Hugh Hoffman

The Most Shocking Film of 1923! Directed by Herbert Blache, The Untameable dramatizes the then-sensational subject of dual personality, with Gladys Walton in the dual role of Joy and her whip-toting, brutal, sadistic alter-ego Edna, and Etta Lee as her faithful Asian lesbian maid.

Universal star Laura LaPlante stars in this lighthearted comedy based on Sophie Kerr's magazine story, Relative Values. Octavia Lowden (LaPlante) has virtually become a drudge in order to support her sponging relatives -- flapper sister Eloise (Lucille Ricksen), hypochondriac Aunt Minnie (Lydia Yeamans Titus), and storytelling Uncle Eph (James O. Barrows). Only Octavia's frail grandmother (Jennie Lee) really needs help. When Octavia's sweetheart, photographer Pritchett Spence (T. Roy Barnes), discovers the toll these bloodsuckers are exacting, he plots with the family doctor to rescue her.

Hiram Ward, a cynical businessman, is having trouble with his employees when Caroline Weatherbee arrives and claims to be a distant relative. Her natural charm brings about a peaceful settlement of a strike, but she returns to her southern home for fear of bringing scandal to Hiram.

At a three-ring circus, 'Spangles' Delancy, a beautiful bareback horse rider, falls in love with a wanted man, Dick Radley, who uses the circus as a hideout. The show's owner Big Bill Bowman also falls in love with Spangles-- But only one man can have her.

Colonel Faraday asks his daughter, Diana, to recover some letters he wrote to Yvette, an adventuress, when she tries to blackmail him.

Broadway chorus girl Jean Crosby visits her sister in Murphysburg and finds that not only has her brother-in-law, Lysander Sprowl, squandered all the money she has sent, but the leading male citizens--all members of the Purity League--who were so friendly to her in New York will not now give her a second glance. With the help of newspaperman Toby Caswell, however, she anonymously publishes her life story in the town newspaper, thus frightening the men into offering Jean "hush money."

Basil Van Bibber, son of a prominent family, and Nora Schultz, daughter of a butcher who invented a sausage machine that made the Van Bibbers rich, pretend to be in love to please their parents; but when Nora tries to protect the young Van Bibber from a charge of reckless driving, they find they really are in love.

Gunman Chuck Connelly is hired to silence the new district attorney who has been pounding the graft organizations. Chuck goes to the D. A.'s home to threaten him, but is taken off guard when his victim's little daughter leans trustfully on his knee and looks up at him with a smile. The D. A. ignores Chuck's warning, and the gang orders the gunman to execute him. Chuck breaks into the house, but sees the little girl again and is unable to complete his task. Instead, he seeks out his girl friend, Annie Mangan, a Salvation Army reformer, and swears to end his life of crime.

While working in an overall factory Mary Ann McKee sends mash notes in the overalls prepared for shipment. She is involved in a robbery perpetrated by her boyfriend, Red Mike, but escapes and goes to the town from which she has received an answer to one of her notes.

Leslie Adams, secretary to the city editor of a newspaper, persuades him to let her write up a society affair. Her efforts result in a libel suit against the paper, and Leslie is told to prove her story or join the ranks of the unemployed.

Gretchen Ann runs away from her foster parents but is sheltered first by Bill Kelley, a train brakeman, then by elderly oilman Pete Sebastian. After Gretchen keeps Sebastian from being duped by a medium, he sends her to a fashionable school, asking that she agree to marry him when she returns.

Marcel Murphy, a telephone operator with society aspirations, overhears Mrs. Benson's conversation describing a party she is planning for her son, Ralph, and wangles an invitation by imitating Mrs. Benson's voice. At the party a maid accuses Marcel of the theft of another guest's jewelry, but she appeals to Mr. Benson, who covers up for her by describing Marcel as the daughter of an old friend and by secretly installing her in a hotel suite.