Acting
While her eccentric father perfects his latest invention, Nancy Fane wonders how she will clothe her brothers and sisters, and Mammy contemplates stealing the neighbor's chickens for dinner. One day Nancy hears a noise in the abandoned house next door and summons the sheriff, who reveals that the intruder is really Dick Ives, the house's owner.
Standish, a wealthy Northerner, deserts his untutored Southern wife shortly after their daughter Primrose's birth, preferring to wed the cultured but haughty Emily. After her mother's death, Primrose is placed in the care of her uncle, who rears her as a refined and educated young lady. Longing for his daughter, Standish sends for her, and although Primrose, deeply resentful of her father, exaggerates the role of the uncouth mountain girl, he and his ward, Jack Wilton, come to love her deeply.
Cherry, the youngest daughter of Dr. Strickland, marries Martin Lloyd; and Peter, a neighbor who was in love with her, unhappily begins a world tour. Returning home, Peter finds that the doctor has died, leaving the older daughter, Alix, alone; and he marries her out of desperation. Cherry, unhappy with her marriage, leaves her husband and comes to live with her sister and Peter; learning that Peter still loves her, Cherry agrees to run away with him, but they are discovered by his wife and upbraided. Martin is injured in a logging camp accident, and Cherry, realizing that she still loves her husband, goes to him. Peter resolves to free Alix, but she forgives him and they agree to start anew.
Charles Stoddard is a poor artist living with his wife and two children in Greenwich Village. Destitute after his wife dies, he is forced to sell one of his children to a childless rich woman. He soon comes his senses however, and tries to back out of the deal.
Adventures of a youth saved from a shipwreck. He is adopted and grows to love foster sister. A band of smugglers take foul means to connect him with their nefarious enterprises, but the exposure of the leader of the smugglers by another saved from the ship from which Moses was rescued brings a happy conclusion to the romance.
Dora Perkins is a country girl who runs away to New York City. She gets work as a nurse and marries Dr. Howard Fleming, a famed brain surgeon. Supposedly she dies in a fire, and some time later Fleming takes a vacation in the country, where by some odd coincidence he winds up meeting Dolly, Dora's sister. Without realizing her relationship to Dora, he marries her. Soon Dolly is expecting, and not long after, Dora pops up -- she survived the fire, but has been left hopelessly insane.
Laura tells her companions at Miss Syntax's seminary that Jim, her sweetheart, is to visit her that afternoon. Shortly afterward, Jim climbs the fence surrounding the school playground, and after greeting the them girls, shows a copy of the "Grouch Chaser." The girls get a great laugh out of "Silas Bunkum's Boarders Picnic" in which Silas, his wife and their three guests spend a lively day in the country.
After millionaire Erastus Browning and his daughter Charlotte, a playwright, attend a crime play, Charlotte complains that the crook characters are not true to life. To prove her point, aided by supposed criminal Bidwell Wright, Charlotte invites a number of notorious criminals to her home for a party. The crooks all believe they have been invited to form an international family of thieves, headed by Charlotte and her father.
Nellie Wayne, a retired Broadway actress, has a small dog named "Chum", who is part of a vaudeville act and is the sole support of the family.
No description available.
1917 American silent mystery film directed by Ernest C. Warde.
An hotel bellboy, a telephone operator, a travelling salesman and a thief are absorbed by "The Grouch Chaser", a book containing animated cartoon. A few cartoons are interspersed with adventures happening in the hotels' lobby.
Jack goes from business to business, trying to sell ad space in his newspaper. At each stop he catches the boss in a compromising position with a secretary. He writes an editorial about the practice, hinting that he could expose prominent businessmen. Suddenly everyone wants to buy ads in his paper.
Dick Mentor's wife is killed in an auto accident while deserting her husband for another man. Soon after, their child dies, which leaves Dick a confirmed woman hater. Betty, an attractive flirt, learns that Dick is coming to visit and bets Hugh, an admirer, a kiss against a horse that she can win the misogynist's love. By masquerading as a charming twelve-year-old, Betty captivates Dick, but in the process, falls in love with him and is afraid to admit the hoax.
A rich libertine leaves all his money to a college girl who had refused his advances. The ensuing scandal makes her retire to a small town, where she meets the dead man's son.
A bank clerk forges a check to help his girlfriend's father. He's found out, but instead of being arrested he becomes a member of a gang of forgers.
Phoebe-Ann assumes her ill mother's duties as caretaker of the Washington Square studio of Worthington Bryce, who in attempting to become an artist against his wealthy father's wishes, has succeeded only in painting the town red. After her mother dies, Phoebe-Ann moves in with Worthy and his valet Jenkins, and although she is the reason for Worthy's subsequent serious pursuit of art, he credits his improvement to his fiancée Lela Trevor. Lela, however, merely desires his father's money, and really loves Worthy's friend Dick Moreland.
The production vindicated the new feature-length movie format by restoring several characters, plot complications, and atmosphere that had been truncated in Thanhouser’s 1910 version of less than one-sixth the length.
Patty Baring will lose the fine old Washington Square house she is to inherit if her scheming stepfather Josiah Wheeler's plan to acquire it for himself is successful.
