A waiter in love with a countess assumes the identity of an aristocrat.
Social & External
The people behind it
Frederic Zelnik
Max Wessely alias Graf Festenberg
Maria Widal
Countess Schlieben
Charles Willy Kayser
Harald Paulsen
Paul Rehkopf
Heinrich Peer
Harriet Field, living the Bohemian life in Greenwich Village, is tricked into a mock marriage with the unscrupulous Royal Blondin. She leaves him, taking a job as companion to the wealthy Nina Carter. Blondin reappears during a masquerade ball thrown by the Carters, makes advances to Nina but Harriet intervenes, bringing threats from Blondin to expose her past. When Nina’s faithless mother is killed in a car crash as she elopes with another man Richard Carter persuades Harriet to marry him for the sake of the children. She reveals all to her husband and Richard offers Blondin a hefty sum of money to stay out of Nina's life.
A doctor who believes that only the immoral catch syphilis reconsiders his stance.
A painter with syphilis infects his brother's wife and the child born of their affair.
Lowell Sherman's seemingly perfect marriage to Alice, which is shattered when she has an affair with his best friend, Cyril Carr; Lowell's revenge ruins Cyril, leading to suicide, after which Lowell supports Cyril's son and marries Cyril's widow, Muriel, finding a complex love amidst ruin and guilt.
Molly is a young woman who out of desperation after failing to find work steals a pocketbook from a society woman, Blanche Armstrong. This act leads her into a legal conflict involving the District Attorney, Roger Hackett, who uses the situation to pursue his own lustful interests.
Alaskan prospector Guy Roberts receives a giant $100,000 bill and boards a ship to Seattle, only to be targeted by Soapy Smith and his gang who try to steal the fortune, leading to a comical, suspenseful cat-and-mouse game where Roberts outsmarts them by hiding the bill under a steamship label on his trunk, proving his cleverness and winning the skipper's daughter.
Richard loves Helen, but her snobby mother looks down on him because his father made his money as a soap manufacturer. She arranges a trip abroad for Helen, but Helen arranges to meet Richard and have him drive her to the station. Richard’s aunt gives him his mother's wedding ring as a talisman and en route to the train a traffic backup occurs resulting in Helen missing the train and Richard winning her hand. Auntie claims that the ring is responsible; father only smiles knowing he paid one of his men to bribe streetcar motormen, truckmen, and taxicab drivers to bring about the traffic tie-up.
Rose Hale, a country girl, rescues Ralph Van Court after he becomes lost while hunting in the Adirondacks. Ralph had recently been spurned by his former love, Viola Shepard, who chose to marry his wealthy uncle for money. Rose and Ralph marry, but she soon finds herself neglected by her city-dwelling husband once the honeymoon phase ends.
Illustrator Donald Barstow living in a run-down studio building develops an interest in the married Mrs. Blakely. She invites him to Philadelphia for the weekend and he accepts leading to unexpected complications for both.
The traveling troupe of actors gets stuck in Dawson City, and Andrews, the protagonist, with his wife, Edna, has almost no money. They set off for the gold region. Tired and hopeless after a long journey, they arrive at Dan Shaw's shack. The old miner welcomes them and confidently shows them a bag of wax nuggets that, for many years, he has been collecting to buy a house in California.
Vera Ashton's criminal history resurfaces via her brother when he coerces her into robbing her wealthy employer. A shootout occurs; Vera fatally shoots her brother in self-defense. Her fiancé, Dixon, supports her claim of being his wife. A surprise revelation clears Vera, preventing her arrest.
Kid Kelly, a gangster in New York's Lower East Side, attempts to rob Goldberg's millinery store. When the police arrive, Flo Haines, who had come to the building to look at an apartment, hides. When the police find her, they charge her with the crime, but the Kid turns himself over to the law instead. After his release, he again meets Flo, who works in an artificial-flower factory by day and at Reverend Roberts' relief mission by night. The Kid soon falls in love with Flo, and his jealous sweetheart Mamie tricks her into coming to her apartment, where she drugs her and turns her over to Joe Carelli, the flower factory's lustful owner. The Kid saves Flo, but when Carelli is found murdered the next day, he is arrested for the crime. The confession of Annie, who had stabbed Carelli in a jealous rage, frees The Kid, who reforms himself and marries Flo.
Heading to America after finding themselves destitute following their father's death, Charles de la Fontaine, the Marquis d'Aubeterre and his sister Helen secures a position in the home of Lathrop, a millionaire thanks to the Countess d'Este. He instantly falls in love with Lathrop's pretty daughter Marian, but she fears he is a fortune hunter and becomes engaged to the wealthy Rudolph Miller. Charles tells her he would only marry her when the two are equally wealthy. Charles then secretly backs Marian's brother Frank in a successful financial venture, making both rich. Discovering Rudolph is unfaithful and with the "golden wall" of wealth that had separated them now obliterated, Marian and Charles wed.
William Lewis accidentally shoots a policeman while breaking into a house as a prank with his friends. His friend Sid falsely accuses him of the shooting, and Will escapes, eventually meeting and marrying Alice. Later, Sid blackmails Will into helping him rob a bank, leading to a chain of events that ultimately results in Will's imprisonment and eventual tragic death.
John Warner, the newly elected governor, as district attorney, had ordered the execution of Horgan's sons, thus making him his worst enemy. Horgan, head of the First District, owns a fancy saloon. Donald Warner, John's brother, a reckless and reckless, though very lovable boy, is a frequent visitor to Horgan's house, visiting with Dolly, a girl from the underworld.
Dirk Morgan, a trusted member of a powerful international criminal gang, receives word that the steamer Empress has left Melbourne with a secret shipment of gold; the letter also contains plans for the ship's hold and cabins. Dirk books passage for himself and Anne and they board the steamer in Sydney.
Violet Waldron is the daughter of dissolute parents with no hope of redemption. Yet, strange as it may be, she is a loyal and loving soul, supporting her father and mother in their degradation, no matter how badly they mistreat her. Seeking help for Bill Waldron, who has overdosed on cocaine, she tries in vain to convince his mother, whom she finds in a wine room, to come home with her.
Forced to abandon his ancestral castle, William Tudor accompanies his granddaughter Irene to London, while millionaire John Kershaw buys the castle for his son, "Kit." Irene joins the Gaiety Theatre company, hoping that her lover, Owen, who has gone to Africa, will return and purchase the castle from the Kershaws.
Sauntry, secretary to John Graydon, the wealthy banker, commits many robberies in the city among the wealthy class, gaining a rather sinister reputation. He hides his tracks by placing a wooden leg on one of the good ones, thus leaving a print and a round mark. Graydon's diamond disappears and the chain to which it was tied is found by Limpy Fisher, a boy from the East Side, with a wooden leg.
Amos Dyer receives word from Washington that there are wireless messages being transmitted from a point in Oregon to foreign battleships off the Pacific Coast. Dyer, the Secret Service representative on the Coast, sets out with his assistant, Calhoun. He arrives, assumes the disguise of an invalid being wheeled about in a chair by his assistant and interviews the regular wireless operator at that point. The suspicions of the Secret Service Department are verified.
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
A World War II prisoner returns home to his childhood sweetheart. However, back home, he discovers that he has to compete to win her love.
A tough, street-smart kid serving a sentence in a state youth reformatory meets a beautiful, innocent girl studying at a nearby convent. When forbidden love blossoms between them, they must fight the prison authorities, their parents and the law.
Caroline, a young waitress who seems to have bad taste in men, is on her way home one night when thugs attempt to rape her. Adam, the mysterious busboy who works at the same diner, helps fight off the assailants, and she begins a relationship with him -- but not all their fellow Minnesotans are happy for them. Meanwhile, the couple face their own difficulties when Caroline finds about Adam's past, including his unique health condition.
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
A failed novelist's inability to pay the bills strains relations with his wife and leads him to work at an escort service, where he becomes entwined with a wealthy woman whose husband is a successful writer.
A novelist is blinded in a car crash that killed his wife and several years later rediscovers his passion for life and writing when he embarks on an affair with the neglected wife of an indicted businessman.
Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins, arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence. Her husband, Jabe M. Torrance, is dying of cancer. Val is pursued by Carol Cutere, the enigmatic local tramp-of-good-family.
Professor Gabriel Emerson finally learns the truth about Julia Mitchell's identity, but his realization comes a moment too late. Julia is done waiting for the well-respected Dante specialist to remember her and wants nothing more to do with him. Can Gabriel win back her heart before she finds love in another's arms?
A road trip through Louisiana transforms three strangers who were originally brought together by their respective feelings of loneliness.
Max Baron is a Jewish advertising executive in his 20s who's still getting over the death of his wife. Nora Baker is a 40-something diner waitress who enjoys the wilder side of life. Mismatched or not, their attraction is instant and smoldering. With time, however, their class and age differences become an obstacle in their relationship, especially since Max can't keep Nora a secret from his Jewish friends and upper-crust associates forever.
After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.
A suicidal young man is committed to a Dublin psychiatric hospital where he meets new friends who greatly influence his life.
The story of a long-lost book that mysteriously reappears and connects an old man searching for his son with a girl seeking a cure for her mother's loneliness.
A young woman who is determined to maintain her independence finds herself at odds with her family who wants her to tame her wild side and get married.
A hard-working, white-collar girl falls in love with a young socialite, but meets with his family's disapproval.
A widow with three children hires a handyman to fix her house during a major storm. When not doing home repairs, he shares his philosophy of believing in the power of the universe to deliver what we want.
A privileged girl and a charismatic boy's instant desire sparks a love affair made only more reckless by parents trying to keep them apart.
Based on the true story of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, a soldier deployed to Iraq begins to keep a journal of love and advice for his infant son. Back at home, senior New York Times editor Dana Canedy revisits the story of her unlikely, life-altering relationship with King and his enduring devotion to her and their child.
The coming-of-age tale of 16-year-old Lina Vilkas who is deported to Siberia amid Stalin's reign of terror in the Baltic region during WWII. An aspiring artist, she secretly documents her harrowing journey with her drawings.