Writing
Captain Alan Gaskell sails the perilous waters between Hong Kong and Singapore with a secret cargo: a fortune in British gold. That's not the only risky cargo he carries; both his fiery mistress and his refined fiancee are aboard!
Left penniless by her vengeful ex-husband, Madeline is forced to become a pickpocket to pay for a new wardrobe. One of her victims is a Mr. Finlay, who threatens to turn her over to the police -- until he hears Madeline's woeful tale of her cruel, possessive husband.
A family of down-and-out vaudevillians discover that they are the last of the Van Revels, heirs to a Southern plantation and a blood feud with the Carstairs family that began 60 years earlier over a game of croquet. After Eddie falls in love with the neighbors' daughter, a mountaineer branch of the Carstairs clan resumes the feud with the intent of annihilating the Van Revels.
François Villon, in his lifetime the most renowned poet in France, is also a prankster, an occasional criminal, and an ardent patriot.
Tad's dream is to attend a military academy so he can grow up to be a great soldier and a war hero, like his father. What he doesn't know is that his father, Slag, is actually a thief and a derelict. Slag robs a factory in order to get the money to send Tad to military school, then gets a job at the academy's horse stables to be close to his son, who doesn't know he's alive.
Until 1932's Grand Hotel, never had there existed an all-star ensemble cast on film. Conceived by MGM's production genius Irving Thalberg, the film boasted names like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and John and Lionel Barrymore and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. This short documentary takes a look at the making of the classic film.
Victor Stowell, son of the deemster of the Isle of Man, is engaged to Fenella Stanley. He becomes involved in an intrigue with local girl Bessie Collister, becomes the deemster on his father's death, and is forced to try Bessie for killing her illegitimate child.
Pursued by two suitors, James Brunton and Bob Standing, Grace chooses James followed by a sumptuous wedding at his family home. Suddenly a shot rings out and James’s father is fatally wounded. Just before dying Mr. Brunton makes James promise not to apprehend the murderer. Later trouble arises when Grace suspects James of an involvement the young Helen. Crushed, Grace leaves home settling in another town. Shortly after James has a car accident and is taken to Grace's nearby house. When Helen and Bob arrive, it is revealed that Helen is James’s sister. Mr. Brunton had abandoned Helen's mother Alice years before and it was Alice who fired the fatal shot. James and Grace are reconciled.
A melodrama of misunderstandings in which a rich couple grow more and more suspicious of each other fidelities after the groom’s father is shot dead on their wedding night.
Cleo lives in Marseilles and works as a waitress in a waterfront dive. A stranger entices her into coming to Paris to take dancing lessons, but instead she is taken to a baron, who betrays her. In spite of this inauspicious start, Cleo becomes a successful and renowned actress, but her feelings about men have never recovered. She loathes them and uses them only for the money they offer her, which she then hands over to a penniless girl.
When Mary Graham's old school chum visits, Mary's husband becomes infatuated with his wife's guest and soon openly avows his love for her.
Edgar buys a badge and a book of instructions and starts to learn the detective business. When he and his chum accompany his uncle's hired hand and his girl to town on a load of hay, and learn that a stop at the minister's means a marriage and not a murder, the two boys are sadly disappointed.
When theatrical agent Sterling, a ladies man known for signing his latest paramours onto his agency's talent roster, returns to New York from a trip to Europe, he tells his more down-to-earth partner, Lawson, that he has hired a beautiful Neopolitan acrobat he saw onstage in Italy. When the acrobat, Tina Bambinetti, arrives in their office, though, Sterling is shocked to find that, offstage, she is plain, unkempt and badly dressed. Crushed by Sterling's dismissive treatment, Tina performs some acrobatics that almost destroy the office...
During a raid, a cop lets a pretty speakeasy employee escape and later begins dating her. Although she loves him, his salary and dull life leave her wanting.
Glory Quayle and John Storm, sweethearts since childhood on the Isle of Man, go to London, Glory to become a nurse and John to enter a monastery. Instead, Glory becomes a theater star, and John renounces his vows because he cannot forget his love for her. Lord Robert Ure, who has already betrayed Glory's friend, Polly Love, incites the London populace against John....
An unhappily married couple moves to Vienna, where the wife’s married best friend lives, and soon, sparks fly between the wife and the best friend’s husband.
An American soldier falls in love with a French maiden but their romance is thwarted when the Yanks return home. Years later she comes to America to put on a fashion show and find her long lost lover.
Elliot Worthington falls in love with Myra, the maid in his sister's household. Myra is dismissed; Elliot finds her, proposes marriage, and returns home with his new bride. She is snubbed by his relatives and shocked by the hypocrisy of his wealthy friends. Disillusioned, she runs away: Elliot follows and saves her from being hit by a train when her foot gets caught in a switch.
Judith marries Robert Stanley and for a time, all her dreams of happiness are realized. As the months go by, however, she is increasingly disturbed by his stubborn adherence to annoying habits, wrong beliefs, and small faults.
Dennis O'Neill comes to America from Ireland at the request of his wealthy aunt, who intends to make him heir to the family fortune accrued from a junk business, but Mrs. Bryan objects to the presence of his widowed mother, who reminds her of their humble origins. Claire, niece of Mrs. Bryan, supports Dennis in his determination not to abandon his mother, and he installs Mrs. O'Neill in the nearby apartment of Tim Donohue, a friend from the old country, from whose window she can signal to Dennis. Dennis discovers that Hansen, manager of the junk firm, and his assistant, Richey, a suitor of Claire's, are padding the payroll. He finds that his affections for Claire are reciprocated, but Richey informs her that he is keeping another girl in the Donohue apartment. Dennis produces his mother, takes vengeance on Richey, and wins Claire -- all to the satisfaction of Mrs. Bryan.
