A Child of Mystery

Lily Becker is born in Paradise, Iowa and raised there by her prudish mother and her spineless father. Mrs Becker pressures Lily into marrying local yokel Albert Penny, who is extremely dull……

Lorenzo Carilo selects more-or-less menial jobs at which to make a living, other more "select" jobs not paying enough, and then he meets and falls in love with Vivian Forrester the daughter of a new-rich family. What's a poor boy to do? He might pose as a French Duke.

Malloy, a young Irish construction engineer just out of college, is assigned to a project and immediately falls in love with the contractor's daughter, Eileen. The contractor's secretary, who also loves the girl, hires Oleson, a Swede, to work with Malloy and delay the building sufficiently to arouse the ire of the contractor. Under these conditions, however, Malloy works all the harder, never looking gloomy or restraining his Irish humor until the Swede comes to blows with him over a strike.

Madge Nelson is ordered to move to the countryside for health reasons, but her finances prevent her from making the move from the city, so she answers an advertisement for a mail-order bride for miner Hugo Ennis in Nevada.

An unscrupulous gambler is falsely accused of murder. To avoid capture, he disguises himself as a priest. But his priestly role causes a change in his life and he finds himself making unusual choices.

A young man is raised in the mountains by his prizefighter father. Although he possesses great strength and athletic skill, he is completely out of his league when it comes to women. He becomes a successful boxer in San Francisco and is given the name "The Abysmal Brute". When he rescues a drowning man, he meets a beautiful socialite named Maude Sangster and falls in love. His lack of social skills proves a hindrance when a rival suitor competes with him for Maude's affections.

When Dorothy wants to marry Bob (Robert Agnew), her mother, Mildred, forbids the match. Dorothy angrily asserts that Mildred might reconsider if her own mother had forbid her marriage. The rest of the film is a flashback, as Mildred recalls her own youth, when her dictatorial mother did forbid her to marry Lyman. Lyman enlisted with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders to fight in the Spanish-American War, but was killed in battle.

Barry Gordon, the older son of a Virginia colonel, inherits a taste for alcohol--a habit that caused his father's death. His brother, Tom, falls in love with Muriel Beekman, their guardian's daughter. Barry also loves her but feels rejected. Three years later, after extended travels, Barry learns that Tom, having been sent to Morocco by Mr. Beekman, has been captured by desert marauders and is being held for ransom. He begins a search for him and in Tangiers encounters the Beekmans and Kitty Van Ness. Barry and Muriel discover their love for each other, but he refuses to commit himself while Tom is still alive.

Tillie is a secretary always dressed in the height of fashion who tries to capture a millionaire named Pennington Fish. Once she gets a stenographic position at Mr. Simpkins's company she sets her cap for the general manager, Benjamin Franklin Whipple. Eventually Tillie announces that she is going to "catch the rich Mr. Fish by using Whipple as the worm."

A wife's psychiatrist tells her that she is being dominated by her husband. Her solution is to divorce him.

After five years of marriage, Beth and Peter Marsh's life together is a series of rows and reconciliations. Beth is frivolous and extravagant; Peter is domineering and ambitious and has difficulty paying the bills. Daniel Rankin, who lives in the same apartment building, becomes attracted to Beth and arranges with the Marsh chauffeur to have her car break down, allowing him to offer assistance and gracefully introduce himself; Rankin later invites her to a dance. Resenting Rankin's attentions to his wife, Peter forbids her to go. However, Beth accompanies Rankin to spite her husband, and Rankin proposes that she divorce Peter and become his wife. A lost film.

Aging roué Arthur Merrill meets flapper Penelope Stevens on an ocean liner and decides to undergo rejuvenation surgery so that he may enjoy life again. Transformed, he attends a wild jazz party given by Penelope and persuades her to visit his apartment, but he finds that she is a "good girl" and only flirting. After he gives Penelope a scare and a lecture, her old beau, Brock Farley, enters with a letter to Arthur that reveals Brock to be his son. Arthur gladly steps aside, renounces his wild living, and returns to a simple life.

A variety extra falls in love with a beautiful duchess, and tries to impress her by posing as a rajah. He tells her the truth before anything happens, and leaves. A lost film.

Clorinda Wildairs breaks off an affair with the unscrupulous Sir John Ozen to become engaged to a rich nobleman, Mertoun, the Duke of Osmonde. Clorinda accidentally kills Sir John when he, infuriated by her forthcoming marriage, threatens to blackmail her. She buries the body in the cellar and admits her act to the forgiving Osmonde before marrying him.

Treats of the average, smalltown, middle class family life. Flirtatious Cora Madison is engaged to Richard Lindley but is attracted to Val Corliss, who has come to town to promote oil stock. When Cora's father refuses to become involved, she forges his name on some papers, thus enabling Corliss to sell many shares.

When a secretary overhears her boss disparaging her looks, she decides to show him how wrong he is.