William M. McCoy

Hearts of Men

Silent Italy immigrant family relationship romantic melodrama about a poor Italian flower seller whose mother gets sick. The doctor tells him to take his mother to Arizona, which he does with his wife and child. The railroad men in Arizona think he is the start of a wave of Italian immigrants coming to take away their jobs, but they meet his darling son, Beppo, who wins them over. But then, his wife dies, and he gets involved with an immigrant Italian woman who takes Beppo back to Italy, but the railroad men help him get Beppo back. It turns out his land has oil on it, so he's fabulously rich, and he shares the fortune with the railroad men!

Little Red Decides

Upon learning that the parents of "Little Red" have died, the cowboys of Colonel Ferdinand Aliso's ranch adopt the boy. Parson Jones and his church committee protest that the child should be brought up in more refined surroundings, but the cowboys, particularly Duck Sing, Aliso's Chinese cook, are so enamored of Little Red that they donate their poker money to the church to placate the congregation. After Little Red catches pneumonia and nearly dies, however, Dr. Kirk insists that the boy either live with the minister or acquire a mother through the marriage of one of the cowboys. While Little Red is recuperating at the parson's home, ranch hand Tom Gilroy courts the only marriageable women in town -- a widow and two spinsters -- but much to his relief, they all turn him down. In the end, Duck Sing and the colonel join forces and legally adopt him.