Romance and Brass Tacks

This story revolves around a young woman who loses her job and a young man who has been unable to make a success as an art photographer. A fire breaks out in the house where the woman is rooming, and she rushes to the street en dishabille, just as the man appears. Immediately he has visions of a fortune, and persuades her to pose as a wild Greek girl. He has her arrested for performing Grecian dances in the street in her scanty attire.

Mary Conway was a nonentity in Mrs. Scott's New York genteel boarding house. She had never had a beau. Andy Donovan, a new boarder, caused her first flutter and regret for her unattractiveness. A description in a lurid novel of the grief-stricken heroine and the attention she attracted in her garb of woe gives Mary an idea and - two weeks later she appears fashionably attired in Fifth avenue mourning - and weeps forth a tale to the now sympathetic Andy of a dead fiancé, the Count Mazzini.

After her father and two brothers are killed, Cynthia and her mother go to New York, where Cynthia gets a job in his office working for a wealthy stockbroker who's attracted to her.

Margaret Seldon's father, who has been victimized by three business associates and sent to prison, calls his daughter to him in his dying moments and asks her to avenge him. Through a detective agency she locates Amos Colby and Courtland Wells; and learning that the third man is dead, she adds his son, Allan Forbes, to the list. She foils Colby's attempt to ruin two financiers by gaining a position aboard his yacht.

Cinematographer Ray Rennahan utilized the two-strip Technicolor process for this film, but either surviving prints have faded or the color palette was limited in the first place, for generally we see only muddy reds, dim greens, and occasional splashes of blue. The film was shot silent and then dubbed with synchronized music consisting of seasonal tunes such as "Jingle Bells," "O Holy Night," and "March of the Wooden Soldiers."

"In a Chinese Temple Garden" is a 1929 one reel musical short film in Technicolor produced by Colorart Pictures and released by Tiffany-Stahl Productions as part of the "Tiffany Color Symphonies."