Curtain at Eight

Among other Christmas gifts, Edgar receives a tool chest containing a little saw. While he is out displaying some of his other presents to the boy next door, little brother Charlie saws up everything in the house, furniture, hats, and at length attempts operations on the cat. Edgar gets the blame, and is being kept from his sweetheart's party as punishment, when Charlie's guilt is discovered. This film is presumably lost.

Edgar and his schoolmates put on a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet such as the townsfolk have never seen.

The son of a wealthy imported goods dealer, Herbert Franklyn refuses to curb his appetite for gaiety and women after his engagement, with the result that his fiancee, Miriam Faversham, breaks off their relationship. On the firm's annual trip to Japan, Herbert meets Cherry Blossom, whose father Tokimasa wishes her to marry a Westerner.

The valet of Lord Harold Varden, on a secret mission to our Government, has been murdered. Dick Holloway, a reporter, detailed to the story, calls on Lord Varden just as the latter feels the effects of poison administered to him. He takes the place of the nobleman when his American cousins come for him, and not only saves his lordship's papers, but captures the spies detailed to get them.

Weak-willed Roy Hanford, driven from his father's house by the coldness of his stone-hearted wife and the sanctimonious attitude of his father, the deacon, flees to the city.

On the way to Sunday school, Edgar meets the lady of his heart--and his hated rival. The Sunday-school lesson on David and Goliath so intrigues Edgar that he sees himself as David, saving the entire school, sweetheart and rival included, from Goliath's sword. Edgar's answer to the teacher's question proves his straying thoughts. As a result he is placed on the platform, where he sees himself descending to the "lower regions" as the "worst boy in the school." Edgar's Sunday adventures end with him at peace with the world, after two helpings of pie.

Edgar is about to lose the lady of his heart because the Bates boys have been given a complete camping outfit for their back yard: tent, stove, and everything. However, Edgar soon rallies and organizes a side show, displaying the greatest freaks on earth. This soon draws attention from the Bates boys, and Edgar is himself again, until that night when he camps out in the sideshow tent. Then the spooks hover about and Edgar is carried shrieking into the house by his father. This film is presumably lost.

Pretty Bessie King has all the cowboys' hearts thumping ragtime jigs against their ribs whenever she comes to town, and Alkali is the hardest hit of all. After a series of flirtations she finally takes Alkali for better or worse and they are married. A year later a small son and heir keeps Alkali doing Marathons across the midnight floors.

While golfing, Natalie Marshall meets and falls in love with Bobby Cameron, and after a brief courtship they are married. Just as they are about to embark on their honeymoon, Vera, a young vamp with designs on Bobby, presents Natalie with a bracelet and an accompanying note and inscription that arouse the wife's jealousy and cause an immediate break between the couple.

Marcia, a pretty young girl, goes to work as a model for a lecherous dress-shop owner. She resists his advances, despite his giving her expensive gifts. One day Mrs. Reilly, a prominent society woman and a customer of the shop, invites Marcia to a party she's throwing. Marcia winds up impersonating a famous writer in order to impress a "duke" for Mrs. Reilly, who doesn't know the "duke" isn't really a duke. Complications ensue.

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

Attorney Ken Walrick, not quite realizing the difference between a garter and a bracelet, gives Gertie Darling a bejewelled garter with his photograph in miniature attached. But then he must cover his indiscretion by getting the garter back before his fiancee finds out.

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.

Edgar is called upon by his mother to execute a disagreeable errand, has to mind his troublesome younger brother, and runs away.

A man is convicted of killing his boss, whom he suspected of having an affair with his wife. On board the train taking him to prison for his execution are a reporter, who is dying of lung cancer and wants to interview the condemned man--and who also has some inside knowledge of the circumstances of the man's case. Also aboard is the prisoner's wife, who doesn't believe her husband is a killer and desperately wants to talk to him about it but he refuses to speak to her.

Mynderse Van Dyun, a wealthy old New York aristocrat, has one goal in life, to see his granddaughter Catherine and grandson Pell married; for, although they are cousins, the marriage would perpetuate the family name. Catherine, however, is in love with Paul La Farge and detests her drug-addicted cousin, who seduces and then secretly marries her maid, Nora Duffy.