Acting
Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.
Landladies Polly Smith and Marie Jones, who operate boardinghouses on the same side of the street, are afflicted with numerous petty envies and jealousies but nevertheless are the best of friends. Polly invests in the stock market and begins to reap rewards, but she is unable to persuade Marie to use her life's savings to buy shares of American Cheese or Brazilian Bananas. Meanwhile, Marie's daughter, Genevieve, and Polly's son, William, just back from college, fall in love; but an argument between the ladies breaks up the romance; and smarting under Polly's patronizing manner, Marie plunges into the market herself and with the winnings is able to stage a society splurge at a fashionable resort.
Ricardo, a young law student in his home town of Madrid, is a carefree playboy who loves nightclubs and courting pretty girls. His father hopes to instill a more serious attitude in his son by transferring him to a school in the rural town of Santiago. At Santiago, his father's old friend is to be his guardian. When Ricardo arrives at Santiago he joins a fraternity, and continues his carefree lifestyle while serenading and courting his guardian's daughter, Carmina.
Robert Fisher Clarke is a promoter who comes to a small Canadian town. He harnesses the power of the rapids and builds a pulp mill. One of his employees, Jim Belding, has a fiancée, Elsie Worden, with whom Clarke falls in love.
In this drama, a traveling troupe of actors find themselves in danger of becoming unemployed when their manager up and leaves. Two of the actors decide to marry and settle down. The lead actor helps set up the rest of the troupe with some performances. He then destroys the new marriage. Later the woman and the head actor fall in love. He then gives her the lead role in his newest show.
An investigator is asking Mrs. Gubbins about a William Foster, who was a friend of her stepson Jimmy. Both are listed as killed in action during the Great War. It is Armistice Day, 1918, and the war is over. Who should be strolling down the street but Jimmy Gubbins, Bill 'Jones' and another man who has lost his memory. They are ghosts as the official records list them as dead and not as escaped P.O.W's. Jimmy's mother is not happy to see that Jimmy is still living as she has been spending the death benefits, but she is happy to see Bill as there is a large reward for him. No one knows much about the third one, called 'Spoofy', except that he can steal anything at anytime and that gets everyone is trouble.
A disloyal wife abandons her husband and child to become a cabaret dancer. Her lover goes to jail to protect her. In his absence she marries an artist whom she deserts when her lover is released from prison. Aware of the futility of awaiting her return, the second husband returns to his birthplace, Martinique, and to his childhood sweetheart.
A fresh young beauty becomes an old maid waiting for her suitor to return from the Napoleonic wars. When he returns, clearly disappointed, she disguises herself as her own niece in order to test his loyalty.
The Dale's need money for their sick mother and Bart Travis, having found gold, says he will provide it. Duke Remsden learns of the strike and waylays Buzz Dale as he tries to record Bart's deed. Then dressed as Bart, Duke kills and robs a man. With the Sheriff after Bart, Buzz escapes capture, finds the clothes worn to impersonate Bart, and heads for the Sheriff.
Young Englishwoman Lillian Garson is unhappy with her marriage and decides to elope with another man. However he is killed in a car accident and she returns home to her husband and tries to carry on as if nothing had happened. Only the doctor who shows up at their house for dinner that night, and who dealt with the crash, knows the truth. A lost film.
Pertio, an Argentine dancer, has a severely scarred face that has kept him from succeeding in his chosen career. He is persuaded by Caricia, an Argentine dancer who has become a star, to have a plastic surgeon repair his face. The surgery is successful and the two dancers team up both professionally and personally. However, the doctor who performed the operation has fallen madly in love with Caricia, and his determination to have her leads him to perform a procedure on Pertio that makes his scars reappear.
