1918
Henry Egbert Xerxes' big chance as a cub reporter comes when he is assigned to track down a gang of counterfeiters which gathers regularly at the Red Dog Inn. As he leaves the office, Henry witnesses a girl being dragged into a cab -- the same girl he had seen that morning passing counterfeit money. Henry follows, but on overtaking the cab, he finds it empty. At the Red Dog Inn, he discovers that the girl is being held captive. After a series of rough and tumble adventures with the resident thugs, he and the girl escape, after which he rushes home to write up the story. When it fails to appear in print, Henry storms into the city room only to discover that the entire business was a hoax, intended to test his reporter's instincts.
1917
Slapstick shenanigans at an overcrowded boarding house.
1921
Harpo played the hero, a detective named Watson who "made his entrance in a high hat, sliding down a coal chute into the basement". Groucho played an "old movie" villain, who "sported a long moustache and was clad in black", while Chico was probably his "chuckling [Italian] henchman". Zeppo portrayed a playboy who was the owner of a nightclub in which most of the action took place, including "a cabaret, [which allowed] the inclusion of a dance number". The final shot showed Groucho "in ball and chain, trudging slowly off into the gloaming". Harpo, in a rare moment of romantic glory, gets the girl in the end. This film is lost.
1926
Goodnatured J. P. Fippany loses his home and takes to the road on a chicken-wagon with his wife and daughter. The wagon is wrecked in an automobile collision involving Jimmy Pickett, who falls in love with daughter Aida, and through a misunderstanding involving Marseillaise, Fippany's racehorse, his wife Josephine and Aida go to live with relatives. The disconsolate Fippany sells Marseillaise to Jimmy's father, sends the money to his wife, then disappears. Meanwhile, Jimmy finds Aida and convinces her of his love. Marseillaise, badly driven in a race, loses a heat, but Fippany emerges and rides her to victory, following which there is a reconciliation between husband and wife.
1925
Mrs. Katherine Manners loves her three grown daughters who are in boarding school. When she plans a party for them at home, they phone from the school that they cannot come because they are too busy. But she hears the sounds of a party in the background, so she goes to the school where she finds her daughters with young men. She is told that two of the daughters plan to be married, while the third plans to marry Grantland Dobbs as soon as he gets a divorce, and the mother is frightened by this announcement. She goes abroad and returns with a man, gets an apartment at a wealthy center, and lives with him. Her daughters are shocked when the mother entertains guests at drinking parties. When Mrs. Manners proves to her daughters that their fiancées are not respectable, she reveals to them that she was acting a part just to prove to them that she was right about their chosen mates. She reveals that the man she was living with was her cousin.
William Bryant, a hopeless invalid due to a profligate life and made vicious by the fact, lives to make life a misery for his wife Margaret. One evening Bryant's physician, Dr. Cameron arrives at his patient's house, just in time, to intercept a blow that Bryant has directed at Margaret and knocks him unconscious in the ensuing struggle. Margaret flees with Cameron, observed by the chauffeur who enters the house with the intention of stealing. Meanwhile Bryant has regained consciousness and in his twisted mind determines to kill himself and frame his wife. He’s almost successful until at almost the last moment his butler steps forward and acknowledges that Bryant was shot as they struggle with his pistol which the chauffeur confirms.
Humanitarian Roberta induces her father to hire former convict, Bill, as his gardener. When she leaves on vacation, Bill steals her jewelry and eventually sells a brooch to her boyfriend, Richard, who unknowingly gives it to her as a present.
Amos Kerran and his wife live a traditional, old-fashioned life on a Connecticut farm, while their son and daughter, Arthur and Maybelle, are successes in New York society. The children want to invite their parents to the city at Christmastime but are ashamed of their unrefined appearance.
