Acting
During the 18th century, German noblewoman Sophia Frederica, who would later become Catherine the Great, travels to Moscow to marry the dimwitted Grand Duke Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. Their arranged marriage proves to be loveless, and Catherine takes many lovers, including the handsome Count Alexei, and bears a son. When the unstable Peter eventually ascends to the throne, Catherine plots to oust him from power.
In 1910 Manhattan, Victoria Van Brett, a bitter spinster heiress lives an isolated life with her sister Caroline. Her domineering urges go into overdrive when their half-brother Rip brings a new bride home to the family’s gloomy Fifth Avenue mansion, built by their late industrialist father. The title refers to a secret soundproofed chamber that the villainess uses to entrap her enemies.
Broadway's most successful producer, John Forrester, is deeply in love with his wife Margaret and dreams of the future when his son Jack will step into his shoes. He sails to England to produce a show but the ship strikes a derelict wreckage and is sinking rapidly. In the ensuing wild panic, Forrester saves many lives, until finally, panic stricken by sudden fear, he dons a woman's clothes and is among the rescued. On the coast of Newfouldland, the villagers, not aware of his true identity, curse him but he is befriended by Alec who helps him conceal his identity. With a planned story of his survival, he returns to New York but cannot face his family or friends after he sees the plaque to his heroism on his New York theatre. Deciding to remain thought of as dead, he becomes a derelict himself, surviving on odd jobs as he watches from afar his now-grown son begin his career as a producer.
Shortly after being made the executor of a wealthy man's estate, a man murders his benefactor. He then makes a play for the widow, who rebuffs him. To escape his arduous pursuit, she takes her little daughter on a trip but dies in an auto accident. The daughter is rescued but disappears. Her grandparents spend years looking for her, as does the executor who killed her father--if she's found she'll inherit the estate and he won't get a penny. He aims to see that she's never found, and if she is he plans to see that she doesn't live long enough to make a claim to the estate.
A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.
Fay Wray plays Jean Hastings, the wealthy and spoiled scion of a factory-owning family led by her irrepressible grandmother. Sparks fly when Jean meets Jim Devlin, the labor leader who’s spearheading a tense worker’s strike against the factory. After circumstances force Jean and Jim to spend a night together in his cabin, she begins questioning her family’s ruthless tactics. This hard-to-see Columbia film by British director Roy William Neill not only features Wray as a brunette but also includes an explosive depiction of labor strife. (Block Cinema)
A European countess, after being betrayed by her lover, goes to live in small town Middle America with her cousins and causes havoc among the rather puritanical community members.
Kid Burns vicariously enjoys life with his wealthy playboy pal. But complications ensue when Kid falls in love with a girl who just happens to be his friend's housemaid.
Ralph Ince stars as Brute Shane, a South Pacific trader who has adopted native girl Saina (Olive Broden). When Shane rescues English lass Nona Deering (Claire Adams) from white slavers, the jealous Saina begins plotting Nona's demise.
1860 ushers in the era of iron ships, Richard Sibley, a builder of wooden ships, stubbornly resists the change, which leads him to forbid the marriage of his daughter Rose to John Rhead, a proponent of the new method. This injustice outrages John's sister Gertrude so much that she breaks off her engagement to Sibley's son Sam. Meanwhile, John and Rose elope.
Left destitute by the death of her young husband, Ethel Wynne lives with her old nurse, Hester O'Brien, a laundress. During the day Ethel works as a clerk in a toy store, leaving her babies in the care of Hester, and in the evenings, helps out by doing ironing and housework. One day, while she is at the store, Harley Clarke, a wealthy bachelor, comes in with a group of boys and lets them select whatever toys they fancy. It is his birthday, and. seeing the children hungrily eyeing the window display, he has decided to celebrate the day by treating them. Ethel is very much impressed by Mr. Clarke's evident kindliness, and after he has left the shop, she gets his name and address from Mayme, the girl who waits on him. When she arrives home, she finds Hester very sick and is obliged to call a doctor, who has her taken to the hospital. Ethel is now in a sorry plight. She has no one to take care of the baby while she is away at work, and no means of supporting herself at home.
