Out of the Ruins

Her Body in Bond

The cabaret act of husband-and-wife dancing team Peggy and Joe Blondin is broken up when Joe becomes consumptive and is ordered West to recuperate. Peggy remains in New York to maintain the couple's income but gradually becomes desperate when letters sent her by her husband request more and more money. Joe's letters actually are being intercepted and rewritten by millionaire Harlan Quinn, who has designs on Peggy and wishes to portray Joe's situation as hopeless. After receiving a particularly alarming letter, Peggy consents to sell her honor to Harlan.

The Alibi

To help his dying father, assistant bank cashier Arthur Mansfield enters a fake sum in the bank's account book, but before carrying out the pilferage, he confesses to cashier Slayton, his superior. Slayton, who needs money to pay for his unsuccessful speculations, goes at night to take the money that Mansfield planned to embezzle, so that Mansfield will take the blame.

Two Girls Wanted

Marianna Miller, who together with her sister Sarah pounds the pavements, looking for a job. After a period of starvation and deprivation Marianna is hired as secretary to duplicitous businessman Philip Hancock.

Subway Sadie

A New York fur saleswoman falls for a man she meets on the subway and must decide if she wants to accept a much dreamed for work transfer to Paris, or stay and get married.

The Masked Woman

Baron Tolento lusts for Diane Delatour, his physician's wife, and donates money to their favorite charity, a children's home, in hope of gaining her favor. When Delatour is called away, Tolento inveigles Diane into attending a party at his house. There he threatens to ruin her husband if she does not submit to his demands within three months. Diane retaliates by showing him a letter proving that Tolento has only three months to live, according to a specialist. Delatour learns of his wife's presence at the party from one of the baron's women, and when Tolento makes Diane heir to his fortune, he becomes convinced of her infidelity.

The Lily

One Increasing Purpose

Stars Edmund Lowe as WWI veteran Slim Paris. Though most of his comrades died in battle, Paris returns home with nary a scratch. This convinces him that his life has a "greater purpose" in the scheme of things, so he sets about to find that purpose.

The Family Upstairs

The First Kiss

The Talbots, formerly one of the Eastern Shore's first families, have gone to seed: Pap is a drunk, soddenly decaying in his ruined ancestral home, and three of his sons (William, Carol, and Ezra) are lazy, shiftless young men. Mulligan, Pap's second son who supports the entire family by oyster fishing, falls in love with wealthy Anna Lee, but when he first kisses her, she calls him "white trash."

You Find it Everywhere

Andrew Gibson inherits problems when his father dies and leaves shares of his piano manufacturing business to his workmen. To add to his troubles, Andrew's girl, Nora Gorodna, is being pursued by José Ferra, one of the workmen; and Lila Normand, a society girl, tricks Andrew into proposing.

Danger Ahead!

The impoverished Harlow family of New England is forced to take in summer boarders. Teenaged niece Tressie welcomes the change and promptly falls in love with a wealthy young guest named Norman Minot. Although Norman returns Tressie’s affection, he is driven away by a fortune-hunting mother who wants him to marry her daughter. Robert Kitteridge, a scheming artist friend of Norman's, takes Tressie on a sailboat outing, during which they narrowly escape death when their boat is rammed by a steamship. After being put ashore the next morning in Boston, MA, Robert takes Tressie to his studio and attempts to seduce her.

The Guttersnipe

Mazie, a shop-girl of New York City's Little Ireland, goes to the aid of a young man in formal attire involved in a street fight. Though badly beaten, he bears a strong resemblance to Lord Lytton, the hero of a magazine story Mazie is reading in installments. Although he is, in reality, a soda clerk, Mazie permits his attentions, and together they read the "Sloppy Stories" yarn about English nobility.

The Narrow Path

Marion Clark, a manicurist, is unimpressed by the wealthy but dissipated men who frequent her shop, preferring city editor Dick Strong, who lives in her boardinghouse. Dick's sister Gladys, however, is intrigued by the wilder side of life in New York and allows one of the boarders to take her to a lively party.

The Galley Slave

Francesca Brabaut, who married an artist against her father's advice, regrets her decision when her husband Antoine, in debt, sends her to his misanthropic uncle to plead for money.

The Callahans and the Murphys

The story of two feuding Irish immigrant families living in a tenement.

Broadway Nights

Fannie joins Johnny to perform a music-hall act which becomes a success, until two Broadway producers catch the act and offer Fannie a job on their latest show; however, they have no place for Johnny, so Fannie turns down the offer. (Film considered lost.)

The Tower of Lies

After his beloved daughter leaves for the city to pay off his debt, an old farmer goes mad when her letters become less frequent and it is suspected she may be using her body to get the money.

John Heriot's Wife

A usurer cancels a woman's debt in return for wresting a financial secret from a minister's wife.

A Little Brother of the Rich

Captain of the Yale football team, Paul Potter becomes engaged to his small-town Indiana sweetheart Sylvia Castle but once in the big city he becomes involved with married society girl Muriel Evers and finds Sylvia too provincial, ending their engagement. In time Sylvia meets alcoholic actor, Henry Leamington, who encourages her to become an actress while she helps him get sober. In New York she finds success and becomes reacquainted with Paul for whom she still has feelings, but comes to realize he is a lout and returns to Henry.