John Mackin

The Belle of the Season is a 1919 American silent comedy-drama film, directed by S. Rankin Drew, and stars Emmy Wehlen, S. Rankin Drew, and Walter Hitchcock.

Billy Martin is sent to New York to put through a war contract for his father, a new England manufacturer, and takes $100,000 as a security. The munition broker's secretary, a crook, tells Graham, a gambling house keeper, of Billy's coming. Miller is detailed to lure him to the gambling house.

The vivid tale of a woman's passionate intrigue and a moan's loyal friendship blended in a tale that surges with strong emotions and suspense that holds in a vice-like grip.

Unable to purchase the formula of the explosive about to be sold to the government by Mallott, the representative of a foreign power orders Le Farge and Gabrielle to obtain it. Gabrielle, posing as Le Farge's sister, easily fascinates Fanshell, Mallott's secretary. The adventuress also meets David, a fisherman, and engages him in a violent flirtation.

Lynn and Alan both love Mary. Because he deems it his duty to support his widowed mother, Lynn hides his love although he is the favored suitor. Piqued, Mary becomes Alan's wife. Both boys work in the village bank. Lynn comes upon Alan while the latter is intoxicated and helps him home. Thus Lynn meets Mary for the first time since her marriage. Alan witnesses this meeting. His jealousy aroused, the man orders Lynn from his house. Obsessed by a desire for revenge, Alan steals a sum of money from the bank and falsifies Lynn's books so as to make it appear that the latter had committed the crime.

Don Jose encourages the King in his infatuation for Maritana, a dancing girl, believing that when the Queen discovers the clandestine love affair, she, in revenge, will listen to his suit. It would aid his plans if Maritana is made a noble. Don Caesar de Bazan, a swashbuckling adventurer is under sentence of death for having violated the edict against dueling.

An actress weaves her web, like a disgusting spider, around a susceptible young man, lures him away from his sweetheart, and eventually destroys him.

Discovered by Marston in the act of robbing the safe, Mann, the crook, shoots and slays him. The murderer escapes, carrying with him a casket containing jewels. So strongly do circumstances point to Lyda, Marston's daughter, as the slayer, that she is tried for the crime. Despite the evidence of the butler and other servants, who tell of a violent quarrel between Lyda and her father just prior to the shooting, the girl is acquitted.

As heiress to a large fortune, Marguerite is able to satisfy her love for beautiful clothes and a taste for adventure, while confronted by a multitude of schemers and gangsters bent on reducing her to poverty.

Spurned by Iola Neville, George Judson vows to ruin the happiness of the woman and Jack Worthington, the man she marries. Impelled by his bitter hatred, Judson concentrates all his energy to bring this about. Jack soon discovers the shallowness of his wife's nature. Bitter quarrels arise.

Dr. Warren, engaged to Marjory, gives the girl her freedom when his negligence brings about his dismissal from the hospital staff. Warren disappears. Despairing of ever hearing from him, Marjorie weds Priestman, an elderly scientist who has been blinded as the result of an accident. Years later Warren and Marjory meet. Warren has won prominence as a bacteriologist. The old love springs up anew.

Just as he is appointed guardian of his niece, Helen, aged John Graham dies. Butts, his valet, conceives the idea of assuming Graham's identity. Aided by Stone, the rascally butler, Butts plans to send Helen to an insane asylum and seize her fortune.

"The Devil's Dansant" is the nickname given to a dansant of which Dominique, a Frenchman, is the proprietor. District Attorney Farrar, while searching for evidence on which to raid the place, is astounded to find that his wife Valerie, is a frequent visitor at Dominique's. The willful woman disobeys her husband's orders and continues to visit Dominique's.

Eleanor Warren is loved by Harold Rives, a struggling artist. Although fond of the young man, Eleanor longs for the comforts of wealth.

To save her parents from the poorhouse, Florence promises to wed Henderson, her elderly employer, although she loves Roy Harris. This results in a violent quarrel between the two men.

Mary's lot. always hard, becomes doubly so upon her father's death. Desiring to re-marry, the girl's stepmother conspires to get her out of the way.

Hampton, a broker, employs a detective to investigate Stella, a show girl, with whom his younger brother Dick is in love. As a result of the detective's discoveries, Dick breaks his engagement with Stella. The woman calls at Dick's office late that afternoon. Hampton leaves the two alone. Unable to alter Dick's decision, Stella seizes a knife and threatens suicide. Dick tries to wrest the weapon from her and is accidentally killed.

The "Treasure Ship" is not a real ship, but a model constructed by Captain Bascom during ten years of enforced solitude on a South Sea island after the wreck of the "Golden Cloud." The treasure consists of a bag of gems found under the skeleton of an earlier castaway. When rescue finally comes, Bascom stows the treasure in the hold of his model and so carries it safely to his home, where he has long been mourned as dead.

Long before he was the subject of a Walt Disney TV miniseries, Revolutionary-era guerilla leader Francis Marion, aka the Swamp Fox, was the "star" of this three-reel Kalem costume drama. The first part of the film ends as Marion and his followers capture English general Gates right from under the noses of the "Redcoats." The closing scenes find Marion and company emerging victorious from a battle between the British and the Colonials at the DeMotte farm.

Just when we think that this movie will be about a Southern family in Civil War days, the action jumps to modern-day 1914, still in the southern United States. Handsome Jack (Guy Coombs) is in love with the fair lady played by Marguerite Clayton.

John Holden discovers a burglar in his house and shoots at the escaping thief. Warding, a detective, and the officer on the beat hear the shot and hurry to the scene. The detective finds a large diamond set on the library rug and concludes it has been lost from the thief's ring.

Steve Carnes, the son of a wealthy manufacturer, leads a useless life and is disowned by his father. After a night of gambling he returns, penniless, to his apartment. He is on the point of ending everything when his bell rings and he finds an abandoned baby on his doorstep. Steve and his valet, Hodges, attempt to pacify the child. The distracted mother, who has hoped to place the little one in a comfortable home, repents her act and comes to Steve's house, begging that the child be returned. Steve complies with her request and secretly follows her home. He sees that she lives in a disreputable tenement and finds a note from her husband's father, in which the latter states that the marriage was against his wishes and that the young woman has no claim upon him.