"It Breathes a Spirit of the Best Americanism in Our History"
The wide-ranging storyline of The Melting Pot takes its characters from the Jewish ghettoes of Russia to the Lower East Side of New York.
Social & External
The people behind it
Walker Whiteside
David Quixano
Valentine Grant
Vera Ravendal
Fletcher Harvey
Baron Ravendal
Henry Bergman
Mendel Quixano
Julia Hurley
Frau Quixano
Doc Crane
Quincy Davenport
Henry Leone
Herr Papelmeister
Reginald Denny
(uncredited)
Twin sisters Rosetta and Lola Gelardi live happily with their aging father, Professor Gelardi, until their Sicilian village is destroyed by an earthquake. Unable to find Lola, the professor and Rosetta move to New York, where she obtains employment as a stenographer to author Aubrey Hapgood. Rosetta captivates Aubrey and his friends, but Mildred Sanders, who had hoped to win Aubrey for herself, tries to ruin Rosetta's reputation. On a drive with Aubrey, Rosetta relates her life story, whereupon Aubrey, claiming he loves her, takes her to an inn. Although he promises to marry her, she later reads of his engagement to Mildred. Rosetta shoots herself, after which Lola appears to avenge her death by causing the ruin of Aubrey's sister. Aubrey fires on Lola, but Rosetta awakens in his car and realizes that it was all a dream. While the chauffeur repairs the car, she and Aubrey walk into town to find a preacher.
Richard Lane isolates himself in the African interior for 5 years after his sweetheart, Natalie, marries Norman Travers. Travers, who tires of family life and neglects his wife and son, drifts into an affair with Nita Howard, a cabaret dancer. When Travers' ship is reported lost inward from Europe, Lane hears the news and determines to return and win Natalie; soon Lane develops a fondness for Natalie and her child, Bobby, and she consents to marry him. Travers, however, is rescued from a desert island and refuses to grant Natalie a divorce. Lane finds Travers murdered; and thinking that Natalie is guilty, he surrenders himself to the police. She denies his guilt, but the chief of detectives discovers that Nita Howard is the murderess. Lane is happily united with Natalie.
Margot Sperry, who keeps house for her guardian, a professor who wants to revert to primitive modes of living, finds it difficult to find food in the winter wilderness and resorts to pilfering from the Bates's winter camp. Divvy, engaged to a girl he does not love, meets Margot on one of her raids and falls in love with her. Baptiste, a half-breed employed by the Bates family, is discharged for stealing and burns the camp, driving the family to refuge with Margot. Elsie, hoping to regain Divvy's affections, dresses in boyish clothes similar to Margot's. Joining forces with Baptiste, they capture Margot, and Baptiste takes her in a canoe downstream. Realizing her mistake, Elsie warns Divvy, who bests the half-breed and then rescues Margot from the falls. A lost film.
A man breaks into a flat, startling the occupant. They argue about the new girlfriend of the 'burglar', who's come to get her stuff. Then a third man bursts out of the cupboard...
Unscrupulous politician Mark Stetson frames Mr. & Mrs. Brandon and their friend Antoinette for a smuggling racket he runs. Upon their release they swear vengeance and after Stetson once again tries to incriminate them, this time in a plot against a rival politician, justice is theirs.
Geological expert John Leighton naïvely introduces his flirtatious wife Emily to his boss, W. G. Griggs. Griggs sends John to the Graypeak district to prospect for quarries and is soon involved in an affair with Emily. While in the mountains, John rescues Enid Arden from an attack and she falls in love with him. Returning home John discovers the affair and leaves Emily. Emily and Griggs go to Europe to avoid a scandal and while there start divorce proceedings. But Griggs’ philandering ultimately costs him his life and Emily tracks John to Graypeak. Although she tries to win John back a fateful train ride clears the way for John and Enid to face a happy future together.
Chrissey Desselden is the ward of John Warburton and has promised to marry him though she is drawn to the roguish Robert Neyland. When Robert’s caddish behavior becomes too flagrant, she marries John despite still feeling a pull towards the bad boy. Conflicted, she asks her husband for time to sort out her feelings but when she discovers Neyland’s plot to destroy John’s fortune for spite she spurns him and settles into a happy marriage.
When she is orphaned Lily Upjohn, from the London slums, becomes a chorus girl at the Pandora Theatre. During a performance a scene painter drops some paint near Lily and her screams prompt the show's composer to create a hit song "Mind the Paint Girl," which Lily makes an overnight sensation. She is courted by young officer Nicholas Jeyes and by Lord Francombe. Driving both men to near ruin she promises marriage to both but in the end choses neither.
When burlesque dancer Elois Murree gives birth to her daughter Yvette, she sends to a fashionable boarding school away from the stage environment and her drunken husband. Yvette visits infrequently but during one sojourn Murree slashes Elois' left eye in an argument forcing Elois, now veiled, to perform billed as the Masked Queen. Yvette becomes attracted to her friend’s brother, Rex, she avoids him after she learns that he wants his prospective bride to come from a good family. Yvette becomes a burlesque queen, but a distraught Elois tries to kill her to save her soul and then commits suicide, leaving the bloodied knife in the hands of her drunken husband, who then is arrested. Later, Yvette finds happiness with Rex.
Homesick for America, Jack and his pals get aboard a ship U. S.-bound disguised as entertainers. As entertainers they're flops, but evoke considerable mirth among the passengers by their efforts. Jack arouses the jealousy of a Frenchman, who is keen on a young French girl, and is challenged to a fight. The Frenchman fights a la Savatte (the French method, including kicking, bucking, etc.) and is getting the better of Jack, until the latter dons a pair of hobnailed brogans. He consents to remove these if his adversary will put boxing gloves on his feet. The Frenchman gets seasick and is counted out as he leans over the rail, where he is soon joined by Jack.
A convict being transported to Australia from England in the 1800's saves the life of a young girl during a shipwreck. Ten years later in England, she meets a brilliant attorney with secrets in his past.
A Greek man falls for an injured French woman. When he is informed of her death, he continues to sing under her hospital window every night.
A sorrowing mother, bereft of her infant, visits a foundling asylum and adopts a baby girl. The young window lavishes her love and care on the adopted infant and her environment is the finest. Father Time present the baby with an hour glass containing "The Sands of Time" which are all in the upper part of the glass.
Unable to tolerate city life, Sadie Barker leaves her husband Max and with her baby, returns to her birth village; afraid to tell her father that she plans to raise a baby without a father, she pretends that she is still childless and asks Lucy White to look after the infant for a few months. Lucy quickly agrees; hoping to preserve Sadie's secret, she claims that the child is really her own, and even conceals the truth from her sweetheart, Dave Allen. Risking the condemnation of the community, which has already ostracized Lucy for having a baby out of wedlock, Dave decides to stand by his sweetheart. He marries her after Max and Sadie are reunited and take back their child.
Wealthy playboy Jack Edmunds spends some time in a small mountain town, where he makes the acquaintance of local girl Caprtice Talbert and invites her to his apartment. When Caprice's father finds out about it--although nothing happened--he forces the two to marry, and the newlyweds move to Jack's home in the city. Tensions arise between the two as Jack is still resentful over the "shotgun wedding" and Caprice finds that she can't bear living in the big city and wants to return home.
Folly Vallance marries millionaire Anthony Bond for his money, but he insists on a marriage in name only. Entering the social scene she befriends Bond's close friend Keene Mordaunt. When Count Svensen tries to extort Folly into running away with him, Keene pursues them to a country house where they meet Anthony, who accuses his friend of treachery. Folly finally recognizes her love for her husband and explains the cause of her actions; Bond forgives her leading to their reconciliation.
The spread of yellow journalism in a small town almost destroys the lives of several people and threatens the livelihood of the hamlet itself.
Wealthy widower Richard Sinclaire's 12-year-old daughter Joyce has everything she desires except the companionship of other young people.
Jimmy, a waif chimney sweep, sees Joyce while cleaning a chimney in Colonel Wynne's magnificent home, and believes that she is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. He clips a curl while she sleeps and leaves note explaining that he "Tuk the kurl bekawse yure the purtiest gurl I ever saw." Donaldson, the colonel's close friend, adopts Jimmy, who grows up into a well-educated young man. Joyce likes him immediately, but he has a rival, Carl Bellou. Jimmy writes a note to Joyce informing her that one of her suitors is the little chimney sweep who has striven ever since to make himself worthy of her. He tells Bellou about it and the latter hurries to announce himself as the chimney sweep. "I had hoped it was Jimmy," she tells him, and Jimmy enters in time to hear her words. He has the ring with him.
Mario Campanini, a theological student, makes the serious mistake of neglecting his young and pleasure-loving wife, Rita. Her dissatisfaction grows, until she meets the Count di Turino. The Count is very attentive and almost before she knows it Rita is infatuated with him. One night she elopes, leaving a simple note for Mario, who is stunned. At the count's home Rita is happy, for the Count is very good to her, but one day her curiosity leads her to try one of several locked doors in the castle-like home, and there she finds the Count is keeping in seclusion an insane wife. Now she knows the reason for the Count's many absences from home, during which he was supposed to be engaged in "diplomatic work." Horrified at what she has learned, Rita forlornly returns to her husband, but he sternly orders her to go back to her titled lover and stay there; she has become one of the Unforgiven. At this point Mario awakes from his terrible nightmare just as his wife smilingly enters the room.
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.
Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.
An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.
Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."
Members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division are fighting for their country amidst the rugged terrain of Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944. Holley and his American compatriots have already seen one of their own, Roderigues, perish under enemy fire. The men try to rebuff another series of Nazi attacks, but what they really need is a change in the weather. Without clear skies, they'll never get the air support they need.
A young priest, Father Chisholm is sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese. While his boyhood friend, also a priest, flourishes in his calling as a priest in a more Christian area of the world, Father Chisholm struggles. He encounters hostility, isolation, disease, poverty and a variety of set backs which humble him, but make him more determined than ever to succeed.
A retelling of L.M. Montgomery's story of Anne Shirley, an orphan who is accidentally sent to a couple looking to adopt a boy instead.
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Isaac's son Jacob deprives his brother Esau of his birthright and has to flee for his life. He finds shelter with his uncle Laban, but is himself deceived. Finally, Jacob has to face both his uncle and brother.
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
Widower Tom, on the recent passing of his wife Mary, uses his free bus pass to travel the length of Britain from John O'Groats in Caithness to Land's End in Cornwall, their shared birthplace, using only local buses. It's an incident-fuelled nostalgia trip and his encounters with local people make him a media phenomenon. Tom is totally unaware and to his surprise on arrival at Land’s End he’s greeted as a celebrity.
An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?