Directed by Busby Berkeley and starring John Garfield, Claude Rains, and The Dead End Kids. It is a remake of the 1933 film The Life of Jimmy Dolan.

A story of the relationship between a young girl (Mildred Harris) and her Civil War vet grandfather (William Desmond Taylor). When the girl's new step mom arrives she objects to gramps heavy drinking so the old man packs up and heads out so that he doesn't ruin the young girl. A month passes and the family finds him in a poor house and it might be too late to help him.

John Howard Payne (Henry B. Walthall) leaves home and begins a career in the theater. Despite encouragement from his mother and his sweetheart (Lillian Gish), Payne begins to lead a life of dissolute habits, and this soon leads to ruin and misery. In deep despair, he thinks of better days, and writes a song that later provides inspiration to several others in their own times of need.

A thug (Hugh Trevor) robs a young engaged couple (Marian Nixon and William Janney) of their last few dollars. When the thug's gang boss (Lowell Sherman) hears of the robbery, he gives them back their money and takes them under his wing. The thug, resentful of the couple, plans to organize a mutiny against the gang's boss, but when he is killed in a botched robbery, the police focus their attention on the young couple.

A tough slum girl, Annabelle 'Little Annie' Rooney (Mary Pickford), faces a crisis of the heart when the boy she loves (William Haines) is accused of shooting her cop father (Walter James). Her brother (Gordon Griffith) stalks the accused slayer and finally shoots him down in the street. Annabelle rushes to the hospital and offers her blood for a life-saving transfusion, even though she thinks she'll die.

Stars - ROBERT LOWERY - PHYLLIS BROOKS - MARY TREEN - JOE SAWYER - ROGER PRYOR - RALPH SANFORD - EDWARD GARGAN 'A BLOCK-BUSTER OF HIGH TENSION THRILLS!' "Years after a terrible accident that claimed the life of a coworker, plant rigger Robert Lowery labors under the burden of being blamed for the employee's death. Suddenly, Lowery is afforded the opportunity to redeem his honor, and he seizes it." from TCM

A couple rich sisters Geraldine and Carol Stewart (Dixie Lee and Helen Flint) have just found out that their financial planner has stolen all their money. Unable to pay a couple (Nydia Westman and Robert Armstrong) of their servants their back wages, they agree to let the pair stay in their home rent-free to make up for this pay. But, it is a bit rough at first, as these two society swells expect their old servants to behave like servants--but considering they're no longer paying them, this doesn't last.

Mrs Erlynne (Irene Rich), the mother of Lady Windermere (May McAvoy) - her daughter does not know about her - wants to be introduced in society, so that she can marry Lord Augustus Lorton (Edward Martindel). Lord Windermere (Bert Lytell), who helped her with a cheque, invites her to his wifes birthday-party, but Lady Windermere thinks, she has reason to be jealous, so she decides to leave her husband and go to Lord Darlington (Ronald Colman), who is pining for her.

This is the tale of a young woman who abandons her fiancé, and runs off with a circus performer. Things do not end well. The movie was heavily censored when originally shown in the US due to its erotic content. It is notable for the natural acting style of Asta Nielsen, a method unseen at the time in American cinema. There are many missing and degraded frames due to deterioration of the nitrate-based film used in making the picture.

From the Wikipedia entry for "The Dance of Life": "The Dance of Life (1929) is the first of three film adaptations of the popular Broadway play Burlesque, the others being Swing High, Swing Low (1937) and When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948). The Dance of Life was made with Technicolor sequences, directed by John Cromwell and A.