Writing
John Rand, having lived in a small town his entire life, dreams of possessing wealth and power in New York. Napoleon Bonaparte has long been his ideal, and one day he feels a message from the departed general urging him to take up the fight for world supremacy. He goes to the city ready to begin the battle, and there, aided by his Napoleonic visions, John amasses a great fortune, ruthlessly destroying everyone who presents an obstacle to his lust for power.
A feud over boundaries between the McKinstry and Harrison families, both from Kentucky, but squatting in California in search of gold, has caused Cressy McKinstry to show disdain for Joe Masters, a cousin of the Harrisons, even though she secretly loves him.
Rival telephone crews are in a race to be the first to connect telephone service between Rawlings and Cheynne, Wyoming. Lineman Tom Remington's girlfriend is the daughter of one crew foreman, who wants to win the race in order to re-establish himself in the business. However, the foreman of the other crew has his own scheme to win the race, and will stop at nothing--including kidnapping--to accomplish it.
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.
A parolee, working for a trucking line, struggles to clear his name after being accused of involvement with hijackers.
Saxophone player Clyde meets a woman named Flowers, and teaches her to dance. He later discovers that gangster boss "Blackjack" is also in love with her. "Blackjack" is also battling gang boss Mike Luego in a violent turf war.
When the Duke of Wynningham, a "simple soul" who prefers science to royalty, meets Molly Shine, a London shop girl, he is enthralled by her love of books and begins to send her two pounds weekly so that she can purchase the books that she adores. Molly's mother discovers the money and, assuming that the duke is paying her daughter for immoral reasons, drags the girl to the duke's home, where she charges him with seduction.
Hartley, fascinated by the vampish Leonie, steals and serves a term in prison. Not satisfied with this downfall, Leonie again works her womanly charms upon Dr. Gerald, who is engaged to Johanna, the adopted daughter of Dr. McLean. Learning of the woman's designs on the young doctor, Hartley denounces her in Gerald's presence. In response, Gerald foolishly renounces Johanna and his friendship with Dr. McLean. However, when Leonie discovers that Johanna is her own daughter whom she had deserted as a child, she becomes conscience-stricken, gives up the young man and begs forgiveness.
Billy Carson is accused of the crimes committed by his dead-ringer, outlaw cousin Jim Slade, and barely escapes a lynching. With the aid of his pal Fuzzy Jones, Billy catches up with his cousin and clears his own name.
When a fellow ranger (Julian Madison) is brutally murdered, the Captain sends Dave Austin to investigate the crime, only to stumble upon a money-laundering scheme in the works. With one eye on the killer (Ted Adams), Austin tries to unravel the racket. But keeping his true identity under wraps could be a problem. Rex Lease and Marion Weldon co-star in this classic Western from prolific director Sam Newfield.
A poisoned aspirin creates headaches for a woman who received the deadly pill from a stranger, then passed it on to her uncle.
When a small town doctor buries his twin brother, a practitioner of the black arts, he believes him dead; but subsequent events force him to realize that his brother has, in fact, returned from the dead as a vampire and is seeking revenge on the doctor, who had killed him in self-defense.
Kirby sends his henchmen to break killer Matt Brawley out of jail. But Brawley has already broken out and they return with Fuzzy instead. Realizing they think he's Brawley, Fuzzy plays the part. He and Bill plan to round up the gang but Fuzzy is in trouble when the real Brawley shows up to expose the hoax.
Phyllis Latimer goes to Fiji to rejoin her husband of three years and finds him in a state of drunken degeneracy, incapable of reform. Fleeing his advances, she escapes to a nearby island; and there she impersonates Pauline Leonard, ward of John Webster. When Latimer incites a native uprising against Webster, who hires Hindu laborers, he finds Phyllis on the island, drags her home with him, and in a frenzy gives her to the natives for a human sacrifice. Webster and the government police arrive in time to save Phyllis, and Latimer is killed in the riot. Phyllis and Webster reveal their mutual love.
A runaway becomes a thief and is sentenced to a reformatory.
In a wild west community populated entirely by residents with dwarfism, the Larson and Preston familes have been in a generations-long feud, recently strained by the actions of cattle rustler and overall devious criminal Bat Haines. Buck Larson, the hero of our tale, takes on Haines, and tries to win the heart of Nancy Preston while resolving the tensions between his and her families.
The unscrupulous attempts by speculators Dr. West and Jim Prince to have a railroad pass through lower California are met with opposition by Spanish landowners led by Dona Maria Saltonstall, who tries flirting with West to restore their property. Pereo, a religious fanatic who works for Dona Maria, believes in the curse of the Gray Wolf's Ghost: if a member of Dona Maria's family mates with an alien, fortune and life will be lost. Meanwhile, West's son Harry, whom he deserted years before, comes to avenge the wrong done to his mother.
Torment is a 1924 American silent film crime drama produced and directed by Maurice Tourneur and distributed by Associated First National. This film stars Bessie Love, Owen Moore, and Jean Hersholt.
When a taxi carrying socialite Ruth Darrow drives into the middle of a gun battle between hijacker Kid Gloves and a trio of bootleggers, Ruth is injured. She is taken to a nearby apartment, and The Kid helps to care for her. John Stone, Ruth's fiance and a bootlegger with a respectable front, finds them together and blackmails The Kid into marrying the girl.
When Gregory Van Houten went to the country to recuperate, he intended to remain only a few weeks and then return to plunge into the swirl of city gaieties. But when Van Houten returned he brought with him a country-girl wife and set upon himself the seal of new duties and obligations.
