Acting
Florence Billings was an American silent screen actress.
Harry Ryan, a wealthy spendthrift, falls in love with Mary Gardner, a beauty shop employee, and marries her. Mary, discouraged because she is unable to cure Ryan of his dissolute ways, leaves him. She returns after a change of heart to find her husband bedridden and despondent. At the moment of reconciliation it is revealed that in reality Mary, unattached, was only dreaming, as the result of reading a book entitled Marriage Morals, by J. C. Black.
False Gods (1919)
After her family is financially ruined in a lawsuit by John Rutherford of Wall Street, Carol Raymond leaves Virginia to set matters straight. Three weeks later, after marrying Bruce Armitage, the now deceased Rutherford's nephew and heir, Carol tells her father the story in a letter: When she arrived, she succeeded in making Armitage fall in love with her. However, Armitage's twin brother, Alan Rutherford, and an adventuress lured her to a roadhouse. After she drank much champagne, Rutherford, appearing as Armitage, attempted to assault her until she threatened to jump from a balcony. When she saw both Rutherford and Armitage together, she learned that it was the disinherited twin brother who pursued the suit. She then married Armitage. As she finishes the letter, Rutherford, after binding Armitage in the cellar, enters her bedroom, but Armitage escapes just in time to save Carol from Rutherford's embrace.
When financier John Rossmore is found murdered in his library, suspicion points to his butler Hedges, who was instrumental in obtaining his divorce. At the trial, when the jury retires, Tom Smith, a young businessman who has sworn he does not know Rossmore, holds out for acquittal and tells his story to the jurors.
Believing her husband to have died on an allied mission to Russia, wealthy Englishwoman Rosalind Dane devotes her life to her three-year-old daughter Patty. When a gypsy band arrives, Rosalind is strangely attracted to them and permits them to camp on her estate. She falls in love with one of them, Ben Galli, and throws a lawn fete, during which Rowena, a fortune-teller, predicts that there will be a tragic death in her family and that she will leave with the gypsies.
Richard Gordon's lack of religious conviction prompts him to live a life of crime. When he demands to be included in a scheme to corner the food market, the conspirators agree to accept him as a partner provided that he contribute $100,000 to the operation. In order to obtain the money, Richard blackmails Harry Palmer with the aid of his girl
Bill Matthews, foreman for Bethel Steel, works hard to perfect a means for the elimination of waste in steel manufacture. Philip Colt, inheritor of the steel mill, is in love with Daphne Van Steer, whose father is in financial straits. One day, visiting the mill with Philip, Daphne witnesses Bill thrash an insolent workman, and is impressed with his strength though she then snubs him. Bill soon perfects his invention, and coming into great wealth, resolves to become Daphne's social equal by employing socialite May Larrabee to coach him.
Alan Croft, a young aviator and a girl from a strict English background are stranded on a cannibal island when their plane crashes on the way to Australia. The natives worship them, believing them to be gods, until a native girl discovers that the pilot is mortal. Giving up hope of rescue, they marry in the sight of God, but when they are found by a search plane Alan is wounded and left for dead. Barbara is spurned by her friends and family as having sinned, but Alan returns to claim her legally.
Young New York playboy Stephen Winthrop inherits the entire estate of his wealthy Canadian uncle but pays scant attention to it, preferring the "party" life in New York. He is unaware that the family attorney, Frank Garson, has forbidden hunting on the Winthrop lands in Canada, cutting off the livelihoods of the local villagers. Mary Cartier, goddaughter of the village priest, travels to New York to try to get Stephen to change the policy. He returns with her to Canada, sees what's going on, and lifts the ban, then decides to stay in Canada. Mary returns to New York to try to help Garson's abandoned and ill wife and child, but the wife dies, and Mary brings back the small child to Canada. The villagers, mistaking the child for Mary's, are outraged at this "scarlet woman" flaunting her illegitimate child and attempt to drive her out. Complications ensue.
To please her once wealthy mother, Amy Terrell fraternizes with members of high society who find her entertaining because of her beauty and charm. At one of Mrs. Van Trant's house parties, Amy is requested by her hostess to amuse Andrew Masters, an influential businessman who has an aversion to society women. Impersonating an old-fashioned girl, Amy wins Masters until he learns of her deception and denounces her.
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.
This silent drama's story is based on the Broadway play Hail and Farewell by William Hurlbut.
French Secret Service agent and boxer Henri D'Alour uncovers a plot to con the government out of millions of francs in its purchase of machinery.
To raise funds for the American effort in The Great War heiress Betty Hallowell decides to lease her beautiful country house to Mrs. Wentworth, a wealthy widow whose son Tom is recuperating from injuries received overseas. When Mrs. Wentworth suddenly demands the services of a maid for the summer, Betty, unable to secure a servant on such short notice, dons a dark wig and poses as "French maid Bettina." Tom and “Bettina” fall in love much to his mother’s dismay but when the deception is finally revealed all ends well.
A playwright, Wakefield, Jr., turns detective when his father is killed after nearly capturing two brothers in possession of four rubies belonging to the British Museum. An investigation suggests that "the Breen girl" is responsible for Wakefield's death, and the younger Wakefield pursues her across the ocean to the United States.
A 1918 film directed by Charles Miller.
Defying her obdurate Colonel father Betty Lewis elopes with Bob Hale. When Bob is killed in an automobile accident, the colonel discovers Betty is pregnant and after the birth cruelly tells Betty that the baby died while placing the child in an orphanage. When Betty later marries Ken Tyler she stays silent about her previous marriage, at the colonel's request. One day while visiting an orphanage with her sister, Barbara, who hopes to adopt, she finds her own daughter. Taking her home she admits to Ken the child's true parentage. Angered at first, he is persuaded by his own mother and accepts the child.
Orphan Lois Walton is treated unkindly by her aunt, who has her placed in a reformatory. She and the other inmates are badly abused but are afraid to complain, and she remains silent after a riot is subdued. She arouses the sympathy of Peter Madison, a lawyer who conducts an investigation.
The film opens with an animated prologue about Adam and Eve, by Tony Sarg. The viewer is then introduced to a young couple, Eve and Jim, who are having troubles in their marriage. Eve is frustrated by housework and dreams of living a wealthier lifestyle. While out shopping, Eve runs into an old flame, Don, who has earned his fortune overseas.
After a prologue where we are shown the backgrounds of Wilhelm II and Woodrow Wilson, we see the story of Conrad Le Brett from Alsace-Lorraine. Forced to fight for Germany Conrad, sees soldiers taking girls into a church to rape them and kills one who murders a baby. Shot in the encounter he is taken to a Brussels hospital run by nurse Edith Cavell where he falls in love with American nurse, Amy Gordon. After Edith Cavell assassination and the murder of Conrad’s sister Vilma by the evil Lieutenant Ober Conrad honors her dying request that he go to America and defend Alsace-Lorraine's reputation. Once there he convinces President Wilson that Alsatians should be allowed to enlist. Fighting with the "doughboys," Conrad kills Ober, and after the armistice, returns to Amy.