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As usual serving as his own producer and director, William S. Hart played the title role in the six-reel western Selfish Yates. The story is set in Arizona, where the aptly nicknamed Yates is the proprietor of the local saloon. Unable to find any other work, pretty Mary Adams (Jane Novak) is forced to scrub floors in Yates' establishment. At first treating her with the same disdain that he extends to the rest of the townsfolk, Yates slowly but surely falls in love with Mary, and for her sake he changes his selfish ways. In traditional Bill Hart fashion, the unheroic hero ends up putting his own life in jeopardy to save Mary from the clutches of resident villain "Rocking Chair" Riley (Bert Sprotte) -- and, just to prove that he has thoroughly reformed, Yates compassionately allows Riley to escape an angry lynch mob.