Acting
When John Harlow loses his sweetheart Jenny Larkin as a result of poverty, he vows never to be broke again and leaves town. He moves to the city, and several years later, after pinching his pennies, he becomes financially successful. One night, while at a dance hall, he runs into Jenny who is now employed as a dance hall hostess. Jenny decides to fleece John and sets him up with Laura, one of her colleagues. Laura is innocent of the scheme, and she and John fall in love. Jenny becomes jealous and attempts to reclaim John by telling him that Laura is having an affair with Richard Crane. John believes her until he discovers that Crane has just married Laura's mother. He proposes to Laura, and she accepts on the condition that he relinquish his spendthrift ways.
Following her grandfather's death, spirited young Susan Gaskell is placed in the charge of her cousin Martha Brown, the housekeeper for wealthy bachelor Bernard Marshall. Distressed by his brother Ted's involvement with adventuress Eva Thornton, Bernard decides to divert the young man's attention with Susan and hires Henri Delafaire to dress the girl in modern clothing and educate her in deportment and manners.
Naive Eileen Rodney (Dorothy Dalton) is duped by the high-minded talk of Raymond Moreland (William Conklin). But when she discovers that he wants to take her to India without the benefit of a marriage license, she balks and instead weds her guardian, John Harland (Thurston Hall). However, she had written some letters to Moreland, and these come back to haunt her when he tries to use them for blackmail.
Johnny Carroll joins a gang of thieves and is arrested by Detective McQuade for picking Judge Kerrigan's pocket. However, the judge remembers Johnny from his hometown of Meadville, and persuades him to reform. The young man returns home, takes a job in a grocery store, and renews his romance with Betty Bedford. Later, Johnny's former gang arrive in town and again try to recruit him. They induce him to crack the safe in Mr. Bedford's store, threatening to reveal his criminal past if he refuses. Upon opening the safe, Johnny refuses to be a party to the crime and fights the gang. Betty hears the commotion and returns with help. After the thieves are captured, Johnny and Betty are married.
Nell Gwyn and King Charles II fall in love after meeting at a fox hunt. Nell soon learns the jealous Duchess of Portsmouth is a spy and conspiring with the Duke of Buckingham to place Charles at the mercy of the King of France. Nell boldly disguises herself as a fashionable young blade and wins the confidence of the Duchess. Now entrusted with the delivery of important documents, she makes sure they go to the King of England rather than the King of France.
Wall Street broker Harry Fenton is just about to declare bankruptcy. He uses his fiancee, Emily Heath, to get a loan from wealthy businessman Stephen Strange. Infatuated with Emily, Strange tries to bribe her into breaking her engagement with the crooked Fenton. She takes the check, but then begins to have second thoughts about just who it is she wants.
Upon observing the adoration that track star Culver Covington receives, his friend, J. Wallingford Speed, decides to impress Helen Blake by also posing as a sprinter. Meanwhile, when Roberta Keap decides to retire to her Western ranch while awaiting her divorce, Speed, Helen and various friends accompany her while her husband Donald takes up residence at the neighboring Gallagher ranch.
Elmer Day and his wife, Eunice, are visiting Gilbert and Maud Stone, and the two husbands, wishing to attend a masquerade, plead business engagements to escape from their wives. But the wives, discovering the invitation, also attend, and matters are complicated by changes and substitutions of costumes and the appearance of Mrs. Day's aunt and uncle. After a police raid there are general explanations and reconciliations at the police court.
Living up to a reputation for disregarding rules, author Sebastian Maure, having fallen in love with Ghirlaine Bellamy, kidnaps her to get her away from her fiancé, Vincent Pamfort. Sebastian takes Ghirlaine to a small island where, because of the force of his personality, he is treated almost as a god by the natives. During her captivity, Ghirlaine exerts a strong influence on Sebastian, and he vows to make himself into a better man.
At the death of Count de Beaulieu, his daughter Jeanne learns that her father had been the arch-criminal known as The Phantom. The only other person who knew her father's identity was his lieutenant, Franz Leroux, who now demands that Jeanne marry him in return for his silence.
Gerry Sands dreams of being an editor but is forced by his employer, locksmith Nick Barket, to crack safes. During a robbery he experiences an epiphany and stops. His sweetheart Polly Ann Kerry is thrilled and gets him work at the hotel where she works, but Red Devlin, the brains behind the burglaries, frames Gerry for theft. In hopes that Gerry will resume the thefts Devlin bails him out, but Gerry leaves town for work on a Western newspaper. Afterwards Polly exposes the crooks, she falls ill. Risking arrest Gerry returns and goes to the police station seeking help locating her. The police captain gives him twenty-four hours’ probation. Upon finding Polly the police captain vouches for Gerry's integrity, and they marry.
An orphan named Oliver Twist meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.
To avenge her sister's disgrace and death, Audrey Graham leaves her theatrical engagements in New York, and in one of the caravans of the early '70's seeks Hell's Paradise, a mining camp to which Steele, the betrayer, has gone. The caravan nearly perishes in Death Valley, and Audrey, disguised as a child, goes to seek relief from a band of outlaws. Her subterfuge is perceived and she is given her liberty only on condition that she bring Steele to the bandit, who married a woman Steele deceived. Audrey keeps her word but turns aside the happiness within her grasp for the sake of the other woman.
Wealthy stockbroker Lemuel Morewood wants his sons, Billy and Tom, to learn the business and marry Emily Donelson and Frances Berkeley, respectively. Billy, however, is infatuated with Mrs. Bruce Guilford, a leader of the "smart set," while Tom loves boxing. At a dinner for which Lemuel hires Bessie Brayton, an orphan from the West, to entertain, Lemuel responds to Bessie's taunts about being old-fashioned by winning a lot of money gambling with Major Bellamy Didsworth, who tries to swindle Bessie, and leaves with her to spend it.
Retired gem merchant Peter J. Martin hires detective Dan McRae to guard a large diamond which he plans to present to his daughter Ruth on her twenty-first birthday. Notorious jewel thief Gentleman Joe overpowers McRae, however, and takes his place at Ruth's party.
Billy Porter sells his ranch and travels to San Francisco to try his hand in the business world. But he's barely off the ferryboat before he gets waylaid by a little newsboy and the boy's pugilist father, "Knockout" McClusky.
While working in China for Nathan Goldberg, a New York Jewish importer, Chattfield Bruce comes to admire the Robin Hood philosophy of Wong Lee, who gives to the poor all the food, clothing and money that he steals from the rich. After Chattfield informs Wong Lee of a betrayal among his gang, Wong Lee gives him a ring that is guaranteed to give the wearer the allegiance of any Chinese throughout the world.
20 two reels episodic dramatic serial now lost. (1) Liquor and the Law (1915); (2) The Tenement House Evil (1915); (3) The Traction Grab (1915); (4) The Power of the People (1916); (5) Grinding Life Down (1916); (6) The Railroad Monopoly (1916); (7) America Saved from War (1916); (8) Old King Coal (1916); (9) The Insurance Swindlers (1916); (10) The Harbor Transportation Trust (1916); (11) The Illegal Bucket Shops (1916); (12) The Milk Battle (1916); (13) The Powder Trust and the War (1916); (14) The Iron Ring (1916); (15) The Patent Medicine Danger (1916); (16) The Pirates of Finance (1916); (17) Queen of the Prophets (1916); (18) The Hidden City of Crime (1916); (19) The Photo Badger Game (1916); and (20) The Final Conquest (1916).
Carillo and his wife Selma are devoted to each other. As a sculptor, Carillo has achieved the qualities of honor and love until the Devil seeks to overturn these accomplishments by sending his imps Lust, Drink and Self Pity to the artist's home. Carillo succumbs to lust and sells his honor to the Devil.
Mary Thorne is the quarter-breed daughter of prospector Marshall Thorne. She has just returned from college and when a pair of hunters, Mark Hamilton and Chester Martin, come along, she decides it would be fun to dress in native garb and fool them. Both men find themselves attracted to her, even though Indians were taboo for whites in the racist days of the 1910s.
