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Smoldering Embers (1920)
Character: Tramp
When John Conroy's wife takes his infant son Jack and runs away with another man, Conroy becomes a tramp and goes to Alaska. Fifteen years later, he returns and learns that his son Jack is being coerced into marrying Edith Wyatt, the daughter of a congressman, in order to further the political ambitions of his stepfather, Mayor Horace Manners. Conroy makes friends with the boy, who is unaware that the congenial tramp is actually his father. Jack loves cobbler's daughter Beth Stafford, and when Conroy discovers that Manners plans to frame Jack for the loss of city funds and thus scare him into marriage with Edith, he intercedes and insures that his son receives both his rightful inheritance and the woman whom he loves. After securing the boy's happiness, Conroy slips away without revealing his true identity to his son.
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Innocent's Progress (1918)
Character: Masters
Tessa Fayne, unhappy in her life as a clerk in a small town candy store, leaves her Aunt Lottie and journeys to New York City to search for Arnold Fuller, an actor who once offered her love as well as a career on the stage. After learning that Arnold is married, Tessa rushes out into the rain and runs headlong into Carey Larned, a young millionaire. Carey takes her to his apartment, where a fellow clubman, Olin Humphreys, tries to attack her. In defending her, Carey suffers a lung hemorrhage and is ordered West by his physician to recuperate. In his absence, Tessa is cared for by Madeline Carson, who, although deeply in love with Carey, has inspired only his friendship in return. Under Madeline's watchful eye, Tessa grows into a beautiful and cultured woman. Several years later, Madeline is killed in an accident, and when Carey returns to visit Tessa, he realizes his love for her and proposes.
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An Honest Man (1918)
Character: Old Man Cushing
When Benny Boggs, a good-natured hobo, is rejected by the U.S. Army, he decides to overcome his aversion to work and offers assistance to a farmer known as Old Man Cushing. Cushing falls seriously ill and, believing he is about to die, asks Benny to deliver a package to his daughter Ruby, who left home to pursue an acting career. Benny soon learns that the package contains $50,000, but resolves to earn the old man's trust, despite his poverty. After arriving in the city, Benny rescues Beatrice Burnett from an attacker, and the two become friends. Later, Beatrice takes Benny to visit her ailing friend, who identifies herself as Cushing's long-lost daughter. Benny gives the money to Ruby and accompanies her back to the farm, where they receive a warm greeting from Cushing, who has recovered from his illness. The army finally accepts Benny, and Ruby promises to marry him when he returns from active duty.
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An Amateur Devil (1920)
Character: Farmer Brown
Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.
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Garments of Truth (1921)
Character: Mr. Crope
Lester Crope, who has a penchant for inventing imaginative stories, alarms his village by reporting that the dam above the mayor's house has burst; incidentally he "saves" the life of Catherine Willis, the mayor's niece. The town council sends Lester to Dr. Mills of Boston to be treated for his condition. Now cured, his propensity for telling the truth on all occasions upsets village life: he works in a grocery store and informs customers of stale products; he also ruins a real-estate deal that would have meant prosperity for the town. Dr. Mills states that the only way to return Lester to his former safe tricks will be to arrange that he fall in love.
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Heiress For a Day (1918)
Character: Old Hodges
Working as a manicurist at the Ritz, Helen Thurston, is in love with her wealthy patron, Jack Standring, but the young man's mother wants him to marry a rich debutante. Helen is informed that she has inherited her grandfather's millions, and she proceeds as quickly as possible to acquire expensive clothing and jewelry on credit. Jack, however, is not impressed. Soon Helen learns that she has inherited only $1,000, the remainder of the fortune having gone to her cousin Spindrift. The creditors hound her for their money, and at a grand ball at the Standring home, a detective threatens to arrest her. Touched by her poverty, Jack decides to elope with her. Finally Spindrift violates the conditions of the will, and Helen inherits the entire fortune.
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The Westerners (1919)
Character: Prof. Welch
Michael, a half-breed Indian, is forced off a wagon train by scout Michael. Seeking revenge, he murders the wife of a college professor, kidnaps her baby daughter, and raises her as his own.
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The Golden Fleece (1918)
Character: Hiram
Jason, a naive inventor raised in the country, leaves his sweetheart Rose and goes to New York to sell his ideas, but is promptly robbed of his money and his clothing.
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The Pretender (1918)
Character: Seth Higgins
After Bob Baldwin is fired for playing too many jokes on the tenderfoot owner of the Diamond K Ranch, he sets out for the nearby town of Freloe Beanos and meets Percival Longstreet on the way. Percival has been seriously injured in an accident and is therefore unable to assume his duties as the town's new schoolmaster. Distressed, Percival confesses that he and his sister Dolly, who is en route to the town, are doomed to starve, which so moves Bob that he agrees to serve as the schoolmaster during Percival's convalescence.
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Betty Takes a Hand (1918)
Character: Gardner
Discovering that her father, Peter Marshall, had been defrauded by a business partner named James Bartlett, Betty goes to Los Angeles to visit her aunt, Mrs. Hamilton Haines, whose late husband had a hand in ruining Peter. Tom, Bartlett's son, has arranged a yachting trip for Mrs. Haines and her daughter Ida, and Ida, deciding that her cousin is too pretty to come along, persuades Betty to stay behind. Tom, on the way to the yacht after a quarrel with his father, passes the Haines mansion and, noticing a sign advertising room and board, stops. Meeting Betty who is posing as Miss Haines, Tom moves in and falls in love with his landlady. When Betty accidentally meets Tom's father, the old man is so captivated that he offers her $5,000 to marry his son. After Tom and Betty are married, when both fathers discover their in-laws' true identities they are first indignant but later are reconciled.
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One a Minute (1921)
Character: Martin Duffey
An excellent silent comedy starring unjustly forgotten star Douglas MacLean. Its indictment of pharmaceutical entrepreneurs is far sharper than Side Effects'.
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You Never Can Tell (1920)
Character: Wilberforce Jones
Bebe Daniels is charming in this light comedy, based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Grace Lovell Bryan.
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