Nowadays, it beggars belief that a mere two fragments amounting to less than two minutes of this film survive. Perhaps someone, somewhere, has a dusty film can stored in an out-building on the Paramount lot? As it is, what we still have illustrates a soupçon of the talents of the Oscar winning Jannings and of a violinist he watches from the seats of a theatre in this tale of a man who suffers hard times after falling victim to a gal and a crook depriving him of his job, his family and his dignity. It is a good story, and I really do hope someone turns up a copy one day...
A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.
In a jealous rage dancer Anna Janssen shoots her common-law husband Alastair De Vries in a cafe when she discovers him with a chorus girl. Fleeing to Tahiti she is tracked by detective Thomas McCarthy who arrests her. On their return journey they are marooned on a deserted island. After 2 years together, they realize their love and take marriage vows, but when a ship is sighted, she insists, against his wishes, that she return to face trial.
An innocent man goes to prison for obstruction of justice when his wife refuses to reveal that her father was killed by her mother (and it wasn't suicide). When he is finally released, he meets and becomes involved with a young woman who belongs to the town's influential elite. Once again, he finds himself caught up in intrigue - which eventually leads to his exposing the mayor of the town as corrupt.
The hunter becomes the hunted, an officer of the Royal Mounted, fleeing, fighting for his life. Guided to a secret valley in the frozen North by a hot-blooded French-Canadian beauty, with a secret of her own...
The dashing but arrogant Prince Michael Fedor Lubimoff has to flee Tsarist Russia after falling into disgrace and settles in Monte Carlo, where he resumes his life of debauchery while World War I ravages the fields of Europe… (Partially lost film; reels 3 and 9 of a total of 11 are missing.)
Judy Nichols (Leatrice Joy), a poor girl from Chicago, has decided she cannot marry without money. Her sweetheart, Ronald McKane, a struggling civil engineer (Edmund Burns), is encouraging her to join him in New York, but she only goes when she is bequeathed an inheritance. Unfortunately, the amount adds up to less than ten dollars a week. When she meets banker Sanford Gillespie (Robert Edeson), she convinces him to help McKane out financially. Once McKane has become a success, Judy marries him, but then he becomes interested in another woman. Judy seeks revenge and asks Gillespie to ruin her estranged husband, offering him anything he wants in return.
While taking a joyride with his sweetie Patricia, daredevil pilot Roy Cummins witnesses the aerial hijacking of a mail plane.
Malcolm McGregor joins the circus and falls in love with Olive Borden but his life changes when he finds out he is a titled Lord.
Dida Ibsen, daughter of impoverished farmers, has, according to her father's will, to marry the main creditor. But she refuses and decides to live with a married man as a mistress, till he gets his divorce. In the town she opens a restaurant with the money of her wealthy lover, from whom she soon gets pregnant, but their dreams of marriage fail, his wife refuses the divorce. After a while, she decides to marry one of the regular guests at her restaurant, van Galen, who spent quite some time in the tropics and because of this is at the brink of madness. Shortly after the marriage his condition worsens and life becomes hell for Dida.