The best Adele Watson’s drama movies

Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.

Mary, Vivian and Ruth are former schoolmates who do some catching up after a chance meeting. Of the three women, Vivian, who married successful lawyer Robert, seems to have the most glamorous life. Vivian really isn't satisfied though, and soon deserts Robert and her son for Mike, a mobster. Before long, Vivian is hooked on drugs, and Mike needs cash.

The setting is a city block during a sweltering summer, where the residents serve as representatives of the not-very-idealized American melting pot. There is idle chitchat, gossip, jealousy, racism, adultery, and suddenly but not unexpectedly, a murder.

Nightclub singer Joan Gordon runs away from her gangster boyfriend to become a mail-order bride to a struggling North Dakota farmer. Their relationship has a rocky start, but just as Joan realizes she's developing feelings for her husband, her old boyfriend arrives to win her back.

Lee is a fresh young kid from the South when he gets a job with The Press. His first assignment on gangsters gets his name in the paper, the police on a raid and Lee in the hospital.

Better known for her work in talkie "weepers," Helen Twelvetrees made a few preliminary appearances in such late silent films as Fox's Blue Skies. The audience was expected to believe that the twentysomething Twelvetrees and Frank Albertson are teenagers living together platonically in an orphan asylum. A wealthy old man comes calling to adopt Albertson -- who, feeling sorry for Twelvetrees, trades places with the girl. Thus it is that the heroine is carted off to a luxurious mansion, while Albertson remains behind. One year later, the old man discovers Albertson's deception, whereupon he invites the boy to live with him as well. By this time, Twelvetrees and Albertson are of marriageable age, thus the film ends with a wedding in the offing.

A wealthy young woman struggles to find love while surrounded by possible suitors.