accident and finding her way back to him. The full 5-reel feature is believed lost; A 1926 abridgement of roughly 12 minutes survives.
To decide a wager, two young millionaires decide to take a vagrant from a lodging house and give him the name and wealth of one of the pair, to see what he will do. By mistake they seize upon a young newspaper reporter down on his luck. The reporter enters into the spirit of the idea and wins the girl of his love and gets a better job on his old paper.
Disgusted when the police department fails to apprehend the murderer of her guardian, Henri Du Bois, Celeste decides to track down the criminal herself. Her only clue is a cuff link dropped near the scene of the crime on which a sphinx is engraved, and with it, she wanders through Paris' tough Moulin Noir district. When she notices a young man wearing a tie pin of identical design, she cultivates his acquaintance and eventually asks him to visit her in her home. His suspicious behavior there convinces Celeste that he is the guilty party, and although she has fallen in love with him, she has him arrested, whereupon she learns that he is Du Bois' missing son, Andre. Further detective work reveals that the real murderer is Celeste's rejected suitor, Raoul Laverne. Upon his confession, Andre is released and eventually marries Celeste.
After healing the leg of the murderer John Wilkes Booth — responsible for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln — Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, considered part of the atrocious conspiracy, is sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to the sinister Shark Island Prison.
En route to Sevilla, Central America, Richard Morton rescues a beautiful girl whom he knows only as Dolores from bandits and learns that she also is en route to Sevilla. He arrives to find his father under attack by Sevilla revolutionist. Intending to manage his father's ranch, he instead gets involved with the revolution, saves President Dominguez from his enemy Rodolfo Emanon, and learns that Dolores, who has consented to be his wife, is the president's daughter.
A countess boasts that she can easily pull off a jewelery robbery. A professional jewel thief beats her to the punch, but then finds that his newfound loot has been stolen by a pretty young woman.
An American missionary is gradually seduced by a courtly warlord holding her in Shanghai.
Bubbles is a tomboy who resists her Aunt Amelia's attempts to transform her into a lady. One day, while dressed in masculine attire, she meets Jack Corrigan and they become friends.
Roy Thomas tries to obtain evidence of smuggling to prevent his father from ending up in jail.
A reformed gunfighter battles a crooked sheriff who used to be a member of his gang.
Wealthy wastrel Neil Sparks devotes more attention to the pursuit of pleasure than to his inherited oil business. Neil's neglect allows two schemers, Craig and Abbott, to siphon the Sparks' Texas oil through the construction of an illegal pipeline. Upon receiving notification that his wells are running dry, and in an attempt to rid himself of the unwelcome attentions of his mercenary fiancée, Bess Kinloch, Neil ventures West to investigate, using an assumed name. Discovering the theft, Neil sends for his butler, and the two of them force the crooks to buy a parcel of land and deed the property to Myrtle Pratt, whose father had been swindled and murdered by the scoundrels. Justice served, Neil returns East to be followed by Myrtle and her five brothers, who arrive during his engagement party to Bess. Neil shocks his guests by announcing that the children are his, and he and Myrtle wed.
Weak-willed Roy Hanford, driven from his father's house by the coldness of his stone-hearted wife and the sanctimonious attitude of his father, the deacon, flees to the city.
After his father's sudden death, Dick Browning learns that three financiers swindled Mr. Browning of his money. Because his mother is destitute, Dick fences the only remaining jewel in his father's estate, but when she dies, he joins a gang of crooks, vowing revenge on the financiers. Dressed in feminine attire and known as Mary Brown, Dick robs two of the men. In the meantime, he has fallen in love with Betty, a woman who was lured to the crooks' lair by one of his cronies.
A young pacifist, after refusing on principle to defend her sweetheart's honor and being banished in disgrace, joins a riverboat troupe as a singer, acquires a reputation as a crackshot after a saloon brawl in which the villain of the piece accidentally kills himself with his own gun, falls in love with his former fianceé's sister and finally bullies an apprehensive family into accepting him.
A trio of money-hungry women rent a luxurious penthouse, spending their dough on drink and debonair clothing, backbiting and catfighting as they steal each other's boyfriends.
