The Swell Head

Albert Gran and E.J. Ratcliffe are warring San Francisco shipping magnates; Mary Brian is Gran’s daughter and Charles (Buddy) Rogers is Ratcliffe’s athletic son. The result is a swift, exhilarating comedy, full of laughs and a nonchalant charm.

A 1917 silent western

A 1917 western

After buying a car, Richard Burton finds that his wife and daughter have become unreasonably extravagant, and is surrounded by sponging friends.

Carrie Simpkins, a lady lawyer, arrives in a small western town and begins the practice of law. Pete, Jake and Jerry, three cowboys, fall in love with her, but do not progress. Smithers, the pioneer town lawyer happens by and sees the sign, "Carrie Simpkins, Lawyer," and decides to pay her a visit, which he does, and he also falls in love with her. Pete, Jake and Jerry all hit upon the same plan unknown to each other, which will help their chances with Carrie.

Tom Travis, a bad man, comes to New Mexico. He sees Vicky, the sheriff's daughter, playing a part for a motion picture company. The action calls for Vicky to be overcome by the villain and thrown on a horse. Tom, not understanding the action, blazes away at the villain, and the bullet passes through the actor's hat, chasing the horse upon which Vicky is riding. Tom, coming up with Vicky, believes he has saved her. The director and Vicky's father think Tom a great actor. The sheriff, however, discovers that Tom has the reputation of a "bad" man, and orders him to stay away.

A young man gets arrested after a drunken night. Sentenced to 30 days in jail, he tells his wife he has to go to Mexico for a month.

Vaudeville artist LaBelle Geraldine and her dancing partner, Freddie Montgomery, are stranded in Arizona when their troupe breaks up. In order to raise money, Geraldine orders Freddie to impersonate masked bandit Black Jim so that she may turn him in and collect the $2,000 reward. When the real Black Jim holds up her coach, Geraldine, believing that he is Freddie, boldly pulls out her gun, whereupon the bandit shoots her in the wrist and takes her to his cabin. Later Freddie, too, is captured, but when members of the gang insult Geraldine, he refuses to protect her. Gradually Black Jim falls in love with her, and she comes to admire him so deeply that instead of seizing a chance to escape one night, she returns to warn him of the gang's plot to kill him.

Hank Wilson, a good-natured cow puncher, loves a rancher's daughter, and finally musters up courage enough to make known his love. She looks upon the matter as a joke, and coquettishly furnishes him considerable annoyance.

Texas Pete, a gun-man, is "extra" bad when in liquor. This, however, does not terrify the ranch foreman, who discharges him for drunkenness. Pete laces on his hardware and lurches off, with the intention of shooting up the town where he pumped in his original trouble.

When Timothy Atkinson arrives in a rough Western town to become the telegraph operator, the locals peg him as a tenderfoot.