Mothers-in-Law

Paramount Pictures produced this French-language version of Slightly Scarlet (1930) , shot on the same sets and using some of the same actors, for the European market.

Mark Russell, captain of a ship sailing from the South Seas to San Francisco, is an innocent victim of a pearl-smuggling scheme by Harry Gibson, and when the pearls are discovered by customs inspectors, Russell takes the blame because of his love for Gibson's sister Eve and to shield her of being disgraced.

John Warriner, facing financial ruin, accepts the proposal of a bootlegger, Benedict, to underwrite the business of illegal wine-selling. His daughter, Angela, takes up with the jazz set and is caught in a raid, at a cafe owned by Benedict. Her former sweetheart, Carl Graham, comes to the rescue and saves her from notoriety, while the family struggles back to its former respectability following Warriner's prison term.

Henry Wilson, a wealthy grocer who started with a pushcart and worked his way up to 40 trucks, although married becomes interested in divorcee Mona Vincent, who is trying to win Frank Clayton, a wealthy scion with whom Wilson's daughter Mary is in love. Mona promises Mary to give up Wilson if Mary will give her Clayton.

Lacking patients, Dr. Sumner sets himself up as a psychologist and opens a sanitarium, becoming quite successful. Virginia Zelva, a clairvoyant who wants to get into what she regards as a racket, signs on as his nurse. Sumner falls in love with Virginia and, after numerous complications, wins her for his bride.

Gloria Vane (Claire Windsor), a shrewish, vain young debutante turned fashion model drags her dying lover, Victor Redding (Reed Howes), ten miles to the nearest settlement in the Canadian wilderness, saves his life and is transformed. How they got from New York City to the Canadian wilds is another story.

When Charles Hale is visiting his mistress, Sybil Russell, he is shot in the arm by Sybil's estranged and outraged husband. Hale's daughter, Marjorie, is so shocked to discover in this abrupt fashion her father's philandering that she leaves her wealthy home and goes to the slums to do settlement work. Marjorie, who is engaged to the district attorney, is there placed in a compromising position by her father's assailant, who intends to revenge himself upon the entire Hale family.

Jo Morey, who lives in the St. Lawrence River Valley, inherits her father's barren farm and devotes her entire energies to cultivating it and caring for her invalid sister. Henry Langley meets Jo and proposes marriage to her. She asks him to wait until she is free, but Langley refuses and marries Mary Malden. Eight years later Jo has paid off the mortgage to Captain Longville, and one night she finds a baby in her house; it is Langley's, and a note requests that its parentage be kept secret.

Richard Lane isolates himself in the African interior for 5 years after his sweetheart, Natalie, marries Norman Travers. Travers, who tires of family life and neglects his wife and son, drifts into an affair with Nita Howard, a cabaret dancer. When Travers' ship is reported lost inward from Europe, Lane hears the news and determines to return and win Natalie; soon Lane develops a fondness for Natalie and her child, Bobby, and she consents to marry him. Travers, however, is rescued from a desert island and refuses to grant Natalie a divorce. Lane finds Travers murdered; and thinking that Natalie is guilty, he surrenders himself to the police. She denies his guilt, but the chief of detectives discovers that Nita Howard is the murderess. Lane is happily united with Natalie.

Katherine Brinkley, a rich young woman who delights in challenging conventions, elopes with a married young musician, Nicolai Brouevitch, but when he deserts her she is cast aside by society. Wandering off to Italy, she meets Franklin Shelby, a young American also married, with whom she falls in love.

Following a series of misunderstandings, wealthy young aristocrat Gerry Lansing deserts his wife Alix, whom he believes has eloped with his friend Alan Wayne. He sails for South America, leaving no trace of his whereabouts. In Peru, he becomes a plantation owner and marries local girl Margarita.

A framework story serves as context for a retelling of the Exodus story and, most importantly, a recycling of footage from the silent version of The Ten Commandments.

Oswald Lane is welcomed by his hometown as a war hero and enjoys recounting his adventures to anyone who will listen. He accepts an invitation to stay in the home of his rather colorless brother, Andrew, and is soon not only making love to Martha, the Belgian maid, but is also finding Andrew's wife, Hester, receptive to his flirting. After stealing money entrusted to Andrew by his church, Oswald is on his way out of town when he passes a school fire, rescues several children, and is himself seriously burned. Andrew offers his own skin for grafting, and Oswald directs Hester to return the money.

George Otis, a dishonest promoter who uses his wife to forward his schemes, finds himself in danger of arrest for embezzlement and seeks to cover himself by borrowing from John Howard, his wife's former suitor.

While in Spain Alan Randolph falls for famed singer Rosita Mendez, but when he goes back to Louisiana, he returns to his fiancée Violet Beaton. On an American tour Rosita discovers Alan has married Violet. Consumed with jealousy she threatens to kill him with a revolver and in the scuffle is wounded. Full of vengeance Rosita has him jailed for five years. Suddenly contrite she then outlines a plan of escape to Alan, but he refuses until destiny takes a hand.

Funloving Pearl White, working in a garment sweatshop, gets her big chance when she "opens" for a delayed Shakespeare play...with a comic vaudeville performance. Her brief stage career leads her into those "horrible" moving pictures, where she comes to love the chaotic world of silent movies, becoming queen of the serials. But the consequences of movie stardom may be more than her leading man can take