Barry O'Moore

An engaged attorney and a divorcee fall for each other in 1870s Manhattan.

A wealthy family is thrown into turmoil when the daughter falls for the family chauffeur and the son begins to keep company with a chorus girl.

Film serial directed by Charles Brabin.

Large headlines appeared in the papers announcing to a credulous public that the jewels of famous actress Julia Vane had been stolen. Miss Vane's jewels were actually safe in her jewelry box, but as her press agent wanted some advertising, and as news happened to be scarce, the headlines appeared. Fired with a chivalric impulse, Octavius proffered his services in the recovery of the missing jewelry. When Julia heard he was coming, she took the jewels out of her jewelry box and hid them.

An amateur detective's automobile is stolen by a young woman who is determined to elope, leading to a complicated chase involving several vehicles.

When a burglar dressed as Santa Claus steals a family's Christmas presents, amateur detective Octavius sets out to recover the loot.

Eccles, a profligate old drunkard, is the father of two beautiful girls, Esther and Polly. George D'Alroy, a young officer in the British Army who is infatuated with Esther, brings his friend, Captain Hawtree, to call. The captain is greatly taken with the lively Polly, who makes him carry the teakettle about and generally dance attendance on her to the emphatic disgust of Sam Garridge, an ardent suitor for Polly's hand. Meanwhile Esther shows George a letter from an impresario offering her an engagement on the stage. The offer seems a veritable godsend to the girl, but she changes her mind when George asks her to be his wife instead. A few months after they are married, George receives the unpleasant news that he must sail for India with his regiment. Owing to her ultra-aristocratic ideas, George has not dared to tell his mother, the Marchioness D'Alroy, that he has married a girl of common origin, and he is in a quandary as to what provision he should make for Esther.

The story of this film begins with the ominous day on which Lord Bellomont gave William Kidd a commission to rid the seas of pirates. Instead of complying with Lord Bellomont's desires, Kidd immediately commenced a series of piratical attacks at first on French and Spanish vessels and later on ships of all nationalities indiscriminately.

A young boy aspires to knowledge and higher education but his father, a plain man with narrow goals, is content with an ordinary school education for him and puts him to work despite the principal's protests. The principal even offers the father an opening by which his son could work during the day and attend school at night throughout a season, but the father declines. Disheartened by the life of drudgery, his father’s decision has wrought he travels the wrong road and goes from hopelessness to recklessness, trapped in an unhappy marriage and a life of hopelessness.

The forerunner of all serials, What Happened to Mary was a series of twelve monthly one reel episodes, each a complete entity in itself, revolving its immediate dramatic and melodramatic problems within the framework of a single episode and designed more for story and suspense situations than action.