Theda Bara plays the social-climbing Olga Dolan, who becomes the Duchess of Rutledge by means of deception and sheer ruthlessness. Sadly, Bara, who had more or less single-handedly begun the "vamp" craze with the prototype of the genre, A Fool There Was, went out with little more than a whisper. She left films after the ironically titled The Lure of Ambition, and was lured back only twice, in: The Unchastened Woman (1925), a poverty row concoction which had few takers, and Madame Mystery (1926)
Society miss Sadie Love has just wed Prince Luigi Pallavincini when she gets a phone call from Jimmie Wakely, a suitor she has not seen in a year. She allows him to come by and declare his love but doesn't bother telling him she has just gotten married. Without giving it much thought, she decides she likes Wakely better and runs off with him.
Small-town barber Max Haber is the pride of his father, Johann, who owns an antiquated barbershop. Max adores Kitty Laverne, the manicurist, who loves him but is ambitious to be a dancer, so she heads for New York, hoping that he will follow in pursuit of better things. Mrs. Jackson-Greer, a New York society matron, has occasion to note Max styling the hair of a town girl and induces him to come to New York and pose as a French count. There he meets April, Mrs. King's niece, and loses his heart to her, as well as to Kitty, now a showgirl.
Frank Perry's wife Helen is away visiting her mother, and he uses this "free time" for a night of drinking at a nightclub. Unfortunately, when he tries to return home, he enters the wrong house and is nearly arrested When Helen comes back he tells her that the "incident" was actually an initiation rite of the Masons, knowing that his wife has always wanted him to join the group. She excitedly tells her father about Frank's becoming a Mason, since her father is also a Mason. What neither she nor Frank know is that her father has actually been doing the same thing Frank is--pretending to be a Mason when he actually isn't. Complications ensue.
Bob Howard, a WWI wounded soldier in a army hospital, meets and falls in love with Princess Elena. When the Armistice is signed, he is quickly shipped back home to America. Returning to Europe, he is mistaken as a Crown Prince traveling to be married to a Princess from another country. The Princess-bride, intended for another man, is his Elena.
Stella Maris is a beautiful, crippled girl, who is cared for by a rich family. They shield her from the harsh realities of the world, so that she has no idea of the cruel things that some people do. Unity Blake is a poor orphan all too familiar with the harsh realities of the real world. These two young women both fall in love with John, love which is complicated by the fact that he is still married to (though separated from) a bad wife.
Amarilly comes from a large family in a working-class neighborhood. She is happy with her family and her boyfriend Terry, a bartender in a cafe. But one day she meets Gordon, a sculptor who comes from a rich family, and she begins to be drawn into the world of the upper class.
John Carter is a good fellow. In fact, his good fellowship is Carter's one great fault, for the highballs and cocktails which go with it too frequently make him forget his more serious obligations and are cause for anxiety on the part of his charming fiancée Marybelle. Marybelle's little brother, Billie asks Carter what is making Marybelle so sad. Carter replies evasively, "It's a Ringtailed Rhinoceros." Billie vows to kill the rhino. When Carter fails to appear on time at a dinner which was planned to announce his engagement to Marybelle, and finally arrives intoxicated, her parents in anger force her to break the engagement and forbid Carter the house. Marybelle's rejection of Carter hits him hard.
In order to secretly replenish the family's failing fortunes, Virginia Griswold secures a position in the Secret Service to apprehend a group of counterfeiters and gain the reward money.
Julie le Breton is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Rose, whose own background resembles that of her daughter. Julie is buffeted by the ill treatment of her mother's family and nearly ruined by a fortune hunter, but her own resources and goodness stand her in good stead.
John Glayde is a stone-hearted man intent on wealth to elevate his family, losing his wife to another man in the process.
A country boarding house story
The Swan (1925) is a silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on Melville Baker's 1923 Broadway play adaptation, The Swan, of Ferenc Molnar's play A Hattyu Vigjatek Harom Felvonasbarn. This film was directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki, a recent Russian immigrant working for Famous Players-Lasky. Buchowetzki had directed pictures in Russia, Sweden, and Germany. The story of this film was remade in 1930 as One Romantic Night, an early talkie for Lillian Gish, and in Technicolor as a 1956 vehicle for Grace Kelly.
On the island of Jamaica, a young man of promise, Clifford Standish, is slowly sinking into an alcoholic debauchery. He meets a good-hearted woman called Ginger who leads him back to sobriety and society. But when they return to England together, they find society not worth living with. A lost film.
The Enchanted Cottage stars Richard Barthelmess as Oliver, a physically and emotionally wounded World War I veteran who comes home to a fiancée who promptly leaves him. Licking his wounds in solitude, he meets a young woman named Laura (May McAvoy). They fall in love and agree to marry, but unexpected and magical events occur inside The Enchanted Cottage where they have agreed to spend their wedding night.
Naive Jacques Lenoi marries money-hungry Madge Vance. When Madge realizes he isn't as moneyed as she assumed she turns a cold shoulder to him and he takes off on a balloon trip to China.
Sonia, a Russian dancer, comes to New York seeking her fortune. She marries Peter Derwynt, a young architect, but their marriage is not a good one. Sonia falls under the spell of a rich Broadway mogul, Jimmy Sutherland, whose wife is in love with Peter. The mix of relationships comes crashing apart when Sutherland ends up murdered.
A lost film. Esmeralda, a simple farm girl is in love with country boy David, but her mother yearns for a high society city life. Ore is discovered on their farm and the money rolls in. The family is packed up and moved to the big city where Esmeralda is forced into an engagement with a wealthy Count. Suddenly the ore is depleted and a fresh supply is discovered on David's farm. Much to the delight of Esmeralda, her impending marriage to the Count is off and her mother happily consents to a marriage between Esmeralda and David.
A young girl, Anemone, who lives with her Aunt is abducted by a crude family of Virginia mountain moonshiners. A fight between two of the young male relatives decides who will marry the girl. Lancer is the winner and marries Anemone against her will. She is reunited some time later with her Aunt, but when she learns Lancer is in dire trouble she returns and stays by his side, realizing she had always been in love with him.
Young Dolly Lane has committed herself to becoming a star on the stage, but when she meets handsome and wealthy farmer Steve Hunter, she falls in love and marries him. Unfortunately, Steve soon loses his fortune and the couple is forced to move in with a friend, Teddy Harrington. Not long afterwards Steve's rich uncle dies, leaving him wealthy, but on that same day Dolly is asked to take the place of a stage star who has taken ill. She does and becomes the toast of Broadway, but now Steve wants her to return with him to the West and become a farmer's wife. She relents, but soon becomes bored with that role and longs to return to the stage.
A young man impersonates his best friend, and in doing so upsets the decorum at a stuffy family gathering and falls in love. The arrival of a gang of hoodlums further disrupts the formalities, but our hero thwarts them and saves the day.
Joan Royle, beautiful but naive model who came from the slums, falls for Fred Ketlar, the leader of a dance band. When Fred's estranged wife Adele is murdered, Fred is arrested and convicted of the crime. Joan believes that the real murderer is Baretta, a gangster who was keeping Adele as his mistress
Hector Colbert sues his wife Marjorie for a divorce after Peters, an admirer of Marjorie, deliberately compromises her. Colbert's lawyer, Daniel Farr, believing that Marjorie's behavior was wrong, gets the divorce, but he ruins the reputation of a fun-loving woman who was simply bored with her husband. Later, she and Farr meet; she plots a revenge against the lawyer but confesses her fabrication when she realizes that she loves him.
Indiana Stillwater, the daughter of a wealthy American railroad industrialist, marries English nobleman Viscount Canning and travels to England. Her in-laws are somewhat shocked by her casualness in dress and manner, but welcome her into the family anyway. When her parents invite her to a Sunday-night dinner at their hotel, however, her husband--believing it to be inappropriate behavior for the wife of a nobleman--orders her not to go. Complications ensue.
Seductress Leila Templeton lures Harleth Crossley into a supposed assignation at his wife Marcia’s dinner party making a fool of them both. Following other compromising situations and his declaration of needing “personal liberty” Marcia divorces him. Still enamored of Leila, he marries her, but she remains a selfish flirt and Otis Vale, whom Leila has driven insane with her teasing, abducts her. In the mad dash away their automobile tumbles over a cliff, killing them both. When Harleth learns that "Mrs. Crossey" has died, he imagines it to be Marcia, and rushes to her. The relief he shows convinces her that their "invisible bond" is intact, and they reconcile.
Pigeon Deering, a girl of the tenements, while watching a society ball through a window, witnesses a murder and is arrested. Because she craves notoriety, Pigeon confesses to the crime. During her trial, attorney Arthur Beal exposes the murderer and urges her not to accept any offer from theatrical producers hoping to cash in on her "fame." When Pigeon rejects his advice, Arthur fakes an offer, which she accepts, and has her brought to his country farm for "rehearsals." An attack by a hired man, who assumes from her publicity that she is susceptible, finally convinces Pigeon of her mistake, and she accepts Arthur's proposal of marriage.
The Earl of Dunhaven, who disinherited his son for marrying an American, tries, on his deathbed, to leave his estate to his nephew, the Honorable Guy Wyndham. To stop him, the Dunhaven solicitor, John Grahame, travels to America and finds the earl's grandson, Jim Dunn, a Wyoming cowpuncher.