Hands Across the Sea

Young squire Jasper Hugh Lovel is wrongfully accused of a crime and sent away to the penal colony at Norfolk Island. Back in England, a woman who deeply loves him refuses to give up hope. She successfully works to secure his official pardon. Once cleared, the two are joyfully reunited. The historical melodrama is notable for featuring a dramatic, high-stakes duel sequence.

In August 1857, the clipper ship Dunbar arrived at Sydney Heads after a long voyage from England, only to be smashed against the jagged cliffs at the entrance to Port Jackson during a severe rainstorm. It remains one of Australia’s worst maritime disasters, resulting in the loss of 121 lives and only a single survivor. This is a dramatic reenactment of the tale.

Adapted from Dion Boucicault’s classic 1874 play, the story follows an unjustly exiled Irish patriot and the clever vagabond, Conn, who engineers his escape from a penal colony.

A story of the early days of the Australian goldfields.

After her family is financially ruined in a lawsuit by John Rutherford of Wall Street, Carol Raymond leaves Virginia to set matters straight. Three weeks later, after marrying Bruce Armitage, the now deceased Rutherford's nephew and heir, Carol tells her father the story in a letter: When she arrived, she succeeded in making Armitage fall in love with her. However, Armitage's twin brother, Alan Rutherford, and an adventuress lured her to a roadhouse. After she drank much champagne, Rutherford, appearing as Armitage, attempted to assault her until she threatened to jump from a balcony. When she saw both Rutherford and Armitage together, she learned that it was the disinherited twin brother who pursued the suit. She then married Armitage. As she finishes the letter, Rutherford, after binding Armitage in the cellar, enters her bedroom, but Armitage escapes just in time to save Carol from Rutherford's embrace.

Lacking patients, Dr. Sumner sets himself up as a psychologist and opens a sanitarium, becoming quite successful. Virginia Zelva, a clairvoyant who wants to get into what she regards as a racket, signs on as his nurse. Sumner falls in love with Virginia and, after numerous complications, wins her for his bride.

Irving Robertson, a successful playwright, has just received a message from out of town to witness the initial performance of one of his plays. As he is about to leave, Henderson, the manager, calls to pay a sum due him for royalties. At the same time, Frank Wilson, a friend of the family, drops in.

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.

Denounced for preaching socialism Reverend Frank Gordon founds his own "Temple of Man." financed by Kate Ransom, the woman Gordon has fallen in with love and entered into a common-law agreement with after divorcing his wife. With the outbreak of World War I, however, the members of his new congregation oppose conscription while he wholeheartedly supports the Allied cause. Driven from his own church, he returns home to find Kate in banker Mark Overman's arms, enraged he strangles the banker. Sentenced to life imprisonment, his ex-wife Ruth pleads with Governor Morrison to pardon the errant clergyman. Gordon is allowed to return to his family.

A Lady stops her daughter from eloping with a farmer, takes away her baby, and makes her marry a Lord.

Edwin Rowley is a talented but uncommercial playwright. Stephen Hunt is a successful theatrical manager. Rowley finishes a brilliant play and sends it to Hunt for production. Recognizing it as a masterpiece, Hunt puts his own name on the play and produces it, achieving fame as a playwright. Upon discovery of the theft the shock is too much for Rowley’s wife, who dies. Rowley, devastated, loses his sanity and disappears. Hunt decides to adopt Rowley's orphaned son and raises him as his own. Years later, Rowley, wandering aimlessly, sees a poster advertising his play with his own name on it. This sight brings him back to his senses. Rowley and Hunt are reconciled, and Rowley finally receives public recognition and enjoys his success as the true author of the play.

Failing to get a loan from Nicholas Eyre, the Steel King and friend of his wife's father, Robert Lathrop induces his wife to beg for the money he plans to spend upon his mistress. He is given a check. Hurrying to Lola's apartments, he finds her in the arms of her lover, Haskell. In the fight that follows, Lathrop is killed and left in the park. Believing her husband to be a suicide because Eyre refused to advance him funds, the wife plans to revenge what she considers his murder, but enlightenment comes after terrible damage has been done.

Law partners, Gerard Hale and Luther Snaith, vie for a vacant Senate seat as well as the governor's daughter Marion. When Tom Shores and his sister Mary appear at the firm with the news that her two-year-old is the illegitimate child of Gerard's late father, Gerard Hale, Sr., Snaith sees the opportunity to win both the Senate seat and Marion. Gerard, feeling an obligation, gives Mary a check for $50,000. Luther has Mary and Tom seized by detectives to force an open admission from Gerard of culpability. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hale and Marion have stopped in to visit and Gerard, fearing the truth will prove fatal to his mother's ailing heart, claims that the baby is his. Mrs. Hale is confined to bed and Snaith blackmails Gerard to withdraw from the race. Mrs. Hale asks Gerard to do his duty and wed Mary. Mary wants to be truthful, but Gerard fears that may prove fatal to his mother. However, when Mrs. Hale dies, Gerard is freed from the shackles of truth.

The brute is a gambler, boxing manager and underworld boss who mistreats a young woman. She is forced into marriage with him for money after her original fiance is thought dead. When that man returns, he attempts to rescue her.

Rena is a young woman of mixed race. Although she is romantically pursued by an upwardly mobile African American named Frank, Rena does not decide in his favor. Her appearance allows her to pass for white, as she is of majority European ancestry, although she has grown up in the black community. She meets and falls in love with George Tryon, a young white aristocrat. But as their relationship deepens, Rena believes she has to acknowledge her African ancestry. Considered a lost film.

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.

An upper class melodrama.

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.

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.

A refined criminal keeps his life secret from his daughter. When he gets trouble from the police after shooting one of his underworld associates, he enlists in the US Army and goes to fight in France during World War I. While in France, he serves alongside a young man who is in love with his daughter.