Eccentric inventor Charlie Jackson is madly in love with his beautiful neighbor, Estrelle Wynn. Estrelle's mission in life is to turn poor children into model citizens by having the wealthy open up their homes to them. Charlie tries to help Estrelle by hosting a party to win over volunteers for her cause. Unfortunately, Charlie decides to entertain his society guests with some of his inventions. A fireworks display goes terribly wrong setting the clothes of several guests on fire and sending the remainder running for the street as they try to avoid the whistling rockets that whizz by. Estrelle informs the heartbroken inventor that she will never forgive him and that he is not to call her again. But when Charlie learns that she has been lured by false promises to the apartment of seedy gambler Philip Feeny, he takes off in an attempt to rescue the girl he loves, before her virtue is compromised.
Only eighteen months after his debut in D.W. Griffith's The Lamb (1916), handsome, athletic, charismatic Douglas Fairbanks had established himself as Hollywood's third highest paid actor, behind only Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford. The mighty triumvirate of friends went on to found United Artists in 1919, and the studio's financial success was fueled to a great extent by Fairbanks' motion pictures. As the first president of the Motion Picture Academy Of Arts and Sciences, Fairbanks presented the very first Oscars in 1927. He is best known for his lavish swashbuckling adventures, most notably The Mark Of Zorro (1920), The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924).