Wages of Sin
Film producer Winston L. Jaune gives his brother J. Lee a job in his company. J. Lee promptly steals company funds, spends lavishly in cabarets, at wild parties, and on women putting the company in financial difficulties.
Rich club-man Kirk Rainsford, attends a charity bazaar at the home of Marjorie Vail, the society girl he hopes to marry. A fire breaks out among the booths and everyone is pulled to safety except little Peggy, Marjorie's kid sister. Marjorie pleads with Kirk to save the child, but he lacks the courage, and Randolph Sherman, Kirk's rival for Marjorie's affections, plays the hero part. For Kirk's public display of cowardice, he is disowned by his father and rejected by Marjorie, who soon marries Sherman. Kirk drifts to the South Seas, eventually landing in Manila, where he becomes a derelict. When Lillie, a fellow drifter, is roughly handled in a bar, Kirk goes to her assistance; she expresses appreciation for his bravery and soon effects his regeneration through her faith in him. Kirk and Lillie journey to the interior, and they obtain work on a plantation recently purchased by Randolph Sherman. During a native uprising, Sherman is killed, and Kirk saves Marjorie from certain death.
Film producer Winston L. Jaune gives his brother J. Lee a job in his company. J. Lee promptly steals company funds, spends lavishly in cabarets, at wild parties, and on women putting the company in financial difficulties.
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Margaret Jarnette discovers that her husband Victor has been cheating on her and confronts him. Outraged, Victor has his lawyer rewrite his will so that in the event of his death, his brother Richard will get custody of his daughter Muriel, and his wife won't. When Victor dies shortly afterward, Richard suspects that Margaret had murdered him and takes custody of Muriel. However, he soon begins to suspect that things may not be quite as cut-and-dried as he thought they were.
Neglected by her husband, Beth Stanford becomes interested in Arthur, his friend. Although their friendship is an innocent one. Stanford becomes intensely jealous. Arthur presents Beth with a diamond brooch upon her birthday. Later, when Stanford faces ruin, he compels Beth to pawn her jewels. The money thus secured proves insufficient for his needs. The man drinks heavily in his desperation and falls into a drunken stupor. When Stanford returns home, he meets Arthur. The husband cedes Beth to Arthur for a sum sufficient to settle his obligations.
While vacationing with his father Edward at a Palm Beach hotel, George Welston becomes smitten with Eve Pendleton, the daughter of Edward's business rival Judson. After George prevents Pendleton from getting an option on a deal by racing in his car with his father's $100,000 deposit, Pendleton favors Eve's other suitor, Arthur Trask, whose gentlemanly manner conceals his intent to rob Eve and her wealthy friends.
Compelled to keep house for her father and her younger sister and brother, Martha is deprived of all the pleasures of youth. Ned, who loves her, begs her to elope with him. Martha yields, but while on the way to the minister, decides that her duty lies back home with her father. Heart-broken, Ned leaves for the city.
Alan Trent (Ronald Colman), his cousin Gerald Shannon (Wyndham Standing) and neighbor Kitty Vane (Vilma Bánky) have grown up together, as close playmates When World War I starts, both Alan and Gerald enlist in the British Army as officiers, and Kitty sees them off to war. Many months later, Alan and Gerald come back to Kitty, on a short furlow. Alan and Kitty reveal their love for each other. Gerald (who's in love with Kitty, too) congratulates his friends. But before Kitty and Alan can arrange to be married the next day, the furlow is cut short and both men head back to the front lines. Weeks later, Gerald will not give Alan leave to marry Kitty. Still arguing, both men volunteer for a reconiscience raid into enemy lines, where a grenade goes off near Alan and appears to kill him. Gerald and Kitty mourn Alan's death. After the war ends, Gerald and Kitty become engaged to be married.
Jan Bokak is a self-educated steelworker who finds himself in the middle of a romantic triangle. Two different girls -- wealthy socialite Claire Pitt and blue-collar worker Mary Berwick -- simultaneously fall for Bokak. It later develops that Claire and Mary are actually sisters, the first of a series of surprising plot twists leading to Bokak being accused of a murder he didn't commit.
Pierre, the maitre d' at the swanky Ritz Hotel in Paris, discovers that he has a son from his former marriage, which was broken up by his wealthy wife's upper-class relatives. His son, now a young man and unaware that Pierre is is father, is in danger of becoming the victim of blackmailer Mae Morin. Pierre sets out to save him from the notorious Mae.
A stage-actress mother and her daughter in a battle-of-wills in a "don't do this, daughter" and "don't do that, daughter" story of youthful folly and over-zealous parental devotion.
A 1928 silent film crime drama produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Josef von Sternberg from an original screen story and starring George Bancroft and Evelyn Brent.
A man drowns himself in lake. As he is dying, he recalls the crucial moments of his life and the incidents that led to his final, fatal decision.
Thea is a sculptor who is diagnosed with tuberculosis before she marries Filippo. After abandoning him, her health begins to decline. She organizes a final party, inviting along her estranged husband. The film is considered to be lost, with only a fragment surviving in the film archive of the Cineteca Italiana.
Molly Boone's father has been sent to prison for twenty years for alleged complicity in the killing of a revenue officer, Uriah Hudson, whom she secretly suspects of having a hand in sending her father to prison, is her persistent suitor.
Mabel Mack's mother is deserted by her father and the mother dies. All that Mabel retains of her family history is a group photograph of her father, mother and herself, in a locket which she always wears.
The will of old Dr. Andrews left the bulk of his property to his niece, Mary, who was an orphan living in a distant mining town. The small balance of his wealth went to a married nephew, John, who had been practicing medicine with him and was now made the executor of his estate, but who felt that he should have been made the sole heir.
Oliver and Elizabeth wed. He is a famous lawyer, careless of his personal conduct, but has implicit faith in Elizabeth. She is a woman of strong mind, a magazine writer of repute, and believes he should guide himself by the same code that governs her. Two of their associates are profligates, Charles, an artist, and Catherine. Oliver trifles with Catherine and this so embitters Elizabeth, that she pretends to receive the attentions of Charles, although it is made clear that she has remained pure. Nevertheless, she purposely permits her husband to believe otherwise. He has considered her like Caesar's wife, but his faith is shattered. A child is born to her and the father doubts its parentage.
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A small-town businessman bumbles into blackmail and a real-estate swindle.