A convicted murderer has been sentenced to death in the electric chair. He decides to spill the name of the man who hired him, but just before he does he's killed by a poison dart. A police detective and a pretty young newspaper reporter team up to find out the identity of the man behind the killings.
Peggy ShannonNancy Weaver
Preston FosterInsp. O'Brien
Ray WalkerNatural
Hobart CavanaughParkhurst
Barbara BarondessGwen
Paul PorcasiNick
Harold WaldridgeJoe
Jason Robards Sr.Clinton
Bryant WashburnDistrict Attorney
Harry HolmanMcGee
A widow's husband returns after her second marriage, and dies while assaulting her.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, The Drifter, young and educated, and The Seeker, old and feeble-minded, meet and form a partnership. The Seeker meets Rosario, unaware that she is his daughter, left there 20 years previously when his mind was affected by a tropical storm that killed his wife and wrecked his home. Rosario is deeded land belonging to her father and is about to sell it to Clifford Fayne when The Seeker discovers gold there and urges her to desist. Fayne lures her to a cabin and tries to force her to sign the bill of sale; The Drifter and her father rescue her; the father is mortally wounded but lives long enough to learn that Rosario is his daughter and that she will be happy with The Drifter.
Political graft collector, David Power forced by the district attorney to leave New York takes cabaret singer Hebe Norse with him. Showing talent in a variety of professions, Power is eventually hired by a great steel manufacturer, Gail Rogers. He falls in love with Rogers' daughter Rosalie, and they marry happily until Rogers returns home with a new wife…. Hebe Norse. When Rogers discovers Hebe's past, the two men sever ties as does Rosalie. Vengefully Rogers tries to ruin one of Power's companies without success. Ultimately Rosalie forgives Power and they and their young daughter are reunited.
Even though he disapproves of the harshness with which his father, the Colonel, treats his employees, Wayne Craighill joins the old man's mining business. Adding to the strain between father and son, Wayne soon falls in love with Jean, the daughter of a small mine owner whom the Colonel wants to put out of business.
A wealthy Russian family is faced with change and challenges as events unfold during the First World War.
After his defeat at the hands of "Spider" Flynn, the welterweight champion of Europe, boxer Jimmie Dolan and his trainer, Thomas Jefferson Jones, leave for a principality near Paris. Having lost all their money on the fight, Jimmie accepts Count Conrad's offer to impersonate Prince Frederick in return for a large sum of money.
When Mary and Fannie Graham, daughters of a good mother but a father with criminal instincts, are left motherless, Mary flees from her unhappy surroundings while Fannie, inheriting her father's disposition, remains and is raised as a thief.
A father-and-son team of cons gamble their firm’s assets. The son is caught investing money that doesn't belong to him and is indicted on a swindling charge. The plot gets spicy when the District Attorney handling the case is his former sweetheart's husband. This situation gives the DA an opportunity to prosecute his romantic rival.
Priscilla Worth, an innocent country girl, goes to the city to visit her aunt, who has sent for her, thinking that her childlike simplicity will afford a welcome relief to Vincent Morgan, a wealthy bachelor and man-about-town. The plan works, but soon after Vincent and Priscilla's marriage, Vincent, besieged by his friends to return to his gay life and suspicious of his wife's relationship with Durant--an artist who has painted her portrait--yields to temptation.
Lieut. Governor Oliver Barnitz accedes to the governorship when his predecessor, failing to call out the militia during a riot at the Wilmot plant, is shot and killed by terrorist Oliver Poole. Faced with the dilemma of whether or not to commute the assassin's death sentence, Barnitz falls into a troubled sleep and dreams of being forced to cast judgment on his father in a similar position.
Indore, an Indian woman married to the English Captain Terence Unger is imprisoned by the prince after she gives birth to a baby daughter named Agatha. On his deathbed, Unger beseeches his friend Francis Duane to care for Agatha which Duane does, returning to England with the infant.
Robert Lanning, a proper Bostonian who owns an estate in southern New Mexico, suspects that some of his employees are smuggling arms into Mexico, and sends his son, Robert Jr., to investigate. During his journey west, Robert meets Mary Hamilton, a stranded actress from a roadshow company of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Because Mary is still in costume as the character, “Little Eva,” Robert mistakes her for a child and takes her with him to the ranch. He ultimately discovers the identity of the arms smugglers and, with the help of the Mexican Rurales, brings the gang to justice. Robert then realizes that Mary is not a child and wins her for his wife.
George Bell, a wild young man, lives with his rancher father, Thomas Bell, in Paradise Valley, California. When George sells his father's favorite horse, Mr. Bell turns him out, and George becomes a grain salesman in St. Louis. Meanwhile, Polly Martin lives with her father Bill, an ex-businessman who has sunk to day-labor because of his addiction to alcohol. Bill frequently abuses Polly, and when he falls to his death from a high girder, Polly becomes a nurse in the Salvation Army in St. Louis. George falls in love with Polly after he saves her from the advances of a drunk, but she will not marry him because of his wild past.
Although Kenneth Carmont and Esther Saunders, criminal Bert Saunders' sister, love each other, Esther marries detective Elwood Collins, who agrees to stop pursuing Bert if she accepts his proposal. One night, Kenneth and Esther hide Bert, who has escaped from the police. The same night, Kenneth's father is murdered. The evidence implicates Kenneth, who cannot supply his whereabouts at the time of the crime, as that would give away Bert. Esther cannot clear Kenneth for the same reason, and because it would let her husband know that she was with her former sweetheart.
After watching her mother die gradually from a broken heart, Roberta, an illegitimate child, decides to seek vengeance from her father Bradley, who ran away before she was born. Bradley is wealthy now, and so Roberta secures a job as his secretary and schemes to ruin his financial empire.
For Nita Valyez, who is half-Spanish and half-Irish, Carlos represents potential violence and danger, two things to which she is both attracted and repelled. In contrast, she has only a passing interest in Big Jim, the town's honest, good-hearted sheriff. Then, after Carlos kills a faro dealer, he forces Nita to make an escape with him.
A story depicting the life of executed murderer and gang leader, Marciál "Baby" Ama. Ama, who became a gang leader with his prison mob while serving a sentence for lesser charges, was executed for murder at the age of 16 via electric chair on 4 October 1961.
A widowed woman marries her husband's brother, who soon proves to be a tyrant stepfather to his adopted son.
A young woman of humble origins hides her family's lack of wealth and prestige from her boarding school friends.