Helen Shipman

In a spooky New York City mansion, a wealthy but mean old woman threatens to return her sister to the home's secret torture chamber when the sister objects to the woman's trying to ruin the lives of relatives she doesn't like. (imdb)

Small-town girl Mary Barry wins a beauty contest and goes to New York to meet D. V. Cortelyou, the magazine's publisher. Greatly taken by young girl, Cortelyou arranges for her to live with Dolly Griffith, a woman of questionable reputation who often aids him in his wicked schemes of blackmail and seduction. During a party seemingly in Mary's honor, Cortelyou obtains some apparently compromising evidence with which to blackmail Mrs. Young, the wife of a wealthy broker.