List of Universal Pictures films (1920–1929)

Barry O'Connor, son of Patrick O'Connor, plumber and political power, is called to the residence of William Tompkins whom he is to "put over" in the coming election.

Janet Randall, a department store clerk who longs for a fling at high society, ignores the love of the poor but honest Dan Cassidy. When vacation time comes, Janet goes to a fashionable hotel and there meets her idol, society favorite Monte Moreville. Upon requesting the bill at the end of four days, Janet discovers that the tariff is more than she can afford, and Monte comes to her rescue by offering to bail her out. In exchange, Janet must pose as his wife to fend off a woman who is threatening a breach of promise suit. After masquerading as Monte's wife, Janet discovers that the socialites are shallow and insecure and, at the end of her ordeal, gladly returns to Dan a wiser and humbled woman.

Count Camello lives on his fine estate in Italy, near the home occupied by Sir James Drake and his family. Gregory Baldi, a parasitical cousin of the count, is courting Mary Drake, and although the count also loves the girl, he conceals his feelings out of respect for his cousin. When war breaks out, Camello enlists while Gregory convinces Mary's brother Oliver that Oliver has killed an opponent in a duel and that the only way to escape a murder charge is to disguise himself by going to war under Gregory's name. Wounded, Count Camello returns from the front and, after Gregory is reported dead, proposes to Mary. On the eve of their wedding, Gregory returns unexpectedly and, in dire need of money, buries his cousin alive in the family vault. The count escapes and disguises himself to watch over Mary. Meanwhile, Oliver returns, having discovered Gregory's duplicity, and in the ensuing fight between them Gregory is killed, thus freeing Mary to turn to the count.

Weary of being poor, Rebecca Butler takes a job in a Broadway chorus line and determines to marry a millionaire. She refuses dancing partner Tom Rushworth's offer of marriage in hopes of ensnaring millionaire Carter Willis. At first Willis offers to make Becky his mistress but later he capitulates and asks her to be his wife. When Rushworth is arrested for the murder of Dodo, a chorus girl, Becky provides him with an alibi by testifying that she spent the night of the murder with the dancer. The resulting scandal forces her to forfeit Willis' offer of marriage, but she realizes that her heart lies with Rushworth and that love is more important than money.

At a party thrown at the Metcalf estate, the Marquise D'Irancy's Sultana diamond disappears when the lights go out during a power failure. Suspected of the crime is William Kirkland, the wastrel son of the wealthy Kirkland family, but William's sister Diana comes to his defense. Aiding her in the investigation is Clamp, a wandering peddler. After several misadventures, Clamp reveals that he is a secret service agent on the trail of the international criminals, the de Vallignacs, who are summering at the resort. After proving that the de Vallignacs have stolen the diamond, Clamp arrests his prey, clears William and marries Diana.

Professional forger Bill Butters realizes one day that the police care closing in on him, and convinces his daughter Peggy to flee. He is soon arrested, tried and convicted, and sentenced by prison by Judge Farrell. Meanwhile, Peggy gets a job at a beach resort and meets wealthy Dick Van Courtland, who is actually the ward of Judge Farrell. She marries Van Courtland, but a jealous rival determines to break up the marriage, and Bill gets wind of it in prison. Complications ensue.

Overland Red, a tramp prospector, and Collie, the boy he has befriended, stumble across an aged miner in the last stages of starvation, whose pockets reveal the map of a secret mine and a bag of gold dust. Silent Saunders, the unscrupulous sheriff of a nearby town, and his gang arrive just after Red has buried the gold and the map. Believing that Red knows the location of the mine, Saunders charges him with the murder of the old man. With the aid of Louise Alacarme, the daughter of a neighboring rancher, Red and Collie escape from jail. After a series of misadventures, Red discovers that the old miner was Louise's uncle who had left the mine to his niece. The mine is restored to Louise who marries Collie and appoints Red president of the mining company.

Achmet Bey, a Turkish chieftain, catches one of his many wives in adultery and murders her lover. Throwing aside the cuckolding wife, he abducts his harem an innocent girl. However, a brave American who loves her comes to her rescue.

Struggling artist Ned Templeton and his wife Joan are leading a poverty-stricken life in Paris. Threatened by starvation and eviction, Joan is forced to become a prostitute. After some time, Ned becomes successful, and he and Joan move to New York. There he meets Helen, daughter of wealthy art patron James Cartwright. Cartwright was the man who "bought" Joan in Paris, and when he learns that his daughter's happiness depends upon Ned's divorce, he threatens to expose Joan. Ned overhears his threat and realizes his love for Joan and the sacrifice that she has made for him.

Mary Bird and Myron Sharpe are newlyweds and live happily in a small New England town until the birth of their children. Myron becomes dissatisfied as Mary's time becomes more devoted to her children than to making herself attractive for her husband. When Mary's old friend Pauline Dallas comes to visit, Myron finds himself attracted to her chic appearance. The two are on the threshold of a love affair when Mary becomes lost in a storm while boating. Believing that his wife has drowned, Myron realizes how deeply he loves her, and when Mary is rescued, the couple are reconciled.

The struggle of a group of homesteaders against an unscrupulous band that desires to profit through obsolete Spanish land grants.

Upon returning home from school one day, Lotus Blossom, a Japanese orphan who lives on the island of Hilo in Hawaii and teaches at a native school, discovers Parker, nearly dead from hunger. Believing his story of a shipwreck, Lotus nurses him back to health and then, mistaking loneliness for love, agrees to marry her patient. Soon tiring of her, Parker deserts her and assumes a new identity. Later, Lotus falls in love with Komo, a visiting Japanese artist, and follows him to America. There she accepts a job as a companion to Mrs. Stanwood. When Mr. Stanwood returns from a business trip, Lotus is shocked to discover that he is her former husband but decides to remain silent. Stanwood, distrusting her silence, attempts to kill her by poisoning her incense. Before Lotus succumbs to the deadly fumes, Komo arrives, and in the ensuing fight, Stanwood is locked in Lotus's room and dies by the deadly smoke that he had intended for Lotus.

When Texas ranch owner Ellen inherits the estate of her long-lost uncle, the Duke of Wilshire, her unscrupulous attorney, Wesley Saunders, who has been plotting to seize control of her ranch, decides to capitalize on the opportunity. Confiscating Ellen's identification papers, Saunders journeys to England, accompanied by a chorus girl who is impersonating Ellen. When Ellen appears at the estate, her British relatives are appalled by her rough-and-tumble manners, and with the subsequent arrival of Saunders and his protégé, Ellen is treated as an impostor. Now stranded, Ellen is forced to sell Saunders an option on her ranch in return for a ticket back to Texas. Lady Harriet and Sir Gerald, two of her English relatives, discover Saunders' treachery and follow Ellen back West. Thus, Ellen is finally accorded her ranch and her British estate, and she happily marries her foreman, Slim Higgins.

Pierre Winton promises to avenge his father's killing at the hands of McGuirk, the bandit. While hunting for McGuirk, Pierre comes upon Mary Brown who has been badly injured in a rock slide. They fall in love, but while attempting to rescue Mary, Pierre is trapped and rendered unconscious in another rock slide. Saved by Jim Boone's band of outlaws, Pierre joins the gang, and Boone's daughter Jackie falls in love with him, but Pierre still loves Mary, from whom he has been separated. He finally finds her at a dance, and Jackie becomes so jealous that she dashes home, only to find it in ruins, the work of McGuirk. Pierre pursues McGuirk, catches and kills him. Finally, Jackie realizes that she only feels friendship for Pierre, and he and Mary go East to start a new life.

Laurie Devon is a New York playwright who, having had one success, refuses to work on another play.

Living in sordid surroundings with her drunken father, her thieving brother Frank, and her wastrel sister Laura, Virginia Clerson decides to take a different path and runs away from her unhappy home. She soon obtains work in a millinery factory, telling her employer, Frederick Parker, that her relatives are all dead. Virginia works hard, soon becoming superintendent of the factory, and Frederick falls in love with her. She rescues Laura from her lot as a scrubwoman, but just as Virginia and Frederick are to be married, Frank appears and reveals his sister's past. When Frederick discovers Virginia's history, he thrashes Frank and forgives his sweetheart, and then the couple marries.

Although the Hervey oil company is nearly bankrupt, owner Bill Hervey is unconcerned because he is about to be married to Helen Gray and can think of nothing else. One day, while visiting his newly purchased home in the suburbs, he meets his neighbor, newlywed Annabelle Eaton, who asks Bill for a ride to a nearby chicken farm. Bill agrees, but when they reach the farm, they are locked in a room by a lunatic and forced to remain there overnight. When they finally escape the next day, the two are hard-pressed to explain to their respective mates where they have spent the night, until a doctor comes along and explains that the lunatic was his patient and that he will pay damages for their inconvenience. With this satisfactory explanation, the couples are reconciled, and the damages Bill collects save his company.

John Grant, an American, is visiting in England with the family of Sir George Latimer, in a fine house near London. Prince Narr, of the royal house of Numidia, is also a guest with his retainers. Prince Narr is possessed of a strong hypnotic power, which he demonstrates in the course of a reception. After a few days Prince Narr falls in love with Sir George's daughter, Beth, and asks for her hand in marriage. Sir George does not believe in intermarriage between the white and dark races and refuses the prince's offer of his hand. This arouses the latter's displeasure and he also becomes intensely jealous of Grant, who has saved Beth from death during a ride behind the hounds. To avenge himself Prince Narr presents Sir George with a jeweled dagger, and through hypnotic suggestion commands Sir George to commit murder. The crime is really committed by a servant of the Prince, but Sir George is made to believe himself guilty. He is forced, while under the spell, to write a confession across Beth's forehead, which confession is in indelible ink. This at first fades out, but later reappears and can only be removed by a solution concealed in the dagger. The latter weapon is stolen by Claypool, a notorious criminal, and brought to America, where the chief characters follow in due time.

Audacious Jeanne works in a book bindery, is given a diary written by one Thomas Dodd to bind. The diary portrays Dodd as a scoundrel who fathered a girl by a woman he never married, and Dodd's family as a nest of vipers. Jeanne decides it is her duty to save this corrupt family and presents herself to Dodd as his illegitimate daughter. In fact, Dodd is a meek old man whose scandalous diary was pure fantasy, and the only hostile member of the family is Dodd's greedy brother Jerry, who was the only sympathetic character in Dodd's diary. Jeanne falls in love with Dodd's nephew Kent, though she dutifully urges him to marry Hazel Jenkins, a woman whom Jeanne believes Kent has wronged. Finally Sarah Ross, the alleged mother of Dodd's child, ends Jeanne's suspicions by denying that she had ever had a daughter. After foiling Jerry's plan to usurp the family fortune, Jeanne confesses her charade and accepts Kent's love. Dodd likewise admits that his diary is a fake and proposes to Sarah.

An Eastern boy is sent to the West to run the family's sheep ranch. The presence of sheep angers nearby cattlemen, who don't want to share their cattle's grazing lands with them, and their leader has no compunctions about resorting to drastic measures to protect his interests.

Dr. John Niblock is conducting research in Japan when he is called to revive Asuti Hishuri, who has fainted during her wedding ceremony. Upon learning that Asuti is being forced into a loveless marriage, the chivalrous John offers to marry the girl in name only and take her to America where she can be free. When John and his Japanese bride arrive in San Francisco, California, the doctor's former sweetheart appears heartbroken, and Asuti realizes that she is in love with Ito, her husband's secretary. Asuti stages a love scene between Ito and herself to give her husband an excuse for denouncing her. The scheme works, thus making possible the happiness of all four.

A travelogue/documentary including explorations of the fauna and people of Siam, New Guinea, and Java, with interpolations of an apparently fictitious encounter between the filmmakers and cannibalistic natives of Frederick Henry Island in the South Pacific.

The captain of a sailing ship has an affair with the wife of one of his passengers, and gets mixed up in a mutiny at sea and a revolution.

After returning home from years spent in a convent, Marie Beaulieu (Lillian Rich) is shocked to discover that her father, the leader of a band of smugglers, wants her to marry Dave Roi, one of the members of the band. Marie refuses and runs away, aided by Norman Aldrich, an American customs officer, to a small town where she is befriended by Father Leclair. Enraged by his daughter's escape, Beaulieu kidnaps Marie, but Aldrich comes to her rescue and during the struggle the smuggler is shot and killed. Aldrich is arrested for the murder until a half-witted shepherd confesses that he killed Beaulieu to avenge an old grudge. Aldrich is then elected to rid the town of the smugglers and wins Marie for his wife.