The Ventures of Marguerite

The vivid tale of a woman's passionate intrigue and a moan's loyal friendship blended in a tale that surges with strong emotions and suspense that holds in a vice-like grip.

Long before he was the subject of a Walt Disney TV miniseries, Revolutionary-era guerilla leader Francis Marion, aka the Swamp Fox, was the "star" of this three-reel Kalem costume drama. The first part of the film ends as Marion and his followers capture English general Gates right from under the noses of the "Redcoats." The closing scenes find Marion and company emerging victorious from a battle between the British and the Colonials at the DeMotte farm.

An actress weaves her web, like a disgusting spider, around a susceptible young man, lures him away from his sweetheart, and eventually destroys him.

Hampton, a broker, employs a detective to investigate Stella, a show girl, with whom his younger brother Dick is in love. As a result of the detective's discoveries, Dick breaks his engagement with Stella. The woman calls at Dick's office late that afternoon. Hampton leaves the two alone. Unable to alter Dick's decision, Stella seizes a knife and threatens suicide. Dick tries to wrest the weapon from her and is accidentally killed.

"The Devil's Dansant" is the nickname given to a dansant of which Dominique, a Frenchman, is the proprietor. District Attorney Farrar, while searching for evidence on which to raid the place, is astounded to find that his wife Valerie, is a frequent visitor at Dominique's. The willful woman disobeys her husband's orders and continues to visit Dominique's.

Lynn and Alan both love Mary. Because he deems it his duty to support his widowed mother, Lynn hides his love although he is the favored suitor. Piqued, Mary becomes Alan's wife. Both boys work in the village bank. Lynn comes upon Alan while the latter is intoxicated and helps him home. Thus Lynn meets Mary for the first time since her marriage. Alan witnesses this meeting. His jealousy aroused, the man orders Lynn from his house. Obsessed by a desire for revenge, Alan steals a sum of money from the bank and falsifies Lynn's books so as to make it appear that the latter had committed the crime.

Just when we think that this movie will be about a Southern family in Civil War days, the action jumps to modern-day 1914, still in the southern United States. Handsome Jack (Guy Coombs) is in love with the fair lady played by Marguerite Clayton.

Billy Martin is sent to New York to put through a war contract for his father, a new England manufacturer, and takes $100,000 as a security. The munition broker's secretary, a crook, tells Graham, a gambling house keeper, of Billy's coming. Miller is detailed to lure him to the gambling house.

Mary's lot. always hard, becomes doubly so upon her father's death. Desiring to re-marry, the girl's stepmother conspires to get her out of the way.

Don Jose encourages the King in his infatuation for Maritana, a dancing girl, believing that when the Queen discovers the clandestine love affair, she, in revenge, will listen to his suit. It would aid his plans if Maritana is made a noble. Don Caesar de Bazan, a swashbuckling adventurer is under sentence of death for having violated the edict against dueling.

Eleanor Warren is loved by Harold Rives, a struggling artist. Although fond of the young man, Eleanor longs for the comforts of wealth.

The "Treasure Ship" is not a real ship, but a model constructed by Captain Bascom during ten years of enforced solitude on a South Sea island after the wreck of the "Golden Cloud." The treasure consists of a bag of gems found under the skeleton of an earlier castaway. When rescue finally comes, Bascom stows the treasure in the hold of his model and so carries it safely to his home, where he has long been mourned as dead.

Discovered by Marston in the act of robbing the safe, Mann, the crook, shoots and slays him. The murderer escapes, carrying with him a casket containing jewels. So strongly do circumstances point to Lyda, Marston's daughter, as the slayer, that she is tried for the crime. Despite the evidence of the butler and other servants, who tell of a violent quarrel between Lyda and her father just prior to the shooting, the girl is acquitted.

John Holden discovers a burglar in his house and shoots at the escaping thief. Warding, a detective, and the officer on the beat hear the shot and hurry to the scene. The detective finds a large diamond set on the library rug and concludes it has been lost from the thief's ring.