Emilie Johnson

The story of the firemen at Engine House No.8, where widower Frank "Dad" Brooks is the beloved veteran and whose children, Milly and Jimmie, are especially fond of firemen Dan and "Beauty" Johnson. The problem of the day is concern whether or not Brooks is going to qualify for a pension...until a three-alarm inferno breaks out at the orphanage.

Can Jack MacDowell, the first flying policeman on the force, save his dad from stop-at-nothing jewel thieves?

Following a reversal in the Graham family fortune, a childhood love affair between Gordon Graham and Marjorie Miller is frustrated by the socially ambitious Mrs. Miller.

In 1906 Sweden, Captain Lars Larson (Knute Erickson) goes on a sea voyage, leaving his wife (Marcella Daly) behind expecting their first child. Unbeknownst to him while he is at sea, a bitter rival kidnaps her and makes it look as though she left him willingly. When he returns and discovers their home abandoned, he all but goes mad with bitterness and rage, destroying their home. In the years that follow, Larson becomes a sadistic, drunken reprobate of the sea, working for smugglers carrying all kinds of illegal cargo, including drugs -- and human cargo.

The hectic life of a seasoned journalist, who’s busy getting out the latest edition of The San Francisco Chronicle. The director follows the editor on his rambles through the city and offers a lively account of the din of the newspaper office – all the way from collecting information to going to press and distributing the newspaper. The historical images of San Francisco are something special: we see landmark buildings like the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Building, City Hall and the Pickwick Hotel.

The plot, old-hat though it is, does provide an opportunity for that wonderfully seedy villain, David Dirby, to do his dirty work and more importantly, to tie all the thrillingly on-the-spot railroad footage together. Railroad buffs will enjoy all the atmospheric detail director Johnson has obtained by filming in real freight yards and inside and alongside real steam engines and rolling stock.

Because Dan McDowell is unable to operate the new mechanized fire equipment, he is retired with a small pension; his son, Johnny, quits school to work in the fire department; and his old horse, Bullet, is sold to a dirt-hauler. Dan is charged with stealing Bullet and is jailed, but he is cleared in time to give valuable aid in a fire that traps Johnny's sweetheart, June Rutherford.

When his long-suffering wife leaves him, the hard-driving captain of a whaling ship turns bitter and takes out his anger, resentment and frustrations on all those around him, leading to tensions with his crew that come up to the point of mutiny.

In 1898 friends John Thomas and Lars Larson travel to the Yukon with their wives to make their fortunes. While in Alaska Thomas' wife gives birth to a boy, and Larson's wife has a girl, Julia. However, Larson spots a birthmark on his daughter's shoulder that resembles one on Thomas' shoulder, and he begins to suspect that he may not actually be the girl's father. Over the next 20 years the two become millionaires, but Larson's wife dies. Julia and Thomas fall in love and wish to marry, but Larson is determined to oppose it.